At your meals, slow down and savor every bite, and you'll likely eat less food and slash the number of calories.

That theory has lingered for more than 30 years, but now there's scientific proof to back it up - and something to keep in mind as you head to calorie-laden holiday parties.

Women took in about 70 fewer calories when they were told to take their time eating ditalini pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce and Parmesan cheese, compared to when they wolfed down the meal as quickly as possible, a university study shows.

In addition, the women said they enjoyed the meal much more when they ate slowly, said Dr. Kathleen Melanson, a nutrition and food science expert at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.

'Heard it everywhere' 

Among nutritionists, dietitians and other health experts, the theory began bouncing around in the early 1970s that eating slowly would allow your body time to develop a feeling of satiety, or fullness.

"Since then we've heard it everywhere and it has become common knowledge, but no studies had been conducted to prove it," Melanson said. "In fact, early evidence suggested the opposite to be true. In the 1990s, one study examined the role of small bite sizes and found no effects, while a study of pauses between bites actually showed increased food consumption with more pauses."

But Melanson's study of 30 college-age women over the past year found that eating more slowly does indeed lead to less food intake and fewer calories.

The women paid two visits to Melanson's food lab, where they got large plates of pasta and told to eat as much as they wanted. Here's what happened:

•  They ate 646 more calories in nine minutes when told to eat quickly;

•  They ate just 579 calories, or a reduction of nearly 12 percent, in 29 minutes when told to pause between bites and chew each mouthful 15 to 20 times.

Does liquid affect satiety?

"Satiety signals clearly need time to develop," Melanson said. "Not only did the women take in fewer calories when they ate more slowly, they had a greater feeling of satiety when they completed a meal and 60 minutes afterwards, which strongly suggests benefits to eating more slowly."

Each woman also drank water with their meals, which meant they probably added to their feeling of fullness when they drank more water when eating slowly, Melanson said.
 
Melanson plans more research next spring to see how consumption of water and higher-calorie beverages, such as soft drinks and juices, affect your feeling of fullness.