Fletcherism

Chew 80 times before swallowing your food.

While eating some really grainy duck rice today for dinner, i was suddenly struck by how insufficiently i was chewing my food. Not that i was choking, but i found that on average, i took no more than 5 to 10 munches before gobbling every mouthful.. a habit that was formed clearly from my early days of hectic lunches and take away food.. I know we are supposed to chew more to help digestion.. but how important is it?

I came home to surf the net and found this interesting term called Fletcherism, promoted by a man named Horace Fletcher, (1849-1919). He evolved this system concerned chiefly with the slow mastication (chewing) of food. Apparently, if you are a follower of Fletcherism, you will chew each bite of food until it becomes a watery mass in your mouth before swallowing (which on average should take between 80 to 100 chews! :O) This has two effects. First, if you chew a bite of food that long, you will be consuming your meal at a slower rate. Secondly, the reduction of this food to a watery mass means that it will be less difficult to extract nutrients from the food. I also read somewhere that "acid/alkaline (ph) balance is important for normal cell function. Alkaline saliva is needed to make acidic grains become alkaline through chewing (grains are naturally acidic). Saliva also contains enzymes that help to break down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. Sufficient chewing time is necessary for this initial digestive process to occur.

i don't mean to alarm anyone but i think this is a pretty good practice that we should all try to follow.. after all, if we can't even slow down to enjoy our food, isn't that pretty sad??

Among Fletcherism's practitioners were Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and some chap called Upton Sinclair.