One thing that seems popular in the healthy eating culture –– but I’m not convinced is healthy — is drinking smoothies and eating yogurt with fruit in it. Sometimes people will blend in kale to make it seem healthier. It seems like a lot of cooking these days is about making food as easy as possible to pour down one’s throat as possible, like a person with a breathing tube or traumatic brain injury might require. But is that healthy, making food as easy as possible to consume?

All the evidence I can find suggests that fiber is key to a healthy diet. Moreover, chewing food slows the speed you can eat it at, the fiber binds to the sugar and slows the rate it is absorbed into your blood stream, helping to avoid the blood sugar level crash later on and further cravings for food. You should eat fruits and vegetables with as much of their original fibrous material as possible. Less cooked and less pulverized is better. Chewy, so you chew more and enjoy the flavor for a longer time in your mouth. I don’t drink my food, except for caffeine in coffee, I try to chew it and enjoy it slowly in my mouth. Drinking is for water, not nutrition.

I like frozen fruit as a dessert before bed every couple of nights especially after walking. Frozen means it’s cold and refreshing, plus provides more to chew. Blueberries are delicious but they do really spike my blood sugar so I prefer more moderated fruit like strawberries, blackberries, cherries or even pineapple the later which is sugary but has a lot of fiber to moderate the blood sugar spike. And I will drizzle some fat free vanilla yogurt over it, but not a lot – more like you might use chocolate syrup on a sundae. Adds a nice flavor. But I don’t eat yogurt like the dairymen might like and is popularly sold as a large cup of sugary yogurt. Nope, that’s way too much sugar and calories for me, plus I’m not that much of a yogurt fan. I’d rather have something I can chew.

Really if you want to enjoy food, it needs to be chewy. Your not getting much out of food psychologically if your just pouring it down your throat. Maybe some minerals or calories and a lot of fat and sugar that way, but not much lasting enjoyment. Food shouldn’t be about bypassing your taste buds and force feeding yourself a liquid unless you are on a breathing tube or have traumatic brain injury.