Yeah, yeah, I know. But still.
Anyway, I chew my food a lot. I think I learned it when I was a kid, I remember being told “chew your food, don’t swallow it whole or you’ll choke to death”. There’s some far back french ancestry in my bloodline. Maybe that’s where it came from. It was hell when I was in the Navy, especially boot camp. Most guys I know do not chew. I’m always the last to finish. It doesn’t help that I don’t talk around food, either, which I’ve been told is rude. Making people wait is rude, not talking with food in my mouth.
I hate barbeques where I don’t know the cook’s skill level. I cannot eat tough meat. You think women are sensitive about their big feet? Try telling a guy why you can’t eat his leather steaks. 
So, do you chew your food well? And is that a good thing?
I think so.
mangeorge
I don’t chew my food enough but I know it’s bad for health, and I have some digestive problems, but I still go on, I don’t like to chew that much. I’ve been told many many time to chew more but I don’t care… :rolleyes:
And I’m always the first to finish because I eat so quickly, too… Not funny either to be the first to finish ! Then you have to wait for all other to do so, and stare at them not knowing what to do with your hands…
Dunno, I never stopped to count or anything. I chew it enough so I can swallow without it being a solid brick of food, but I’m not zealous about it.
Leathery steaks? Count me out. With my TMJ issues, I could probably get a medical exepmtion.
I chew well. Very well. I’ve had stomach surgery, which vastly increases the risk of bits of food accumulating and blocking the intestine. Which isn’t very nice, or so I’ve heard. I have mini-incidents of this all the time, and I’ve had a couple of major ones that nevertheless managed to clear themselves up. I have absolutely no wish to end up in the ER and get cut up again just because I didn’t chew enough.
So I watch what I eat, and chew. And chew. And chew.
Not as well as I used to. I’m not as limber as I was as a kid and it’s more difficult to get my foot up to my mouth.
What? It said food? Uhh, well, I don’t chew my foot either. Of course not. No one would. I was just… umm never mind…
I find that the longer time I take with my meal, and the slower I chew, the less I eat. My body gets the ‘full’ signal earlier than if I just eat without thinking.
I can remember my grandmother telling me to take smaller bites as a kid, but I always hated cutting things with a knife. Bigger pieces = less knife wielding! I still have fun with her occasionally and cram a giant piece of steak in my mouth just to see her reaction. 
I chew excessively now, after finding out about my hiatal hernia. It’s possible for me to swallow a piece of food small enough that I don’t choke, but large enough to plug up my esophagus just above my stomach, which makes further eating or drinking impossible until it clears, which can take hours sometimes. (Wow, run-on sentence!) My first experiences with this were pretty panicky - I thought I was choking even though I could breathe just fine, and when I tried sips of water to make the stuff move, the water just collected in my gullet until it sloshed against my trachea, which was not pleasant.
So yeah, now I chew my food excessively. 