"Chew your drink and drink your food."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
In nature, what we don't use we eventually lose.
So if we chew less, will we lose our teeth? Will the human jaw line continue to shrink and teeth become increasingly smaller or more crowded? Think about it. Today, broader jaw lines, like Brad Pitt's, are still associated with virility (manliness).
But, does having a smaller jaw spare room for a bigger, more evolved brain? Hmmm. After all, if we can spare the fuel required for chewing and maintaining a robust jaw, can we better feed the high energy demands of the brain? While the brain weighs about 2 pounds, it consumes 20% of total energy in the body at rest.
These are the questions I find myself pondering as I watch yet another wellness expert fill a heavy duty blender with a colourful array of leafy greens, colourful berries, flax, hydrolyzed collagen powder and coconut MCT oil.
The act of chewing mobilizes processes that prepare the body to deal with incoming nutrients. It activates the rest and digest arm of the nervous system.
So what happens when we drink the machine masticated (chewed) healthy smoothie above? And if we drink it in fight or flight mode, do we benefit at all?
Some research does show that when we drink our calories we feel less satiated (full). Hence, the potential to consume more.
Should we then be concerned by the growing trend to blend our vegetables and fruit daily? Well, this is such a great way to add a high bolus of fibre (that we otherwise don't seem to get enough of) to our Western diet. Even if we don't absorb the nutrients because we are not in rest and digest mode, maybe the fibre is still making its way into the colon to feed healthy gut microbes that produce vitamins and other nutritious by-products that nourish our body.
My conclusion for now:
To maintain lean healthy bones and muscles we have to do weight bearing exercise. Therefore, to save our jaw structure and teeth let's chew a little more. Eating crunchy foods like nuts, raw veggies and apples is wise. But adding a fibre rich smoothie occasionally makes sense.
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