Welcome to the Nutrition Depot podcast, a show where we take a closer look at nutrition

trends and headlines, explain how the latest research applies to you and answer your questions.

I'm your host, Monica Reinegel.

And lately, I have gotten a ton of questions on a compound called Berberine.

Is it safe and or beneficial?

But before I get to that, a question from Ann Marie who wrote, I've heard that chewing

our food is better than drinking it.

Is this true?

And to what degree?

I'm a person who loves smoothies for breakfast.

So should I make my smoothies thicker and eat them with a spoon instead?

Obviously, there are some situations such as following dental surgery or some other circumstance

that makes chewing difficult, where liquid nutrition is actually going to be better.

But I'm guessing that Ann Marie is referring to the effect that chewing has on satiety.

There's quite a bit of research to show that the texture of food has a big effect on how

full we feel after eating it, or even how much of it we end up eating.

And that effect is independent of other factors, such as how many calories it contains, or

even how much protein or fat or fiber it contains.

In general, foods that require more chewing lead to lower intake and greater satiety.

And thicker liquids tend to be more filling than thinner ones.

So eating a bowl of yogurt with some fruit and maybe some grains or chia seeds or whatever,

would theoretically keep you full longer than putting those exact same foods into the blender

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