All of Asia, Africa, even South and Central America... The whole world eats with their hands and wonders at Europeans pretending to enjoy playing around with cutlery. In their eyes, we're just showing off and acting fancy where it isn’t necessary.
Why?
Eating is a complex process involving all our senses. Only when all the senses are satisfied will you be truly content. Eating definitely involves sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Yes, you read that right: touch is one of the key and basic experiences developed by humans since ancient times. Touching food with your hands gives your brain complete information about the food you’re eating.
The touch of food is essential for perceiving its temperature. It is also very important for sensing softness and freshness. Touch during eating is therefore crucial, and it’s not right to give priority to cutlery. Of course, it is very important to thoroughly wash your hands before eating.
Besides, the Ayurvedic holistic approach to human health has attributed extraordinary importance to hands for thousands of years. In Ayurveda, hands are the most important natural sensors. The thumb is associated with the universe, the index finger with air, the middle finger with fire, the ring finger with water, and the little finger with earth.
Lastly, findings from a study first conducted in 1938 and repeated on a much larger scale in 2009, this time under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO). They analyzed the bacteria people ingest during meals (with 18,000 participants from 92 countries) and found that while it's true our hands have significantly more bacteria, these are mostly ones the human digestive system is resistant to. The studies showed that much more problematic bacteria are found on poorly cleaned cutlery. As proof of this, there’s the epidemic of stomach flu that occurs in Western countries at intervals every 7 years, with the WHO identifying insufficient cleanliness of restaurants as the main reason for the spread of infection.
Therefore: next time you see someone eating with their hands, don’t judge them, instead, join them.
Date: 06/01/2026 - GOOD TO KNOW
Is it really rude and ill-mannered to eat with your hands?
AUTHOR:
Have you ever wondered why the vast majority of people eat with their hands? Do you really think they do it just because they're ill-mannered and so poor that they can’t even afford cutlery?
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Eating with hands
Cultural dining habits
Ayurvedic health benefits
Handwashing before eating
Bacteria on cutlery vs hands
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