[posts]


Fletcherism
by Asterion
01 AUG 2025

Starting this past week, I've been experimenting with something called Fletcherism. The idea is to chew food to liquefaction before swallowing, which is said to aid digestion, improve nutrient absorption, and promote overall health. The guy who invented this was something of a quack. He obsessively studied his own... solid waste, and tried promoting his dietary practices to starving Belgians in WW1. But looking at the core of his ideas and ignoring the rest, there is actually some merit to it. When he died, he gave a message to humanity which outlined 3 rules:


1. Eat only when you have a good appetite.
2. Chew the food like pulp and drink that pulp. Do not swallow food.
3. Drink all the liquids and liquid food sip by sip. Do not drink in gulps.


Rule 1 is, if I recall, the premise of intuitive eating. But chewing the texture out of your food also makes you mindful of what you're eating, makes you feel full faster, helps you actually enjoy your food, and (maybe) strengthens your jaw. There's quite a few things I'd put here if I didn't care about boring people with lists like I used to.

Something I've noticed in the last 3-4 days of my experiment is that I'm hungry a lot less often than I expected. Without breakfast or lunch, I'm only mildly hungry throughout the day, and I usually only need dinner by the end of it. I've snacked much less often since starting. What foods I do consume are mostly simple and nutrient-rich, like meat, eggs, cheese, milk, fruit, etc. My intake of grains and sugar is very low, and in the future I hope to stop it entirely. I recently found out about the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws by Mark Sisson also, which I think I'll make a post on here soon.

I will weigh myself weekly every Sunday, and post the results of my experiment on January 1, 2026.