i was a fast eater as a kid, then slowed right down in my late teens & twenties (probably from a fear of being perceived as a hog at the table). now, i'm a fast eater again.

i blame my boyfriend for the speed increase; he's the baby of eight kids and eats like he's never going to have another meal. i think i subconsciously sped up to keep pace with him.

I'm slow, my husband is fast -- I find it very antisocial and annoying -- he starts on dessert while I'm still on the main course! I like to chat, and he just eats...

The only roots to my childhood could be that we always talked over dinner at my house, and in his house, people ate, often at different times, often watching tv.

i think i'm usually a pretty fast eater. i get excited about eating and, like you said, keep wanting to take another bite.
i'm an only child but always ate dinner with my grandparents- and my grandfather is a lifelong firefighter, which means he eats like the alarm may sound at any moment to go on a run. I definitely eat slower than him, but usually faster than my friends.
Oh, and if I'm eating with people I don't know well or am uncomfortable with, I end up eating super fast to give my hands and mouth something to do.

I have the utmost admiration and respect for slow eaters. I wish I could get myself under control like that, but around good food, I sort of turn into a salivating, gobbling idiot.

Has anyone ever studied the relationship to eating pace and weight? Because it seems like slow eaters are almost always thin.

SLOW! I have an inflammatory bowel problem and fast eating aggravates it.

Actually, I believe I eat at a very steady pace, but that societally, we've been trained to inhale our food. It's all about a schedule rather than chewing, coming up for air, conversing, sipping some water...

Watching people slurp, smack, and all but swallow their plate really drives me nuts. One date with an inelegant eater, and I can entirely lose any attraction to him. Though that may sound overly picky, I'm a firm believer in letting lose in the privacy of your own home (eat over the sink! get that booger!), but come on, it's common courtesy to curb those less appetizing behaviors in public.

Sharing a meal isn't just about eating. If you can't slow down and enjoy it with me, then please go eat by yourself.

I'm on the faster side of things. I went to boarding school where we only had so much time for dinner, so I had to make sure I finished in time to go to study hall (boo). I don't shovel it, but I am quick!

Emily

no clue what pace I eat at, but I will say that whenever I'm hosting a dinner party I like to offer a break between dinner and dessert. I don't hold very formal dinner parties so I generally encourage guests to get up and stretch their legs and digest a bit before we move on to dessert. It also gives me time to clear the table and load the dishwasher.

This actually just came up this weekend when I was around family.. I'm a fast eater, and apparently all of my cousins are too! So that says something for it running in the family!

I have a weird thing about having my mouth full of good food. I want the biggest bite I can get if it's something I really like.. if the first bite wasn't big enough, I can't wait to try again on the next bite! I know.. weird. But I just have this mental thing about wanting my mouth to be full of the flavour! If it's a combination of flavours, it's even worse - I want to have the right combination of each thing AND the most of it!

I used to be pretty self conscious about eating fast.. people always comment if you're always the first to finish. And I still am a little. But for the most part, I just accept it - I'm Alison, and I'm a fast eater!

(Oh and someone mentioned a link to weight.. I'd believe that - my cousin & I both agree that we eat fast so we can fit it all in before we get full! haha)

I'm 10 of 11 children so common wisdom says I would be a fast eater but not true. My parents made us learn good table manners. These include enjoying your meal, sparkling conversation (swear my Mother's words) and sitting at the table until everyone was finished.
It is aggravating to eat with gobblers as there is pressure to either hurry or stop eating when they are done.
I'm with akay do whatever you want in privacy of your own home but when eating with a group - relax and enjoy each other's company and the meal.

I eat VERY slow (it's a medical thing/weird) and I have a father-in-law who unceremoniously clears the entire table (my plate included) after a meal at his home. Or should I say "during" a meal at his home. It is so incredibly rude - he's aware of the reason I need to eat quite slow, but I suppose he's practically pushing us out the door anyway, so who really cares. I don't mind eating dinner while everyone's on dessert... just don't pull my plate out from under me, ya' know?

My boyfriend and I are slow eaters. Usually when eating with others, we're the last ones finished, by far! Luckily, though, we keep a similar pace with each other. I can't speak for him, but personally, I like to take small bites, and I love savoring each one.

Drinking, though, I am pretty fast with, especially in a social gathering. And if I don't know people that well, I have to really pace myself!

http://www.abreadaday.com

It depends on how hungry I am.

I eat slowly. I always have. It is because I have a talking problem. Meaning, I talk too much during meals. Also, we ate as a family and didn't have a tv on.

Actually, it has turned into a good thing because my boyfriend and I make a big deal out of eating dinner together each night, enjoying the food, and chatting.

Thanks, Alexis, your comment is so refreshing! I hate hearing people offer the big family excuse. Size of family alone does not dictate manners.

A couple posters here make an excellent point -- social nervousness can definitely prompt a person to eat and drink more quickly than they would ordinarily. However, if you're relaxed and at ease, eat that way.

I eat slow in order to enjoy the meal. Growing up my family always had a sit-down meal during the week where we would talk and catch up with everyone. So I'm used to sitting at the dinner table for at least an hour. My boyfriend on the other hand eats very quickly. It actually makes me angry when he's done with his meal as I'm bringing mine to the table. I enjoy the whole eating/talking ritual of eating, and when that's taken away the meal feels cheap in some way.

It really depends for me where I'm at and the company I am in while eating. I try to eat at a more leisurely pace but unfortunatley, with a toddler, that isn't always possible.

I eat fast probably. My husband eats slow and it sort of grosses me out sometimes. I like to eat things at the right temperature - if you eat too slow things get cold (or warm) and that totally grosses me out.

I eat quickly and I'm the middle child. My older brother eats at a glacial pace. I think I eat quickly because I'm impatient, keep wanting to eat more, etc... I've been desperately trying to slow down when I eat so I don't overeat and enjoy my food, but it doesn't always work.

I have friends who are slow eaters who move at a glacial pace in general. Incredibly frustrating when you're trying to make a movie or an appointment or leave for whatever and they're impossible to motivate. Makes me feel like a yappy dog or something.

I'm a slow eater on my own. At dinner parties, I try to match the pace of the host or hostess. I think that stemmed from Cotillion.

The moment I became a mom, I became a fast eater. I could wolf down the most delicious meal before my husband even sits down to eat. It's hard for me to slow it down and let the flavors mingle, because while I eat, I have to prevent an over zealous toddler from throwing his food on the floor/at me/on the table/down his pants.....Umm....yeah....

i inhale my food. oldest of four kids - there was little talking at the dinner table and much eating. my husband insists that i ate an entire hamburger without once putting it down on the plate on our first date. i'm not sure i'm that bad...

I'm a fast eater - fastest in my immediate family, but my husband is the fastest eater I have ever met. He leaves me eating in the dust.

I prefer people to eat at the same pace when eating together. Whatever pace that might be. I find it awkward when dishes are cleared when people are still eating.

I eat slowly, I think it annoys my coworkers at lunch.

I'm a fast eater, and get teased about it all the time by my husband. For me, it totally got hardwired in childhood. My stepmother gave us 20 mins to finish dinner, and then she'd start clearing the table, regardless of whether our plates were empty! Consequently, I learned to pack a lot of food into 20 mins! I find I have to consciously try to slow down sometimes. Eating with friends where there is more conversation also helps!

Medium? Though I go a lot slower when I'm having a meal with others because of conversation.

I'm such a slow eater, and it really annoys my friends who usually finish five minutes before me. If I'm the main person talking, it takes me even longer. In first grade I rarely saw recess because I'd take so long eating and talking.

I'm a slow eater. It takes me forever to finish a meal, especially when I'm having a mealtime conversation. My husband, family and friends don't mind, some of them eat slowly too.

I'm a very slow eater and take very small bites. I like to appreciate the flavor of the meal and the occassion to nourish my body. I alway work a perplexing crossword puzzle (diagramless) while I eat, so that challenge makes a meal take a long time. However, if I have the train to catch and I'm running late, the meal gets inhaled or I miss the connections. So I'm slow by choice, but as a kid, it was get the meal down and then back to the ballgames outside.

this may sound odd but..I give myself a time frame, 30 minutes for a meal, unless of course I'm out for dinner then I don't really care. My boyfriend however, is Mr. Speed Eater.

I'm a fast eater but that comes down to childhood. "It's my parents fault!"...Mom was often nagging about issues or things I should do or why this and why that so I guess I just took the habit of finishing up quickly :-/

I have always been a slow eater. I remember my mother telling me to chew everything 32 times to ensure proper digestion, but that's not the reason why. I don't know the reason, and it's unnerving sometimes to be the last person at the table still eating. It's not a race, I know, but it's to the point where I have to ask my fellow diners if they're in a hurry or if they have time to wait for me to finish. If they are in a hurry, I'll either get the rest to go or leave it behind. If they can wait, I'll continue to take my time. I rarely have indigestion, and strangely, no one complains either.

If you are concerned with proper etiquette then you should be pacing yourself the others at the table. Whether that means speeding up or slowing down. I only really put this into practice at dinner parties or when eating with a large group.

I think I tend to eat too fast, but I know several people who eat faster than I do. I try to slow my eating down most of the time. I think it's healthier to eat slower.

i realized this morning that i eat SUPER fast. i was watching the news and they announce what time it is during their program. Well between it coming on and the traffic report i had polished off my breakfast. i didn't think anything of it till she said the time, it had only been like 3 minutes!!!
I partially blame morning rush and poor habits. I have 4 brothers and it was insane trying to eat with them around. My poor mom would cook all day and then we'd sit down to eat dinner and polish everything off in 20 minutes.

I'm a fast eater, and it stems from childhood. My elementary school had 50 minutes for lunch/recess -- and as soon as you finished your lunch, you could have recess for the rest of the time. We usually tried to wolf down our food in 5-7 minutes so we could have lots of play time.

It's really hard for me to slow down and savor food, still. There's this sense of better things to do once the food is eaten.

@brianmac - Is it because you won't stop hogging the conversation or are you just taking pauses and enjoying the food?

I hate having lunch with one person in particular because we can barely get her to shut up to get OUT OF THE CAR to get inside the restaurant. Then she yaps at us (about herself) while we all half-listen and peruse the menu. We once left her while she was still eating because we absolutely HAD to get back to the office, and she didn't.

I'm a meduim eater, if the conversation is evenly distributed. If someone is boring or I disagree with them I eat faster to get done and get away.

But yes, school limits on how much time you had to eat, and even work lunch limits, influence how fast I have to eat. When you know getting to a place to eat can take 20 minutes round trip, that only gives you 40 minutes to get in, order, eat, wait for a check, and get out. Not a lot of time for fun.

I'm a fast eater compared to friends and co-workers in social situations. I was always the slowest eater in my family so my parents would always urge me to hurry up. To this date, they still eat much faster than I do. I didn't realize I was a fast eater until I went to college.

Recently I had dinner with a friend and I finished my salad in five minutes, while she finished hers in just over an hour.

Ugh, what is it with parents/in-laws clearing the table while people are still eating? That's egregious.

SuSi, chew 32 times!? I've never heard of that. Wouldn't that take forever? I think I would give up after 2 bites.

My ex-flatmate practically inhaled his food without chewing. It was barbaric and disgusting and I would always lose my appetite when he was eating. I strive to just eat at a normal, calm pace as I was always told fast eating is poor manners and slow eating is arrogance.

like nibblenosh I became a fast eater when I became a mum. I and my husband would eat in shifts so wolfing down my dinner to placate a screaming baby became the norm.
And then it became shovelling in your usually cold food while feeding a toddler and keeping said food off floor/other people/walls/your own clothing.

Additionally, if there's a sharing plate my husband's concept of sharing is rather different to mine, so I have to keep up with him to get a look in!