Making a gulping sound when swallowing can be rather embarrassing, especially if it happens while you are eating out with friends or colleagues! And naturally, if it happens, we want to know what causes those sounds and what we can do to stop sounding like this.
So in this article we prepared a detailed explanation for you about the most common causes of loud swallowing. You will also learn how you could keep the swallowing noises under control.
How to Chew And Swallow Quietly?
If you want to learn how to chew and swallow food so that the process does not produce too loud sounds and you don’t attract other people’s attention to yourself, you can use several easy tips that will allow you to do that. Some of them are well-known. For instance, your parents definitely used to tell you that you should chew your food slowly and properly at the table! But of course, this is not the only rule of thumb for quiet eating.
Loud gulping can be fine if we are home alone and nobody hears us. Or, at least, if our family members do not mind hearing such noises. However, such loud sounds can be rather embarrassing if we are at the dinner party or eating out with our date.
This is why so many people who want to behave properly at the table are wondering about the ways they can learn to eat quietly. And indeed, there are a few easy to use rules that can help you to sound less loudly when you eat.
How to Chew More Quietly?
If you want to learn how to swallow food quietly, try to follow several easy tips we suggest. First of all, try to eat slowly. It will not only allow you to chew the food more thoroughly. By eating without a hurry, you will be able to enjoy its taste at a completely new level.
Of course, anything can happen and, if you had a long and tough day at work and you are hungry as a wolf, it’s ok to eat quickly, maybe without even bothering much with proper chewing. Come on, we have all been there at least once! But this way of behavior is fine only if you are at home and other people don’t see you.
There is one more trick that can help you eat quietly. Simply try to avoid noisy food! All those crackers, chips, apples, carrots tend to create quite a loud noise when you bite them and chew. Of course, you must not exclude such foods completely, but at least, try to decrease the intake. Also, if you cut the veggies or fruit into smaller pieces, it will allow you to make less noise when eating them.
One of the oddest tricks you can do to chew less loudly is to…close your eyes! See, if we shut off one sense, others compensate. So if we “get rid” of our eyesight, we will be able to enjoy the taste of food better and thus bring down the chewing noises.
Avoiding alcohol while eating can also help. When we drink more than a glass or two, we tend to feel too uninhibited and thus we can ignore the basic rules of proper behavior.
How to Drink Without Gulping?
Drinking sound, if it is loud, can attract attention and irritate even worse than the loud chewing! Fortunately, there are simple recommendations on how to stop gulping loudly when you drink something.
- Don’t drink when you are out of breath
- Drink with small sips
- Don’t eat anything while drinking
- Drink slowly
- Try not to get too thirsty since it will make you gulp when drinking
With that in mind, you will be able to enjoy any drink when eating out and do it elegantly and in a well-behaved manner.
Why Do We Hate When Throat Makes Noise When Swallowing?
Well, all right, let’s be honest: not all of us literally hate other people’s swallowing sounds. Quite many of us take it easy when we hear others chewing or swallowing louder than usual. However, we are pretty sure you know those who can’t stand any loud man-made sounds. For such people, listening to someone’s chewing noises can be extremely irritating!
But what causes such an attitude, you may wonder? First of all, before we try to answer this question, we need to note that being disturbed and irritated by the loud sounds is in fact completely normal.
There are quite many people who don’t like hearing drilling sounds, or the sound of a baby crying. Some of us simply hate loud music or the sounds of our neighbors arguing next door. But, as you have probably noticed, all of these sounds are pretty loud being, in fact, much louder than the average level of noise we hear every day.
This is why irritation caused by chewing may look so unusual. Why, the sounds of swallowing are way less loud tha, for instance, the sound of a car passing by or the noise that a barking dog causes! And indeed, for most people, chewing noises are blended with the background sounds so that they simply pay no attention to them.
However, if chewing sounds and other man-made noises make you not just constantly irritated but they also cause a strong emotional response, it can be considered a sort of disorder. Such a state is called misophonia which can literally be translated from Greek as “hating sounds‘.
Those who suffer from misophonia may react quite strongly to various man-made noises like chewing or swallowing sounds. Among the possible reactions we can name anxiety, discomfort, or even disgust. In extreme cases, a person can even experience panic attacks, fear, emotional distress, and uncontrollable rage!
What can cause such reactions? Well, basically anything from chewing and swallowing to breathing, sighing, finger tapping, whistling, yawning, and other sounds that people make.
So now you have learned what makes us swallow drinks and chew foods loudly. And since you are now aware of how this can be avoided, we are sure that loud chewing or gulping will not bother you (or people around you) anymore.
But of course, if you are extremely thirsty or hungry, don’t bother sounding a bit louder than usual! We are all humans and we must not behave ideally all the time.
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