Just saw this new study and thought it was interesting. They tested two groups of people: one group was predisposed to diabetes (had first degree relatives with type II diabetes, or had glucose intolerance, or had type II diabetes), the other group had normal glucose tolerance. Here's a summary of what they found:

*In the people with normal glucose tolerance, thorough chewing of food caused a higher first phase insulin release, resulting in lower post-meal blood sugar readings (compared to normal chewing).

*In the people who were predisposed to diabetes, thorough chewing of food did not result in a higher first phase insulin response, and post-meal blood sugar readings were higher (compared to normal chewing).

Guess those of us with blood sugar issues should wolf down our food.

Here's the study abstract:

Metabolism. 2005 Dec;54(12):1593-9. Related Articles, Books, LinkOut


Effects of thorough mastication on postprandial plasma glucose concentrations in nonobese Japanese subjects.

Suzuki H, Fukushima M, Okamoto S, Takahashi O, Shimbo T, Kurose T, Yamada Y, Inagaki N, Seino Y, Fukui T.

Department of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.

Thorough mastication has the potential to affect postprandial plasma glucose concentrations by improving digestibility and absorption of nutrients. To evaluate the effects of mastication on postprandial plasma glucose concentration, we compared usual and thorough mastication in subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT group, n = 16) and subjects predisposed to type 2 diabetes (first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients, subjects with impaired glucose tolerance, and type 2 diabetic patients) (predisposed group, n = 10) in a crossover trial of 52 test meals. Plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations were measured for 3 hours postprandially, and the insulinogenic index (the ratio of incremental serum insulin to plasma glucose concentration during the first 30 minutes after meal) was calculated. In the NGT group, thorough mastication reduced the postprandial plasma glucose concentration at 90 minutes (5.8 +/- 0.3 vs 6.5 +/- 0.4 mmol/L, P < .05) and 120 minutes (5.4 +/- 0.2 vs 6.3 +/- 0.4 mmol/L, P < .05) and the area under the curve (AUC) from -15 to 180 minutes (19.1 +/- 0.6 vs 20.6 +/- 0.8 [mmol . L]/h, P < .05) without an increase in the AUC for insulin. In the predisposed group, thorough mastication significantly augmented plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations and the AUCs compared with usual mastication. Thorough mastication elicited a significantly higher insulinogenic index than usual mastication in the NGT group (205.0 +/- 27.6 vs 145.6 +/- 17.7 pmol/mmol, P < .05), whereas the predisposed group showed significantly less early-phase insulin secretion than the NGT group. In the NGT group the postprandial plasma glucose concentration upon thorough mastication of meal was significantly lower, most probably because of the potentiation of early-phase insulin secretion. In the subjects predisposed to type 2 diabetes, thorough mastication did not potentiate early-phase insulin secretion and elicited a higher postprandial plasma glucose concentration.

PMID: 16311091 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...t_uids=16311091

Linda

So... you can go blind from mastication?

A strong 1st phase insulin response is inversely related with diabetes. All this means is that people who have/will get diabetes have a weak 1st phase insulin response which is not news.

The normos blood sugar stabilized the more they chewed (a sign of eating, a trigger of cephalic stage insulin response) because their 1st phase response is stronger and healthier.

Speaking personally I know chewing behavior has a very strong balancing effect on my sugar - I often chew gum for this reason. I reason it makes my body make sugar which keeps my body the way I want it (ready to make fuel w/o food). My metabolism is not near diabetes stage, thankfully, so I guess I am more like a "normal person" in this regard. Even when I chugged 50 grms of sugar on an empty stomach the highest my sugar went was high 140s, implying my 1st phase response is still real good. Of course, I had the hypo to end hypos after that so I'm not exactly going to start eating bagels again any time soon.

All I know is chewing gum makes me hungry, even when I wasn't hungry before chewing it.