Fast Eaters, Here Comes the HAPIfork

We always hear about dieting and working out to lose weight.  What if losing weight is as simple as slowing down the pace of your eating? There's one way to find out because now there's actually a product that measures how fast you eat.  It's called the HAPIfork and it has sensors that monitor its movement from plate to mouth and keeps track of the number of forkfuls per meal and per minute, plus it times the intervals between each bite. If it decides that you're eating too fast, the fork lights up and vibrates.  It's a bit high maintenance in that you have to transfer information from the HAPIfork to your computer after each meal so that your eating quickness habit can be tracked over time.

The HAPIfork's company claims that "With the smart fork, you will greatly improve your digestion, and you'll likely start losing weight."

The HAPIfork product website explains why it's important to eat slowly:

• Weight gain: as during the meal, satiety is felt after about 20 minutes. The faster you eat, the more you eat.
• Digestive problems: food that is eaten too quickly is often poorly chewed. The work of the digestive tract is made more difficult.
• Gastric reflux: several studies have shown that the faster one eats, the more likely the possiblity of gastric reflux.
• Postoperative complications: eating more slowly lessens the stress on weakened tissues.