"Wolfing down food" and "gobbling it down in a few bites" are often used to describe someone who eats quickly. This eating habit can lead to digestive system diseases. If the food is also frequently too hot, it can lead to esophageal cancer. Yesterday, Zhang Chuan, Director of the Department of Gastroenterology at the Jingxi Campus of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, suggested that people should spend about 20 minutes per meal, and that the ideal temperature for food and drinks is around 37°C.
Zhang Chuan said that the mouth itself has some digestive function, and some foods begin to be digested in the mouth, such as starchy foods. Therefore, chewing slowly can promote the body's full production of digestive enzymes, reducing the burden on the stomach. Eating too quickly prevents food from being chewed thoroughly, and coarse food particles may scratch the esophagus; eating food that is too hot can burn the esophageal mucosa. [Food Blog]
These physical injuries can easily cause the already fragile esophageal mucosa to break down, causing acute inflammation. If it is a long-term chronic irritation, it can lead to inflammation of the esophagus, which may in turn cause cell degeneration or esophageal cancer.
Young people especially love spicy hot pot, barbecue, and teppanyaki. Director Zhang reminded that spicy hot pot is very irritating to the gastrointestinal tract, and people with weak digestive function should eat less of it. Barbecue foods inevitably produce carcinogens during the grilling process, so they should also be eaten less. The function of chewing:
1. To break down food from large to small and from coarse to fine, turning it into a bolus;
2. To allow the mouth's digestive fluid—saliva—to fully mix with the food, moistening and softening it to facilitate the full process of oral digestion;
3. To transport the bolus to the next digestive organ after a certain degree of chewing. When food is chewed thoroughly in the mouth, oral digestion reduces the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. Conversely, it will increase the burden on the stomach and intestines, and over time, it will lead to gastrointestinal diseases.