Wolfing down your meal can restrict the release of “full” hormones in your gut, meaning you overeat, researchers in Athens have found.

In the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 17 adult males were given 300ml of ice-cream and asked to consume it in five minutes on one occasion and on another, 30 minutes.

Blood samples to measure gut hormones were taken before the meal and in 30 minute intervals for a further two-and-a-half hours and the volunteers’ “fullness” was also recorded, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported.

Researchers discovered that when volunteers took 30 minutes to eat the ice-cream they had higher concentrations of the satiety hormones PYY and GLP-1 and also felt “fuller” than when the dessert was scoffed

“Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed-eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating,” lead researcher Dr Alexander Kokkinos told the Daily Telegraph.

“The warning we were given as children that ‘wolfing down your food will make you fat’ may in fact have a physiological explanation.”

To ensure you avoid overeating, chew every mouthful thoroughly, which aids digestion, and put down your knife and fork between every bite.

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HOLLY ENRIQUEZ