It finally struck me a few days back as to why some of us tend to rush through eating.
I realized that the full intensity of flavor is only available in the first bite. Bite two, it diminishes. Bite three, it is even lesser and then some more. So, if you are the patient kind who takes thirty-two bites per mouthful, then Bite#32 is probably a bland cousin of Bite#1, virtually unrecognizable in flavor, texture, etc. As the mind senses that the food is gradually becoming less flavorful (read tasty), it prompts the hand to push in another spoonful (or forkful or handful) of food into the mouth. Thus, it so happens that even before you finish up the first mouthful of food, you have started on the second. And so on.
It says a lot about how sensitive the mind is to sensation, how it is always looking to be stimulated, and how it desires new experiences (sensory or otherwise).
It takes restraint and maturity to patiently chomp your way through thirty-two bites of food.