The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, highlight how eating styles, and not just what or how much is eaten, can contribute to an obesity epidemic fueled by the spread of Western-style affluence in many parts of the world.

The World Health Organization classifies around 400 million people as obese, 20 million of them under the age of five. The condition raises the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart problems.

For their study, Hiroyasu Iso and colleagues at Osaka University asked more than 3,000 Japanese volunteers aged 30 to 69 about their eating. About half of the men and a little more than half of the women said they ate until full. About 45 percent of the men and 36 percent of the women said they ate quickly.

Those who said they ate until full and ate quickly were three times more likely to be fat than people in the "not eating until full and not eating quickly" group, the researchers found.

They cited as causes both the availability of cheap food in big portions and habits like watching television while eating.

To counteract the "supra-additive effect" of speedy or glut eating among children prone to obesity, parents should encourage them to eat slowly and in calm surroundings, the study found.

日本研究人员于本周三称，吃饭快且习惯吃到饱的人肥胖几率为细嚼慢咽者的三倍。如今，快餐的盛行和不规律的饮食习惯导致肥胖问题日益严重。

由于西式饮食的日益流行，肥胖正在世界很多地区蔓延。而该研究则主要探讨了饮食方式对于肥胖流行病的影响，这其中不仅包括吃什么和吃多少的问题。该研究结果在《英国医学期刊》上发表。

根据世界卫生组织的统计数据，目前全球约有4亿人存在肥胖问题，其中有两千万人为不满5岁的儿童。肥胖还会增加患二型糖尿病和心脏病等疾病的风险。

日本大阪大学的矶博康博士及其同事对3千多名志愿者的饮食习惯进行了调查，这些人的年龄年龄在30岁至69岁之间。其中约一半男性和略多于一半的女性称他们吃饭时习惯吃到饱，约45%的男性和36%的女性称自己吃饭很快。

研究人员发现，吃饭快且习惯吃到饱的人肥胖的几率为“细嚼慢咽且不吃那么饱”的人的三倍。

研究人员认为，导致肥胖的主要原因是大量廉价食品的流行和不良的进食习惯，比如吃饭时看电视。

研究指出，为了避免儿童吃饭过快或过量造成的“超相加效应”，家长应提醒孩子们在进食时细嚼慢咽，并让他们在安静的环境中进食。