EATING SLOW can help SLIM DOWN

The slim and shapely figures of the overwhelming majority of natives I saw on the streets and trains of China during my visit to that country last week made me stand out amidst them with my Desi central bulge. And as this “ I-am –the-paunchy-one among-them” feeling is not something I feel while in Delhi, Punjab, or Gujarat, I tossed the question ‘What makes the Chinese remain slim?’
I had earlier put it to their genes. True most people with Mongolian traits (Chink eyed ones) like the Tibetans, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese look slim and short with smooth skins stretched over their bones and muscles. But catch them in USA after five years of devouring burgers and pizzas with bare hands, and notice the difference.
Or is it their diet? Most are rice eaters, but if rice was the secret to their shape, I couldn’t fathom why Bongs (Bengalis, a community to which I belong by genes and taste buds) queuing up for a table in front of “Oh Calcutta” get that paunch?
And if it is not rice, and if it is not WHAT they ate, what else could the Chinks have in common?
When my Chinese hosts took me to a traditional restaurant for dinner in Beijing, had me seated at the head of the table with a lavish spread of gourmet dishes, and then handed a pair of chopsticks, I realised I could not devour all that as quickly as I wished!
Fortunately I was not a total stranger to chopsticks, having had to use them as my survival tool during a long training trip in Japan many years ago. I remember that it had taken me a week to get the grip, grasp and movements tuned, and had started eating my full meal with just them, but at a very slow pace.
Old memories wafted in while I sipped the soup and watched how my hosts dealt with the dishes of boiled corn, pumpkins, egg, fish, chicken and even rice with just two thin sticks in between their fingers, nibbling at the food like restless ants.
What eating with chopsticks do is restrict the size of morsels. One can barely take a few grains of rice each time, unlike the large morsels that we Bongs scoop with bare hands and put in our mouths before gulping it down. And nibbling small amounts with chopsticks slows eating and stretches the meal time.
During eating, the food gets absorbed from the intestines and sends signals to the brain that then tells us to stop. If we eat slowly the signal reaches on time stopping us from consuming too much. When we eat quickly and gulp, we often miss the “Enough, Now stop” signal.
Eating slow can be a very effective way to slim down. And chopsticks ensure that you do just that. I have decided to take to chopsticks to get into shape.