This holiday season like every other, I will walk into my sister-in-law’s kitchen. I will see the enemy. And the enemy will be mine.

Unfortunately, the enemy is a cookie—and it has friends.

Every year, my sister-in-law goes to a small local bakery and buys Christmas cookies I seem to find irresistible. Why oh why can’t she just buy Oreos? I can resist Oreos. But just because I indulge in some of these lovely bakery treats doesn’t mean they have to immediately attach themselves to my buttocks.

According to research recently reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, one key to eating what you like without gaining weight is to ingest food slowly. When you eat too fast, says Greek researcher Alexander Kokkinos, you inhibit the release of the hormones that induce feelings of fullness.

The perils of speed eating

“Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion,” he says. “Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating.”

The researchers tested healthy men eating the same meal at different rates of speed. By checking blood samples for different levels of gut hormones, they discovered those eating at a moderate pace experienced a more pronounced appetite-reduction response than those eating at a fast pace.

So the notion that eating fast can make you fatter isn’t an urban legend after all. Now if I can just persuade myself to take it slow and easy with those cookies …