🌿 Folk Prescriptions

From childhood, parents constantly remind us: “Eat slowly and chew well!” Over time, we dismiss this advice as nagging. But after working in health communication, we begin to appreciate its depth. Let’s hear insights from Western and Traditional Chinese physicians.
Western Medicine
Swallowing and chewing involve complex reflexive actions driven by sequential contraction of jaw muscles. Teeth contact and grind food, mixing it with saliva to form a smooth bolus for easier swallowing and esophageal passage. If this process is rushed, food isn’t adequately crushed or mixed with saliva, potentially damaging esophageal and gastric mucosa or increasing their workload.
Enhanced Absorption: Salivary glands (parotid, submandibular, sublingual, and numerous minor glands) secrete saliva containing water, proteins, amylase, lysozyme, and electrolytes. Saliva moistens and dissolves food, enabling taste perception and easier swallowing, while cleaning and protecting the mouth. Amylase breaks down starch into maltose, initiating digestion. Chewing slowly allows full enjoyment of food’s color, aroma, taste, mechanical, chemical, and thermal stimuli, exciting oral mucosa and tongue nerve endings. This triggers the brain to send signals to salivary glands, jaw muscles, teeth, and swallowing-related muscles, initiating chewing and swallowing. Simultaneously, the brain prepares downstream organs—esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder, pancreas—for coordinated movement and digestive fluid secretion. These processes are sequential and orderly.
True nutritional value cannot be achieved by drinking fruit or vegetable juices without chewing. Without oral processing, nutrient absorption suffers significantly.
Reduced Gastric Acid: For those with high gastric acid, saliva is alkaline. The longer you chew, the more saliva produced, delivering more alkaline substances to neutralize excess gastric acid, balancing pH and reducing self-damage to the gastric mucosa.
Prevention of Injury: In cases of esophageal or gastric inflammation or ulcers, poorly chewed rough food can worsen damage. Patients with liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension may develop esophageal and gastric varices; if ruptured, this can cause life-threatening bleeding. Such patients must chew slowly and thoroughly.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Strengthening the Spleen: Famous Tang dynasty physician Sun Simiao wrote in his *Daily Self-Praise Song*: “Eat delicious food slowly and chew thoroughly; don’t swallow raw or coarse.” Folk wisdom says: “If you don’t chew food 100 times, digestion will be poor.” The earliest medical text, *Suwen·Jingmai Bie Lun*, states: “Drinking enters the stomach, spreads nutritive essence upward to the spleen. The spleen distributes essence upward to the lungs, regulates water pathways downward to the bladder. Water essence spreads throughout the body, and the five zang organs function in harmony.” This summarizes the transformation and distribution of food essence after ingestion.
TCM holds “the spleen opens to the mouth” and “teeth are the remainder of the kidneys.” Chewing slowly and thoroughly, followed by 36 claps of upper and lower teeth after each meal, strengthens the kidneys and spleen and aids digestion.
Adopting the habit of slow, thorough chewing is a true path to longevity. Ming dynasty’s *Zuofei’an Ri Zhuan* states: “Eat slowly and chew thoroughly, letting saliva carry the food. Then the essence spreads to the spleen, and the complexion becomes radiant. Rushing leads only to undigested waste clogging the intestines.” To verify the wisdom of slow eating, consult the Jewish Talmud: “Those who eat slowly live long.”
Disease Prevention: Chewing slowly ensures ample saliva surrounds food, aiding digestion. Saliva neutralizes gastric acid and repairs mucosal lining, helping prevent gastric and duodenal ulcers, chronic gastritis, and indigestion. Research shows that thorough chewing (30–90 times per bite) stimulates salivary glands to secrete beneficial digestive enzymes and hormones. Parotid hormone has several functions: ① Strengthens teeth, bones, and muscles. ② Promotes capillary regeneration, rejuvenating tissues and maintaining metabolic rhythm. ③ Stimulates hair growth. ④ Reduces bloating and moisturizes dryness.
Detoxification: Experiments show that exposure of saliva to carcinogens like aflatoxin, nitrosamines, and benzopyrene for over 32 seconds can decompose their carcinogenicity. Slow chewing increases saliva production, allowing more contact with carcinogens, reducing harm. The more you chew, the stronger the anticancer effect. Salivary peroxidase eliminates toxins; 30 seconds of contact reduces alkaline toxin toxicity significantly.
Brain Activation: Chewing stimulates the brain, activating its functions—thus improving memory, thinking, and attention.
Weight Control: Slow chewing helps control portion size. It increases blood glucose levels, stimulating the brain’s satiety center, creating a feeling of fullness before overeating—effective for dieting.