Eat quick, die quicker

Eat quick, die quicker Eat too fast and you’re much more likely to become obese. That was the finding of a New Zealand study published last week. Now, as reported in the Daily Mail yesterday , the NHS is launching a ‘talking plate’ that reminds you to eat more slowly. And eating is not the only way your speed affects your wellbeing. Here, experts explain how upping — or lowering — the tempo of everyday activities could have an impact on your health...
EATING TOO FAST
In the latest study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers found that women aged 40-50 who eat the quickest are more likely to be obese than slow eaters.
In fact, wolfing down meals could be enough to nearly double your risk of being overweight, according to a previous Japanese study.
Osaka University monitored the eating habits of 3,000 people and found fast-eating men were 84 per cent more likely to be overweight (women were just over twice as likely).
Eating too fast overrides the mechanisms which tell our brains we’re full, explains Ian McDonald, professor of metabolic physiology at Nottingham University.
‘Nerves send signals to the brain that the stomach is expanding,’ he says.
‘At the same time, a hormone called ghrelin, produced when your stomach empties to trigger a hunger message, starts to decrease. It takes about 20 minutes after you start eating for the message to stop eating to reach your brain. Put simply, eat too quickly, and you’re likely to overfill your stomach and overeat.
‘Many people develop these fast-eating habits as children, desperate to get away from the dinner table  — it’s amazing how these habits can be carried through to adulthood.’
Bolting your food could also increase your risk of acid reflux, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina have found.
Their study showed that eating a 690-calorie meal in five rather than 30 minutes induced up to 50 per cent more acid reflux episodes as the digestive tract is overloaded with larger lumps of food, prompting an overload of stomach acid.
Over a number of months sufferers can develop gastroesophagul reflux disease, linked with more serious problems including a narrowing of the oesophagus, bleeding, or the pre-cancerous condition Barrett’s oesophagus.
Eating too fast also contributes to wind and general discomfort, says Dr David Forecast, consultant gastroenterologist at the London Clinic and St Mark’s Hospital in London.
‘You’ll be gulping down large quantities of air, which can cause some discomfort in your digestive tract,’ he adds.
WHAT TO DO: If you chew your food properly you should take at least 20 minutes over your meal, says Dr Forecast.
Dr Forecast also suggests standing up at some point during your meal to test how full you are.
‘If you feel comfortable but not over-full when you stand, then you’ve eaten enough.’
BREATHING TOO FAST
Healthy adults take approximately 10-14 breaths per minute, but some people breathe 20 or more times — this can lead to feeling out of breath and a range of other symptoms such as tingling in the fingers and around the lips, heart palpitations, tiredness, inability to concentrate and irritable bowel syndrome, explains Fiona Troup, a physiotherapist at Six Physio in London.
The symptoms are a sign you’re breathing through the mouth instead of doing deeper breathing through the nose. This leads to a fall in carbon dioxide levels in the blood — as a result, oxygen can’t be released to the muscles and organs.
This causes muscle spasms, often in the colon which can exacerbate or lead to IBS; meanwhile if the brain is deprived of sufficient oxygen levels, it can cause confusion and dizziness.
‘Fast breathing is basically a bad habit, often resulting from periods of elevated stress, back or neck pain, emotional trauma or surgery,’ says Ms Troup.
One seminal study suggested as many as 10 per cent of those attending general practice suffered from this problem.
Over-breathing, as it is known, shouldn’t have any long-term health implications, says Stephen Spiro, professor of respiratory medicine at University College London Hospitals and deputy chair of the British Lung Foundation.
However rapid breathing and breathlessness can be a sign of lung disease, particularly asthma and bronchitis. With these conditions, the airways in the lungs narrow, so it’s physically harder for the air to travel in and out.
WHAT TO DO: Count your own breathing rate at rest, and if you’re in the 20-plus breaths a minute danger zone and experience other symptoms, see your GP.
‘Your GP should perform lung function and blood tests,’ says Fiona Troup.
‘But if they feel you are habitually overbreathing you could be referred to a physiotherapist to help re-train your breathing.’
DRINKING TOO FAST
The risk with drinking alcohol too fast is that the body can’t process it quickly enough — not only are faster drinkers more at risk of passing out, but they’re more likely to carry on drinking past a level where their body can recover.
Just one binge can result in scarring of your liver, explains Paul Wallace, professor of primary care at University College London and Chief Medical Officer at alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware.
‘Everybody will process alcohol at different rates — according to their body size, gender and even ethnicity — but the rule of thumb is that your liver can only process approximately one unit of alcohol per hour,’ he says.
‘Drink ten units in two hours, equivalent to two or three large glasses of wine, and you’ll still have eight units of alcohol in your system after two hours.’
The intoxicating, ‘poisoning’ part of alcoholic drinks is ethanol — ‘drink more than one unit an hour and that ethanol can flood the brain,’ says Professor Wallace.
Even drinking plain water and other fluids too quickly can lead to discomfort, belching and the risk of acid reflux, as the overload of fluid causes acid to spill back up the oesophagus, says Dr Susan Shirreffs, an expert in hydration expert at Loughborough University.
WHAT TO DO: Having a small meal before drinking alcohol and alternating soft with alcoholic drinks will slow the absorption rate of ethanol into your blood stream, Professor Wallace says.
‘But the over-riding message still has to be to drink within recommended government guidelines,’ he adds.
WALKING SLOWLY
The speed you walk at is as good an indicator of how long you’ll live as your health history, smoking habits and blood pressure combined, U.S. researchers have found.
Analysing data on over 34,000 adults aged 65 or over, University of Pittsburgh physiologists found  speeds of 2.6 feet per second were associated with average life expectancy; the highest survival rates were enjoyed by those who walked 3.3 feet per second or faster, with greatest gains seen in fast walkers aged over 75.
The authors emphasised going out and walking faster would not necessarily make you live you longer — your speed is an indicator rather than a cause of good health.
However, John Brewer, professor of sport at the University of Bedfordshire says: ‘Upping your pace a little, whatever age you are, can have real benefits.
‘Load-bearing exercise such as walking will strengthen your bones and protect against osteoporosis, but going faster will demand more power and in turn increase muscle mass which will increase your metabolism and help control your weight, while providing extra stability to prevent injury through falls, which are a real concern, especially for the elderly.’
WHAT TO DO: Interestingly, you’ll burn more calories per mile at snail speeds, Professor Brewer says.
‘At slower speeds you’ll walk less efficiently which requires more energy to travel the same distance. But the health benefits of walking or running extend far beyond burning calories, to lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and much more.
‘Maximum benefits are felt when you’re working at between 50 and 70 per cent of your maximum effort, meaning you can just maintain a staggered conversation.’