Many a woman has watched in disbelief as their partner inhales their food minutes after sitting down to dinner.

Now Korean researchers have discovered why: men and women actually chew differently. Men take larger, more powerful bites - meaning they finish eating more quickly - while women chew each individual mouthful more times - taking longer to finish eating their meal.

The researchers recruited 24 male and 24 female undergraduates from the Semyung University in South Korea, where they are based.

In order to analyse each individual’s chewing pattern, they hooked electrodes up to their jaws and fed them 152g of boiled white rice, Past Magazine reports.

They documented the size of people’s bites, total chewing time per mouthful of food, total number of chews and how long it took the person to eat the entire meal.

There was a large variation between men and women on every parameter, they found.

Men typically take larger bites with more ‘chewing power’, which means they consume their meal more quickly than women.

Though women were found to have the same chewing pace as men, they chewed each mouthful more times, slowing down the total time it took them to eat their meal.

The study was published in the January issue of the Physiology and Behaviour journal.

It flies in the face of an earlier study, by researchers at Nippon Dental University’s Department of Partial and Complete Denture, in Japan, which found no difference in how the sexes chewed gum.

Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University said there was not only a difference in how the sexes chew, but between different types of people.

People with ‘type A’ personalities - typically fast moving, impatient and ambitious people - tend to eat quickly.Conversely, ‘type B’ characters - who are generally more laid back, considered and approach things at a slower pace - will relish their mealtimes, Prof. Cooper said.

His observation comes after actress and model Gwyneth Paltrow, revealed during her 20s she followed a macrobiotic diet, during which chewed her food at least 50 times per swallow.

This was thought to aid digestion, and means the stomach sends signals to the brain indicating it is satisfied, making a person feel fuller sooner, and eat less calories overall.

On average, it is said we chew 800 to 1,400 times a day.