You’ve been taught proper table manners since a young age, but has anyone ever taught you the right way to chew and swallow food? Yes, there is a right way to do it! And you’re about to sink your teeth into it.
If you’re already practicing mewing but struggle with chewing and drinking – you should definitely try our #1 custom mewing program. It’ll teach you the proper mewing technique and help you skyrocket your results.
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🔎 Revealed on this page:
- 📖Reasoning for why you can’t chew, eat and drink properly while doing mewing exercises.
- 📝 Tips on how to chew, eat and drink while mewing and in general.
- 👀Loads of diagrams on correct mewing and eating styles.
Hungry for more?
Let’s dig in!
Reasons Why You Can’t Chew, Eat, Drink While Mewing
Mewing is the method of learning correct tongue posture by placing the tongue on the roof of your mouth while resting. It helps resolve health and aesthetic concerns, such as mouth breathing, sleep apnea, receding chin, crooked teeth, and facial symmetry.
But tongue position isn’t the only thing you need to learn while mewing. You can check our mewing tutorial anytime, but first, let’s look at the usual mistakes most people make when eating.
1. Body and Proper Head Posture
It is important to have proper posture to ensure good food ingestion and digestion. So keep an upright position and don’t slouch over the table.
When you’re hunched, it affects not only your spine and joints but also the internal organs. You develop poor eating skills, and there is a high risk of aspiration.
2. Open-mouth Chewing
Chewing with your mouth closed is not only good manners. It is closely related to nasal breathing, occlusion, and jaw movement.
If you chew with your mouth open, you will worsen the problem with mouth breathing and jaw posture and negatively affect the jawline and the digestive system.
3. Using Lips and Cheeks to Push Food
It’s important to know how to swallow correctly while mewing.
Not mewing properly means using your lips and cheeks to push the food toward the throat. So, by learning to keep the right tongue position, you’ll train it to manipulate food in the mouth and towards the esophagus.
It is always better to be safe than sorry, so check the complete list of mewing mistakes before we proceed with the mewing exercises.
How to Chew While Mewing Diagram
The first thing about correct chewing is to take up proper head posture. You should be sitting in an upright position and tuck your chin slightly during chewing. Basically:
- Close your mouth.
- Chew using your back teeth.
- Molars should come in contact with every bite.
- Chew evenly on both sides.
- Move the jaw to the sides and up and down.
Drinking While Mewing Diagram
Proper tongue posture is also crucial for correct drinking while mewing. Have your body upright and chin slightly tucked, but also:
- Keep the lips together.
- Press the tip of the tongue to the hard palate behind the front teeth.
- Put your teeth together.
- Lift the entire tongue to the roof of your mouth.
- Push the liquid down the throat.
- Be mindful of the posterior third part of the tongue and lift it to give the final push.
- Breathe through the nasal passage.
It is essential to learn how to breathe when mewing so you can do all the other exercises properly.
How to Eat or Drink While Mewing
There are several exercises designed to make you become aware of what is happening in your mouth and how to eat, drink and chew correctly. Note that doing them properly will affect your facial structure.
Cheesy Swallow
The cheesy swallow exercise will train you to stop using your lips and cheeks to push the food because that activates the buccinator muscles. Their overuse leads to puffier cheeks giving you a bloated look.
This exercise will teach you not to use them to move your food around the mouth.
- Take a small amount of water.
- Put the tip of the tongue on the end part of the palate, behind the upper teeth. It should not be touching the teeth but resting on the smooth surface just between the teeth and the rough part of the palate.
- Do a cheesy smile.
- Try to swallow while retaining the smile.
- Push your tongue up to cover the whole hard palate.
- Do not move your lips or cheeks.
- Only use your tongue, and do not activate any other muscles in your face.
- Swallow hard and push the liquid or food down your throat.
Correct Tongue Posture: The Tongue Sweep
The sweep exercise will show you how to move the tongue upward and become aware that you can’t drink properly without using the resting position as a starter.
- Take a sip of water.
- Close your teeth together.
- Pull your tongue back and do a wave action.
- Lift the water up to the palate.
- And swallow.
Tongue Chewing
This technique trains you to only use the masseter muscles instead of the buccinator muscles. The masseter muscle stretches from your cheekbone to your jaw, and it’s the main muscle for chewing.
- Use your back teeth.
- Chew evenly on both sides.
- Make sure the food is mushy before swallowing.
- Keep your mouth closed.
- Maintain proper body posture while chewing. You can tuck your chin towards the neck a bit.
The Chewing Gum Exercise
This exercise will teach you where exactly the tongue should be placed during eating and resting as well. Here’s how:
- Form a ball.
- Press it to the hard palate.
- Flatten it with your tongue.
- Pick it with the tip of the tongue and push forward to stretch it.
- Your tongue will get into a perfect mewing position.
You can use regular chewing gum, mastic gum, or falim gum.
What Should Chewing or Drinking Feel Like?
Learning how to chew while mewing is highly important if you want to keep good oral health. Drinking and chewing while mewing should not exert the jaw too much. However, if done right, you should feel a slight pressure in the middle of the face, jaw, and chin.
3 Tips to Better Chewing or Drinking in General
Correct chewing and drinking are crucial for the health of your digestive system. But there are other things you can be mindful of to have a strong stomach.
1. Chew 32 Times
Digestion begins in the mouth, so allow your food to be infused with the enzymes that will begin to break down the nutrients.
2. Maintain Dental Health
Have regular dental check-ups to avoid tooth decay, and try to keep your teeth in the best condition possible with regular brushing and flossing.
3. Do Physical Exercise
Regular exercise and a healthy diet will help maintain your overall health and keep your weight in check.
