As we know, none of our bovine friends is on a weight loss diet. In addition, one also doesn't need special powers of observation to see that oour beloved Elsie is constantly grazing. Unfortunately, Elsie is also constantly chewing. She actually makes 40,000 to 60,000 jaw movements per day, an acceptable situation for Elsie, but an unfortunate one for humans who spend time with many others in offices, live with families at home. In addition to those ceaseless jaw movements, this ruminant has four stomachs, each processing and regurgitating food. After initial chewing, Elsie swallows, sending food to one of her stomachs which efficiently returns the food it to be chewed again.
We humans give a quick chew (not enough! say Meredith and Joan of Diet Directives), then swallow, stuffing bite after bite of food down our throats without proper mastication, hardly aware how large our food intake is. Fortunately for both the human eater and those around said eater, the single human stomach is not inclined to regularly vomit its contents upward. Grazing, as a form of diet, is best left to our ruminant friends. To make matters worse, the human race is not drawn to a diet of grass which might result in weight loss, but to a diet of highly sweetened sodas, salty, fat-covered chips, sugared cookies and candy. All of these are perfect grazing diet foods: we can grab just one chip, then another, then another, until package on package is grazed over, and our diet has become one of junk food, hardly guaranteed to end in weight loss. Has anyone anywhere witnessed a teenager grazing on carrots? This factors into our alarming state of obesity.
We wanted to know more about diet, weight loss, grazing and the human digestive process and turned to Joan Breibart of Diet Directives, their diet plan is the sanest, most logical and happiest we've encountered and we knew we'd get solid information. This is their response:
Why Grazing Replaced Meals
Americans have adhered to an eating pattern, a basic diet, of 3 “squares” a day since we arrived here. We ate meals; we didn’t graze. We even described these meals. We were told to Breakfast like a King; lunch like a Queen; and Dine like a Prince. This national pattern began to change in the 70s. First, we renamed snacking, or between meal eating —considered to be undesirable and even tacky— to call it grazing. Why did we switch from a diet that had an eating event that had a beginning, middle and end to a diet that just kept going on and on. Well, it has to do with MONEY. In his book,”In Defense of Food,” Michael Pollan describes the food biz’ dilemma of what was know as the “fixed stomach.” Food manufacturers/marketers had a need to increase sales and because the U.S. population wasn’t growing tremendously they figured out that the solution was to GROW each American stomach.
The stomach, a sausage shaped container under the left breast, has a normal capacity of about a liter. During a meal, we swallow food and we start to feel full and this slows our eating process. Then we stop eating. Not a good diet if you are the one selling food unless you get us to increase our capacity or to pay high prices for what we are eating. The food biz decided that it was easier to keep food prices low —remember in the 70's Richard Nixon instituted billions of dollars of food subsidies so food could be grown cheaply— and to get each American to eat MORE so that they could sell more and also get us to stretch our stomachs so we would EAT more. To accomplish this end, the food biz knew that they would have to increase our eating frequency by adding “mini’meals” between the habitual diet of 3 squares. Eventually, the “3” and the minis have worked to stretch eating and drinking so that it begins when one arises and ends when one sleeps—which is to say that we are always putting food and beverage into our mouths. This is great for business which is why this sector adds a trillion and half dollars to the GNP. In per numbers—caloric numbers-- we have gone from a daily diet with a per capita caloric consumption of 19900 calories in 1958 to almost 3000 today!!
Why Grazing Is Anti how the Body Works
Let’s pretend that we grazed only on low calorie foods such as a diet of only vegetables so that per calorie consumption made up a diet that was less than 2000 calories per person per day. Would this solve the issues of obesity, stomach and digestive disorders and premature aging?? Unfortunately, it would not because the human body is not meant to be in digestive mode for a 16 hours a day. This could be termed a diet myth.
Whenever we eat or drink our system starts processing. And the system can’t work 16 hours a day. It needs to rest. Just as our 24/7 culture causes us to burn out and get sick, the digestive system wasn’t designed–it only has ONE stomach- to work all the time.
Not only does this one stomach need a respite, it shouldn’t overwork when it is working!!! What does this mean? It means that we need to chew our food—a lot – so that the stomach doesn’t have to do the job of our teeth. That means CONSIOUS EATING—NOT GRAZING WHICH IS UNCONSCIOUS SINCE WE ARE DOING IT WHILE WE ARE DOiNG OTHER THINGS. CHEWING MUST TAKE PLACE IN THE MOUTH SO THAT OUR saliva can assist digestion. Saliva has multiple essential functions that contribute to taste perception, enzymatic digestion and esophageal clearance according to a report in Oral Diseases (2002) 8, 117-129 but in order to reap the benefits of saliva, chewing must take place. Chewing or “mastication” of food stuffs brings on the saliva and once incorporated into the foodstuff assists by enzymatically breaking down the food into smaller particles. Additionally, the water in the saliva helps to lubricate the food making it easier to swallow. “Swallowing of food most likely occurs when two thresholds are satisfied, a food particle size threshold obtained by chewing, and a lubrication threshold by the flow of saliva into the oral cavity.”
Why Grazing Makes Us Fat
Everyone has experienced the situation wherein the more often one eats, the more one feels the need to eat. This seems like a contradiction except that the body has muscle memory. “ I have had patients who are Seventh Day Adventist whose religion says that they can eat only twice a day. Even though humans need to have a food drop every 3-5 hours to maintain energy I will not change this pattern because these people have trained their bodies to function with only 2 feeding events, ” says Meredith Luce RD, MS, LN, co-director of Diet Directives. Alternatively, people who have trained their bodies to graze all day, have acclimated to this pattern and instead of feeling full from all the food they are always needing more and feeling hungry. This is hardly a healthy diet for any human being.
Giving Up Grazing and Losing Weight
As with any body change, slowly is the way to go, and altering the patterns of one's diet is no exception. First, graze on chew foods —carrots and celery and apples so that your mouth and teeth get a workout and you tire and stop sooner. Second, graze and do nothing else so you consume consciously. Third, graze sitting down so that you simulate an eating event. Gradually, you can eliminate this constant hand to mouth activity that used to be the province of smoking but was replaced with cookies when everyone quit tobacco which was calorie free, and raised the metabolism by 20%.
Grazing and the Environment
We are finally aware that over consumption isn’t working for our economic and planetary environment. Grazing is not only a bad diet, but also over consuming. Grazing is dressed-up snacking and this is not anything that adult humans should encourage. Leave a grazing diet to the ruminants, go for a healthy diet whether you are after weight loss or weight maintenance.
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