Chewing your food starts with the aid of your teeth. Chewing well grinds food into small bits, allowing it to be more easily swallowed. If you don’t chew your food properly before swallowing, it can severely irritate the esophagus and can actually lead to tearing and scraping of your throat. Well-chewed bits of food are more easily coated with digestive juices once in the stomach.

The body uses much less of its energy trying to digest well-chewed food than hastily chewed and swallowed food.

Chewing well also allows the molecules of nutrients from inside the food to be more quickly released and assimilated.

Keeping food in the mouth longer and chewing it well allows the food’s flavors to be recognized by the tongue. Once the tongue recognizes the flavor, it sends a message to the brain, which in turn sends messages to the digestive system resulting in the release of the correct digestive juices needed for that particular food.