My Mama Told Me ...

... to eat more slowly cuz it takes a while for your "appestat" to catch up, and it looks as though she was right!

Moms are smart, that way.

Wot's an "appestat," you might ask?

'k, so this was a cute buzz word she picked up from one of the weight-loss programs she was in as I was growing up. Mom's female (in case you were wondering) and as with most females in the United States she thought of herself as fat, so she was constantly dieting and trying new programs to help her lose or control her weight. One of 'em coined the term "appestat" -- the internal mechanism for telling you you're full -- and cautioned that if you eat quickly, your appestat will tell you you're still hungry even after you've eaten the correct amount of calories. These days "Appestat" is a brand name for some appetite control pills.

Makes sense, and here's the study that proves it.

I am a food gulper. Always have been, in part because I hated family meals when I was a kid (that's the time my step-dad would go around the table and find fault with each of us) and wanted to rush through them, and in part because I always had something else I wanted to do. Like go play outside at lunch instead of sitting in the smelly old cafeteria, or, these days, gulp down my lunch and get back to the Very Important Work I have to do.