Biohack blog: chewing better is the new workout to improve health, longevity and anti-ageing

This saying rings true again, ‘It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it’. Improve this activity you already do several times daily and improve your overall health, lifespan and facial appearance. This blog is about eating healthier, but the benefits are about your head, not your stomach! According to medical research, how you chew is just as valuable as what you chew for better wellbeing, longevity and anti-ageing. Chewing is a great biohack by using your biomechanics and biological processes to function at your best and then you look at your best too.

Fun fact: Chewing is a fitness routine for the vital organs in your head. Just like the rest of your body, toned tissues function better. This means a fit face has clearer airways and better breathing which leads to more energy, vitality and better sleep. All linked to better health, longevity and anti-ageing. Your DIY health spa efforts have never been easier.

Fun fact: chewing stimulates stem cells to be created between your skull bones (called sutures). Stem cells grow into a range of new cells that your body needs to constantly replenish, such as muscle or bone cells. Healthy cellular renewal is vital to good health, anti-ageing and longevity. Although the medical industry taught for decades that you stopped growing bone at the age of 30, they now know that you grow bone throughout your entire life (millimetres a year if needed). However, as you age, cellular renewal is more challenging, therefore, chewing better throughout your life keeps you healthier. Most of us have ageing bodies for most of our lives because the average human starts ageing from 25 to 30 years old, where billions of bodily processes become slightly more challenged over time.

Not a fun fact: The industrialisation of food means we are eating softer foods and no longer receiving the full health benefits of chewing. For the past few hundred years, people’s mouths are getting smaller and teeth and tongues more crowded. Then the vicious cycle continues; smaller modern-day mouths choose softer, processed foods over wholefoods that our bodies have been built to harness for millennia. Innumerable ancient and modern-day skulls and faces have been measured by anthropologists and dentists to reach this conclusion.

James Nestor, the author of Breath (2020), dedicates his book to the lost art of breathing for a healthier, happier life. There is a chapter dedicated to chewing! Chewing well and breathing well are linked. Breathing well and sleeping well are linked. Sleeping well and living longer are linked. The humble act of mashing molars is much more important than Western medicine has credited. According to Nestor, within the first generation of switching to soft and processed foods, 50% of people have crowded, crooked teeth. By the great grandchildren’s generation, it’s 90%! Essentially, use it or lose it. Now, that’s responsive physiology.

A typical dental X-ray where back molars do not have space in modern, smaller mouths and are often extracted (as were the blog author's back teeth)

A group of dentists have discovered epigenetics orthodontics, i.e. genes expressing their full potential, by using custom mouth gear to stimulate tissues around teeth and jaws. We are constantly expressing our DNA and dental ‘appliances’ stimulate the body to self-correct towards equilibrium, and according to physics all things seek this equilibrium to conserve energy; a natural survival trait. Some of the orthodontic 'appliances' cause the tissues to grow where there is imbalance and then symmetrically realign, as well as strengthen and tone. The saying also holds true, ‘use it or lose it’. The human body is very efficient. Cellular energy and resources can be diverted away from body parts you aren’t using. Practice long-distance eyesight and those tiny muscles will tone. Practice long-distance running and those large body parts will tone. There is ‘plasticity’ in so much more than your brain.

The aforementioned fun fact, ‘Chewing is a fitness routine for vital organs in your head’ may seem like an obvious statement but the point is: tissues in your head need to be moved, firmed and toned just like the rest of your body. When all the tissues of your head are in their best shape, you are at your best because so many vital organs are in and behind your face (not to mention your brain). You sense your surroundings with your eyes, nose, ears and mouth to name a few vital functions. You also breathe in oxygen through your head and consume food and water through your head, all to power your entire body. Many of us in this Modern Age are breathing worse than ever before, because many of us have developed smaller mouths due to generational diets of softer, processed foods. Your mouth, nasal tissues and throat are in close vicinity. This is why sleep disorders are common today like apnoea, where you stop breathing regularly in your sleep, which decreases health quality and lifespan. The most amazing medical finding is you can have healthier breathing within a short time frame if you have healthy chewing.

The niche medical practice of epigenetics orthodontics by dentist specialists has proven the chewing mechanism gives a multitude of health benefits. Just like a gym workout, the benefits after the jaw movement, continue while you sleep. Medical tests over decades of modern medicine have shown that people who use a special orthodontic block (to mimic chewing without the effort), grow facial bones by millimetres, facial tissues are firmer over time including on the inside, breathing is improved, and sinuses clear. James Nestor, the author of Breath (2020), had a range of breathing issues that may have required surgery but after a year of wearing Dr Balfour’s Homeoblock in his mouth while sleeping, Nestor gained bone in his face comparable to five pennies including in eye sockets, cheeks, nose and upper jaw. Dr Balfour and his peers have numerous patient success stories such as this. Nestor’s jaw became better aligned, his airways became wider and firmer, his chronic blocked sinuses cleared up, and so overall, his breathing improved, and so his health improved. He also looked fitter and healthier in the face and so looked youthful and more handsome - within one year.

You don’t need an orthodontist to have better health by chewing

Anyone can also get chewing health benefits from eating ‘hard, natural foods and chewing gum’ says Dr Maraina Evans. Your investment in eating wholefoods just increased their health impact many more times than only as nutrition.

If you are thinking, 'I chew five times a day so I’m all good'. You are likely incorrect. Modern food is the softest it’s ever been, and is not giving the mouth the chewing workout it’s adapted to over millennia since before the Industrial Age.

Nestors’ book, Breath (2020) views chewing as exercise for your face, and like other exercise, it is great for moving in good molecules and moving out cell waste, as well as the movement of biofluids like saliva, blood, and joint fluid. Other fluids linked to immunity also need to flow like lymph fluid, mucus and phlegm (not nice names but vital that your body creates them to protect you, and to do this they also need to be expelled or be absorbed once the immunity job is done). Never underestimate chewing again.

How to maximise daily chewing for health, longevity and anti-ageing?

The key is balance, don’t go too hard and fast because you want your teeth to last a lifetime.

Eat with intention

Today, we rush through our day, we have more to do than ever before, despite technological advancements. The ‘rushing syndrome’ and the ‘takeaway food culture’ of modern life means we eat on the run, we eat in a hurry, and we eat while multitasking. This often means we gulp our food and chew less times than we should, because we are distracted by life’s demands. Knowing the health benefits of chewing, we may be potentially accelerating ageing and shortening our lives, just by this seemingly harmless lifestyle choice to go-go-go. The quality of your chewing could be reducing your health but can be easily reversed.

Tip: Eat as a slow, conscious practice, without rushing and multitasking.

For example, today, if we get a piece of chewy protein like steak or squid calamari that needs our full focus and more time to chew properly, we won’t choose to eat it again because we are in a hurry and we are distracted while we eat and the experience is unpleasant. Don't blame the protein blame your lack of priority. Therefore, if we do end up with a meal that is hard work then best to purposefully focus on our meal. Savour it, cut smaller pieces with your knife, take smaller bites, maybe even count chews. Imagine your hard-working jaw stimulating cellular renewal. What is already a pleasurable experience can now also feel reverential to self-care. According to James Nestor’s book Breath (2020), over as little as a few months, your entire face may look more youthful, you may sleep better, you may have more energy during the day. The benefits are quite astounding. When you consider you will need to do this daily activity anyway, why not chew better?

Imagine your hard-working jaw stimulating cellular renewal.

Chewing natural gum daily has more meaning

Fresh breath and minty mental clarity are not the only benefits of chewing gum. In James Nestor’s book, Breath (2020), medical researcher and practitioner Dr Mariana Evans advises that chewing gum for up to two hours a day may provide the jaw and head the stimulation needed to have better health overall.

In Australia today, most chewing gum today is sugar-free but not all types of sweeteners are good for your health. It's worth finding chewing gum without artificial sweeteners which can disrupt your gut biome in a range of ways and contribute to chronic diseases. Dr Steven Gundry says in his book, The Energy Paradox (2021), “most artificial sweeteners kill gut bacteria. In fact, sucralose so disrupts bacteria in your gut that it promotes a pro-inflammatory state.” If your digestion is disrupted, the nutrition you just carefully chewed won’t be properly absorbed for optimal cellular health. The gut biome is made of mainly helpful symbiotic microbes. They also won’t get what they need to create molecular building blocks for your body’s important cellular functions. In Dr Gundry’s earlier book, The Plant Paradox (2017), “An avalanche of research proves that instead of aiding in weight loss or weight maintenance, nonnutritive sweeteners actually cause you to gain weight.” Weight gain will undo all the health benefits that good chewing does, and causes breathing and sleeping challenges that contribute to diseases like sleep apnoea (breathing stops intermittently) which can shorten life spans by ten years. Although common, even snoring is an unhealthy body function.

In Australia, all chewing gums in major supermarkets have artificial sweeteners like Mars Group’s Wrigley’s PK or Juicy Fruit gum. More natural gums are found at health food stores. Most use xylitol (967) and /or stevia (960). Both are natural sweeteners approved by functional medicine doctors like Dr Steven Gundry as not being as harmful to your digestive system as artificial sweeteners. It can take years of clinical trials from multiple sources before such information becomes mainstream medical knowledge, and reverses previously promoted food alternatives. Natural chewing gum brands like True Gum, Honest Gum, and Epic Gum are found in health food stores in Australia.

Before the modern era of food chemistry, chewing gum was often sourced from plants. Chicle is the common naturally-sourced gum base still used in the above-mentioned natural chewing gums. The Aztecs 'milked' a group of trees in Central America to then chew chicle, similar to how human cultures tapped trees for rubber or latex in other parts of the world. Wrigley's gum was originally made of chicle gum base from the late 1800s until the 1950s. In Europe and North Africa, mastic tree resin was the natural plant gum chewed for health for millennia. It is a tree in the same plant genus as the pistachio, another valuable food heritage tree in the area. Unfortunately, long-term natual brands like Fallim Turkish chewing gum have 'improved' their recipes to have artificial sweeteners mixed with the natural mastic gum base.

Tip: choose to chew gum with no artificial sweeteners.

If chewing gum makes you hungrier reduce chewing to 30 minutes a day. If you have an added snack for the extra hunger make sure to choose a healthy wholefood vegetable like carrot (or avocado if you have already reached your chew quota for the day), and are on track with your daily ‘face and throat gym’. The next blog will recommend plenty of food swaps to increase your chew quota without increasing your weight to an unhealhty amount, because obesity also reverses any health benefits in the face, throat and neck linked to good breathing and good sleep.

Are you on track with your daily ‘face and throat gym’?

Don’t fear soft foods, balance is the key to life’s benefits

Eat soft foods mixed into a healthy diet of chew-promoting wholefoods. Also, enjoy a cheat day once a week if you feel a strong desire to eat processed foods that are rich, delicious and full of fats, sugars and salt. Nothing wrong with affordable indulgence in moderation. Keep in mind, it is a special occasion treat, and to be considered a celebration food ritual. For the rest of the week, reverse ageing and disease to live better and longer. Now you can add intentional chewing to your daily health practices of eating nutrient-dense wholefoods.

The habit of chewing means success is highly likely

What is most exciting is these chewing health benefits are not a huge change to lifestyle, and because they are not too difficult, they are likely to become a habit. Habit-forming health activities are more likely to be successful. The biggest barrier to a healthier life and looking and feeling your best is changing habitual behaviour.

Cost saving brings a double benefit to better health

The other fantastic reason to chew for better health is food bills may cost less with more wholefoods included, because for many processed popular brands you pay for their very large branding, advertising and packaging budgets. Chewing your way to a healthier life will save you money, whether at the regular grocery checkout or in your medical bills in the long run.

The fitness workout you never knew you needed is chewing hard, natural foods more often.

The next blog (coming soon) recommends easy food swaps and tasty meal ideas for healthier chewing, longevity and anti-ageing benefits. A healthy life is a delicious life.

References

Nestor, James. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. United Kingdom, Penguin Books Limited, 2020.

Wahls, Dr Terry. The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles. United Kingdom, Ebury Publishing, 2017.

Gundry, Steven R., and Gundry, MD, Dr. Steven R. The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain. United States, HarperCollins, 2017.

Gundry, Steven R., and Greeven, Amely. The Energy Paradox: How to Stop Being Sick and Tired and Finally Feel Good Again. United States, HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.

“Dr Theodore Belfor: Epigenetic Cranial & Facial Development” Youtube episode by Unstress Health with Dr Ron Ehrlich, 9 Aug 2022, https://youtu.be/Wp6GRNOmIsY?si=WWXuJB1cQAO9UoaN

Images sourced from Unsplash and Pexels. This information should not replace your relationship with your qualified health professionals.