Q. A friend of mine has come back from a health spa where she was told that she should chew her food for ages. Does this really help with weight loss or improve digestion?

A. Good question. A recent study showed that women who chewed each mouthful of pasta between 20 and 30 times ended up consuming 70 per cent fewer calories than when they ate at their normal rate.

From a purely practical point of view, you can see how this may happen because the longer you take to eat a certain quantity of food, the more aware you are likely to be of what and how much you are eating, which in itself is likely to put the brakes on overconsumption.

From a physiological perspective, it is possible that chewing more helps us to eat less because, it seems, the act of chewing stimulates nerve centres in your brain that register a sense of fullness. Chewing may also trigger the release of hormones that tell you it is time to stop eating, and so, in theory at least, the more you chew, the more likely it is that these hormonal signals swing into action.

Whether or not the amount of chewing you do improves digestion depends on the type of food. Yoghurt and fromage frais clearly need no more than a second or two in your mouth because they do not need to be physically broken down before swallowing, and digestive juices can tackle them easily in your intestines. An apple, on the other hand, needs a good chomp to get it into a manageable size to swallow and the chewing helps to break down cell walls, which makes the nutrients inside more easily accessed by enzymes in your intestines.

How long it takes to break down foods efficiently in your mouth depends on things such as the size of your jaw, the strength it can exert in its crunches and the amount of saliva you produce. As scientists from the University of California, Berkeley point out, while one person can take only nine chews to swallow a piece of carrot, another can require 65 chews to get it to an acceptable state for swallowing.

And so finally, in answer to your question, yes, it is probably a good idea to take your time over chewing. You may find that you gradually lose a few pounds doing so and will probably get more nutrients from the foods you do eat. I'm going to have a go myself.

If you have nutrition questions for Amanda, e-mail her at amandaursell@thetimes.co.uk

Eating slowly: how it helps

Chewing and eating slowly mean that you are likely to swallow less air than when gulping food down and are less likely to feel bloated as a result.

British researchers found that people chewing sugar-free gum three times a day after surgery had a speedier return of normal colon functioning than non-gum-chewers and left hospital on average a day earlier. Gum chewing may “fool” the digestive system back into action by stimulating production of saliva and gut hormones.

Chewing releases flavours that pass up to centres in your brain that register pleasure and satisfaction. If nothing else, chewing may well help you to enjoy your meal more.

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