My son eats too fast

My ten-year-old son likes to eat very fast. Kindly let me know how this can affect his health and what I can do about it.

Mathew (by SMS)

The short-term negative effects of eating too quickly, include indigestion, gas, bloating, and nausea. But regularly eating too fast can cause long-term consequences. Obtaining a sense of fullness is key to staving off overeating and excess caloric intake. However, it takes approximately 20 minutes for the stomach to alert the brain to feelings of fullness. Eat too quickly and the fullness signaling might not set in until you’ve consumed more calories than intended. Research links this habit to excess body weight.

The practice also can lead to gastrointestinal diseases over the long term because overeating causes food to remain in the stomach longer, thus prolonging the time that the gastric mucosa is exposed to gastric acids. Patients potentially negatively affected by eating too quickly may benefit from adopting behavioral interventions to address these tendencies.

Those trying to eat more slowly are advised to seek out foods that are hard in texture and minimally processed. A study involving 50 patients with healthy weights found that hard foods are consumed more slowly than soft foods and that energy intake is lowest with hard, minimally processed foods.

Combining hard-textured foods with explicit instructions to reduce eating speed has also been shown to be an effective strategy. For those inclined to seek out technology-based solution, evidence suggests that a self-monitoring wearable device can slow the eating rate.

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