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Oluwatobiloba Jaiyeola
Health and nutrition experts have cautioned Nigerians against rushing their foods, noting that eating too fast could increase the risk of having diabetes.
The experts noted that to ensure proper digestion, the consumption of any food should not be too fast.
One of the experts – a professor of medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Olufemi Fasanmade, warned that people who rush their foods could be at risk of diabetes.
The physician stated that eating too fast tends to make people gain weight and become obese, adding that most obese people are insulin resistant, meaning their body has to struggle to bring down blood sugar.
Fasanmade said when the body is unable to bring down the sugar level in the blood; it will result in high blood sugar which is what often leads to diabetes.
Speaking with PUNCH HealthWise in an interview, Fasanmade who is also a consultant physician/endocrinologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, said the link between speed eating and diabetes is obesity.
He said, “I jokingly tell people that fast food puts you at risk for diabetes and eating fast also puts you at risk for diabetes because people that eat very fast usually put on weight easier.
“The human body is like a tank of petrol because for a car to move, it needs fuel and when your fuel tank is low you have to refill. If you go to a filling station and the speed of filling up your tank is too fast, some of the fuel will spill over because of the speed.
“That happens in the human body too. When we are slightly hungry, signals go to our brain that we are low on fuel, when we are extremely hungry the messages are intense and some people might start to have a cramp or ache in their stomach which is just to remind you that you must eat.
“When you have that feeling and you gradually start to eat, those messages will slow down and disappear and the message that says ‘eat more, eat more’, will start to fade.
“If your tank is showing an empty tank and you start filling it, the light warning you the tank is empty disappears so the body is also wired in such manner.
“But if you eat so fast before the signal gets to the brain that you are full, you have become over full,” the endocrinologist said.
Fasanmade further stated that a person who eats fast is likely to overeat and take in more calories than needed; adding that consuming too many calories is likely to contribute to weight gain.
He stated that most obese people are insulin resistant, adding that it is the reason their sugar does not come down easily even after they have eaten.
Insulin, the physician said, is the chemical the body produces to bring down blood sugar.
“Most obese people are insulin resistant which means the body has to struggle to bring down blood sugar.
“So for instance, if an insulin resistant person takes the same food, same size and quantity of food with someone who is not insulin resistant, the person with the insulin resistance will have a higher blood sugar than the person with insulin sensitivity because the work of insulin is to bring down high blood sugar.
“Their sugar does not come down easily and high blood sugar is what leads to diabetes,” Fasanmade noted.
The expert further cautioned Nigerians against consuming fast foods, noting that most food products in fast food outlets could increase diabetes risk because they are highly processed.
He said, “Fast foods are highly processed foods that are very not easy to digest, therefore, they cause obesity, insulin resistance, and eventually diabetes.”
Fasanmade urged Nigerians to cultivate the right habit of eating foods slowly and ensure foods are chewed to the last bits before swallowing.
According to him, eating fast reduces the time for mastication.
Mastication is the act or process of chewing food.
“The lesson is that people should eat slowly which is why we tell people don’t eat fast food, it is prepared fast, eaten fast and digested fast.
“People who want to lose weight are advised not to eat fast food, they should chew slowly and they should chew every food to the last bit and also, drink water while eating or even before eating. Your food should also have plenty of vegetables,” the physician stressed.
“All these things will make the rate of gaining weight to be less and will help to reduce the risk of diabetes,” Fasanmade noted.
Also speaking with our correspondent, the Assistant Chief Dietician and former National Publicity Secretary, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Olusola Malomo, said, “Scientifically when you look at some principles, there is an enzyme in the saliva called enzyme ptyalin and this enzyme is responsible for the breakdown of glucose in the mouth.
“So when you eat very fast, that means the bone of food in your mouth has a lesser time to interact with the enzyme ptyalin as a result of less mastication, which is chewing because when you eat fast you just swallow. It means you have more glucose going into the stomach and thereby going into the blood.
“Also when you eat fast, there is a tendency that your hypothalamus that is the brain, may not comprehend the volume of what you have eaten thereby you don’t feel satisfied and that craving of hunger is still there and that could induce inappropriate proportion consumption and lead to consuming more than what is needed at that particular time.”
Malomo said, “As a form of prevention intervention, it is important if we can work on behaviour modification because from current studies, there is a positive correlation between eating fast and diabetes.
“Although it hasn’t been substantiated if its type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes, looking at the physiology of chewing, swallowing and then digestion of food from the mouth through the gastrointestinal system, the slower you eat, the more satisfied you feel and the faster you eat, the lesser time the food is chewed,” the dietician said.
According to a study conducted in Lithuania, the researchers compared 234 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients to 468 individuals who were free from the disease.
Participants of the study filled out an in-depth questionnaire and rated their eating speed as ‘slower, the same, and faster’, by comparing their speed to others.
After adjusting for other risk factors that may increase the risk of diabetes such as a family history of diabetes, education, morning exercise, body mass index, tobacco smoking, and waist circumference; the study then analysed how eating fast alone affects the risk of diabetes.
According to the findings of the study posted online by the European Society of Endocrinology, the researchers said they found a more than two-fold increase in the risk of diabetes associated with faster eating habits.
About 422 million individuals worldwide have diabetes, according to the World Health Organisation.
Diabetes, WHO said, is a chronic, metabolic disease characterised by elevated levels of blood sugar which over time leads to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves.
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