Doctor Michael Mosley has shared a weight loss strategy that could help you shed pounds without calories cutting or dieting.
The diet guru, responsible for famous eating plans such as the 5:2 and Fast 800, explained that the power of chewing could aid weight loss. According to the expert, chewing food properly can help burn more calories, and therefore help people slim down..
In reference to research carried out to understand the importance of chewing, Dr Mosley took to his column in the Daily Mail to explain, noting an old school adage about making sure to chew eat mouthful of food at least 32 times.
During the University of Manchester study, researchers found that chewing played a crucial part in evolution as well as the way in which we absorb nutrients from food.
Writing in his column, Mosley said: "Like most of us, I suspect, I remember years ago being told to chew my food at least 32 times before swallowing it.
"It was an idea based on the claims of a 19th-century health food guru in the US called Horace Fletcher — also known as 'The Great Masticator', his catchline was: 'Nature will castigate those who don't masticate'."
Additionally, research suggests that chewing can help dieters by increasing a person's metabolic rate - the amount of energy your body burns at rest.
The foods you eat also play an important role, with the scientists pointing out that the speed at which we chew has much less of an effect on the energy exerted than the hardness of the material we chew.
The study, published in the journal journal Science Advances, suggests that people exert more energy when chewing harder foods - such as nuts and raw fruit.
Analysing data from 15 women and six men, aged 18-45, the study asked participants to chew two different types of odourless and tasteless gum - one sort and one stiff.
The researchers then measured the energy expenditure of the subjects by oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide production.
It was found that metabolic rate increased on average 10.2 per cent when chewing the soft gum, whereas those chewing the harder substance saw their rate just by 15.1 per cent.
The findings suggest that chewing food properly is important for both digestion and weight management.
Michael added: "So perhaps Horace Fletcher was onto something. Having made a fortune on the lecture circuit, he died of bronchitis at the ripe old age of 69 in 1919, when average life expectancy in the U.S. was just 44."
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