Eating manners depends upon the nature of the food we eat. We can’t have a soup with our bare hands or the south Indian meals like rice and curry using cutlery, meanwhile eating with a spoon isn’t a novelty, even our grandparents had also used a spoon, made out of metals, wood, or even leaves.
The tradition of eating with hand is mainly followed in certain countries of South Asia.
According to the Vedic tradition, our fingers are deeply connected with certain elements of the earth. Ring finger-earth, thumb-fire, index finger-air, small finger-water, and the middle finger-space, hence it is believed that when we eat food using our hand, we are actually combining all the mentioned elements.
Benefits of eating with hands
Your hand has got the superpower to commence and aid the digestion process!
Before having food with your hands make sure that it is clean. Wash your hands with a mild anti-bacterial soap for at least 20 seconds and also remind yourself not to touch on any other surfaces after washing.
Flora on the skin
The environment inside our mother’s womb is sterile, which means our body is free of microbes and bacteria, but during and after birth we are colonized with lots of microbes. Many of them are beneficial for our health and these are called normal flora or microbiota. There are two types of flora, transient, and resident. Transient flora includes bacteria, fungi, and viruses, which reach the hands by direct skin-to-skin contact or indirectly via objects. When we eat with hands it is swallowed and is beneficial for the health of various body parts such as the mouth, throat, and intestine, and also promotes healthy digestion in the gut. Resident flora is microorganisms that usually occupy a particular body site.
Mindful eating
Eating with your hands requires the presence of mind, therefore it leads to ‘mindful eating’ because mindless eating is the main reason for weight gain. Eating with hand is always entitled as ‘slow’, therefore it does have some benefits, our hands can also be used as a rough guide to control food portions to stay healthy.
Thermal sensor
Eating too hot food might burn your tongue and irritate the lining of the throat and esophagus, your hands have that stimulus to save your tongue and throat from getting burnt!
Eating is a great art in which you can use all your senses! Either you can use your hand or the cutlery, but make sure it is clean ultimately.