Do Bite Counters Count Bites?
Friday, August 22, 2014
With the current electronic self-montioring craze, it was only a matter of time before someone would try to come up with a device that counts the number of bites it takes you to finish a meal.
The device (Bite Counter), is worn no the wrist of the dominant hand and contains a tri-axial accelerometer that detects an upward, arcing motion from the table to the mouth.
Now a study by Jenna Desendorf and colleagues from the University of Tennessee, tested the accuracy and validity of this device in 15 adults (23–58 years old) while eating a meal consisting of foods/beverages, each consumed with different utensils: meat (knife and fork), side items (fork), soup (spoon), pizza (hands), can of soda (hands), and a smoothie (straw), while being observed them through a one-way mirror and counted the number of bites taken.
As the paper, published in Eating Behaviors reports, the overall accuracy of the device was around 80%. However, this varied substantially between foods: meat (127%), side items (82.6%), soup (60.2%), pizza (87.3%), soda (81.7%), and smoothie (57.7%).
So, while this device may well underestimate the number of bites taken during a mixed meal, the real question is what people will start monitoring next – number of chews? (I joke about this on my show) Saliva flow? Numbers of swallows per bite? Oesophageal transit time?
I can perhaps see some research applications but as a way to help improve your eating?
The company claims that limiting your number of daily bites to 100 will help you lose weight.
I am yet to be convinced.
@DrSharma
Edmonton, AB
Desendorf J, Bassett DR Jr, Raynor HA, & Coe DP (2014). Validity of the Bite Counter device in a controlled laboratory setting. Eating behaviors, 15 (3), 502-4 PMID: 25064306
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Sunday, August 24, 2014
Until the food quality is examined, how many bites of junky food won’t matter. Obesity problem will still be around. No one answer, but the number of bites of Kale sauteed in avocado oil that I take (in weight maintenance) doesn’t equal the number of bites of french fries I may have taken while overweight (I don’t eat potatoes in weight maintenance since I’m carb sensitive)
What is on that counting device is what really matters- IMO.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
I am finding that many people, not just obese such as myself, are becoming obsessed with food and ‘eating right’. Everyone is becoming an ‘expert’ on best nutrition depending on what hype they are buying into.