# Questions about chewing food thoroughly or not **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746 "2010-07-23T18:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/1 "2010-07-23T18:14:40Z")
How much does the degree to which you chew food affect the digestion? If you barely chew your food before swallowing, does it take longer for your stomach to break it down, or does is just pass through at the same rate as if you chewed each bite 30 times? Does more of it exit your body undigested? Could someone expect to gain less weight by not chewing thoroughly? Or to not get hungry as quickly after a meal because of longer digestion time? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/2 "2010-07-23T18:18:56Z")
Things like corn can pass through the digestive tract unmolested, as you may have noticed, if you don’t chew them enough to open up the walls of the niblet things. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/3 "2010-07-23T18:25:37Z")
Sometimes I would wonder why I was feeding my toddlers corn when I knew it would come out untouched the other end. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/4 "2010-07-23T18:30:38Z")
i’m a lifelong masticator and i’m not giving it up for anything. breaking any kind of food into smaller bits aids in utilizing it. it’s all chemical reactions that need greater surface area to be effective. as mentioned plant material cell walls need to be ruptured. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/5 "2010-07-23T18:30:46Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Sometimes I would wonder why I was feeding my toddlers corn when I knew it would come out untouched the other end. Known amongst my family as, “put a kernel in, get a kernel out.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/6 "2010-07-23T18:32:49Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Sometimes I would wonder why I was feeding my toddlers corn when I knew it would come out untouched the other end. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Known amongst my family as, “put a kernel in, get a kernel out.” 😃 then you’re obligated to crap in the yard and complete the cycle. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/7 "2010-07-23T18:36:52Z")
I just read something (linked from a thread here, I think) that said a study showed that overweight people chewed far less on average that normal weight people. Although the extra chewing does make the food digest better, it also helps with the signals to tell your brain that you’ve eaten enough. So you eat less. I’ve been working on that. I’ve barely chewed anything my whole life, but I’m trying to change that habit. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/8 "2010-07-23T20:55:33Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > … [extra chewing] … helps with the signals … that you’ve eaten enough. I don’t know but it seems this way to me. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-chewing-food-thoroughly-or-not/547746/9 "2010-07-25T04:50:38Z")
I’ve always had jaw problems, and I can get horrible TMJ if I chew too much. I’ve always been less of a chewer. I wonder if this has contributed to my weight, which seems to be connected to my inability to feel full a lot of the time.