Gross trick to kill cravings

I'm sure we all have a few foods that seem to trigger compulsive eating, even if they're generally "healthy" or paleo-approved. For me, it's nuts, nut butters, dried fruit, and cheese--I can put away thousands of calories of any of this stuff in absurdly short amounts of time, which doesn't do my blood sugar or waistline any favors.

Lately I came across a quote: "Drink your food, chew your water." I'm not sure of the source (a quick google search tells me it comes from Ghandi, though it may have older Ayurvedic origins), but anyway, I decided to give it a shot since I've been on an absolutely inexcusable date binge lately. A single medjool date has around 15g of sugar, and putting away 20+ dates in a single day is nothing.

So I started with a single date, and chewed it up without swallowing anything. Normally I mash it up just enough to make a paste that spreads evenly around my tongue, allowing me to soak in the flavor, and then swallow. It's in my mouth and down my throat within 10 seconds. But this time, I kept chewing. And chewing. And chewing. Saliva kept flowing into the mush, and I kept swirling the mess around in my mouth, trying to grind all the chewy little bits of date skin between my molars. When the pieces became too small for that, I moved them to the front and continued pulverizing them with my incisors. By now I'm practically drowning on an entire mouthful of date-flavored spit syrup.

It was at this point that I discovered that human beings have a desperate instinct to swallow when their mouths are too full of liquefied food, that's every bit as strong as the instinct to gasp for air when they're suffocating. I literally felt like I was about to choke to death on my single medjool date.

When I couldn't stand it anymore, I finally swallowed. Then I spent the next 5 minutes slowly licking my gums and trying to get the residual taste of the date out of my mouth. And by the end of it, I utterly and completely had no interest in eating another date.

It was like sorcery. Disgusting sorcery, but sorcery nonetheless. The compulsive craving to eat another date that would normally take over after having had the first one was nowhere to be found. I've tried this trick with a few other of my "vice foods," such as cheese, and it works equally well. Note that it doesn't turn me off to the food itself--I'm not disgusted by the thought of eating dates, and they still seem appetizing to me in general, but in the moment, I can use this to put a hard brake on any cravings that come up.

Personally I've found "drinking my food" immensely useful in regulating my appetite, so feel free to give it a shot the next time you find yourself repeatedly reaching for yet another potato chip like a crack addict seeking the next hit.

OMG...I'm laughing so hard reading this......

Without going to such extremes, I definitely chew my food longer than the average person. When I am eating with others, I am always the last to finish. I started chewing thoroughly when I was having digestive difficulties. My digestion has improved, but the thorough chewing habit persists. My appetite is lower than average for many reasons, not just chewing, but I bet that the chewing makes a contribution.

Your description is borderline gross but the actual process isn’t, lol. This isn’t too different from what I was always told to do when I was a little kid in the fifties - chew each mouthful 30 times. I could never do it, ever. But, I must say I do use your technique as much as I can when enjoying a nice hunk of dark chocolate.

lol. Ta.

I too am prone to eating dates, cheese and chocolate to excess.

Very interesting.

I think this is something I will guide my fiance' towards, with my participation. I would say that when eating with others, I'm in the middle of the pack. Kirsten virtually always finishes before me. And not small portions.

She is overweight which I totally, totally accept. But if she wants to lose weight, I will help her, gently.

I tried it. What a wonderful way to eat a date

Perhaps this, also, has to do with signaling the brain that a larger amount of food objects are being.....processed, because of the time it takes while it's, actually only, one? The fact that many people (me included) vacuum up eats, the brain/body has less time to register that food is incoming and the satiety signal is delayed til much more than necessary food is ingested......I'm thinkin'

Anyway, agree with you - Chewing food thoroughly is the way to go. Thanks for posting!

I find it funny that vegans would claim that the ability to masticate food in this way is a purely herbivorous trait. that, and only herbivores can get atherosclerosis from eating meat. not true: we now know atherosclerosis is caused by sugar and carbs. humans have front-facing eyes and huge canines which only carnivores possess. then they try to create doubt by bringing up statistics like 90% of all choking deaths are caused by meat. that meat was probably improperly cooked. humans are natural predators!

That's funny! But hey, if it curbs your cravings, then keep it up! My mom was telling me about a book she read that focused on really taking time to TASTE the food that passes over our tongues, instead of simply chewing and swallowing and gulping down the next bite. She said it not only enhanced the eating experience, but also helped her realize how little it too to feel full and satisfied.