Eating behavior and risk of cardio-metabolic diseases

Prediabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and coronary artery diseases are important components of metabolic syndrome which is a risk factor of CMDs. Eating slowly is a crucial concept in behavioral nutrition which is recommended for management of obesity. However, in subjects with diabetes and metabolic syndrome, eating slowly is believed to have an important effect on satiety control leading to weight loss. While fast eating without mastication is associated with metabolic syndrome and cardio-metabolic diseases (CMDs), slow eating with mastication may be protective against these diseases. Regular mastication may also inhibit memory dysfunction and dementia. Regular active mastication improves the performance of sustained cognitive tasks by increasing the activation of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, the brain regions that are essential for cognitive processing. Abnormal mastication caused by experimental occlusal disharmony in animals produces chronic stress, which in turn suppresses spatial learning ability leading to decline in memory function. Mastication measurement device may be used to assess dose response in relation to health and diseases. © 2019 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.