Why Indians Eat Their Food By Hand?
Do you ever wondered about why we Indians eat with our hands, while in many countries eating with hands considered as a bad manner. So whats the actual reason behind it.
Let’s first debunk some common myths about why Indians eat with their hands:
Indians didn’t have spoons?
It’s certainly not for a lack of spoons. Indians used spoons for religious rituals everyday and we had very cool looking spoons to boot:
Indians were too poor to afford utensils?
Even wealthy and middle class Indians eat with their hands, so it’s not because of poverty.
Indians were unaware of different cultures?
Indians were well travelled from ancient times with traders trading goods as far off as Egypt, Rome and China so they knew how nonIndians used to eat food with utensils.
So one can assume it was a deliberate decision. A well thought out decision.
Scientifically:
The hands are a major center for tactile sensations which are processed by the most advanced portion of the brain — the cortex. A more recent discovery is that tactile sensations also involve other portions of the brain to literally give us a 3D image of what we are touching — so it is no wonder that Indians who eat with their hands insist the food tastes much better this way! They are absolutely right!
This is called mindful eating my friends! Your whole mind is involved.
So Indians who eat with their hands get a multidimensional experience of their food which involves more of their brain than those who eat with utensils! Talk about flavor sensation!
So Indians who eat with their hands can rejoice! We get more bang for our buck thanks to touching our food! Others only get sight, smell and taste we Indians get:
- The sight of food
- The smell of food
- The texture/temperature of food with our bare hands. Like a palette of flavors and textures, we touch our food, we mix our food with various combinations, we mush our food with our hands, we mash our food with our hands….some us make little balls and other shapes with our hands….oh what fun! We feel and mix liquids with solids and things in between. Curds with lentils and rice, or chutni? Every time our brain is analyzing the food and textures and combinations and permutations of your favorite thali. Our hand is creating multidimensional tactile images of this food in our mind, anticipating the deliciousness (hopefully) to come.
- Than we get the flavor and texture with our lips, tongue.
Indian food is traditionally served in a thali like a palette of flavors and textures which we can combine in various combinations and permutations and get a different experience every time!
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