Dr Michelle Dickinson: Nanogirl on eating with your hands and chewing with your mouth open may improve food taste

This week we are chatting about science that I can't personally get involved with - the research that shows that touching your food with your hands then chewing it with your mouth open is the best way to eat! 

Professor Charles Spence from Oxford University came out with the statement which claims that this method maximises flavour and squeezes as much enjoyment out of a mouthful as possible. 

Now I was brought up to eat with my mouth closed for good manners, but Professor Spence claims that chewing open mouthed may actually help to release more of the volatile organic compounds such as esters, ketones, terpenoids and aldehydes which make up a dish’s characteristic aromas and flavours. With these aromatic compounds more likely to reach the pack of our nose when our mouths are open, he states that it will help contribute to our sense of smell, firing up the olfactory sensory neurons which heightens our experience of eating. 

He also insists that we should ditch the cutlery and instead just use our hands to eat.  The theory is that touch also plays a major part in how we enjoy what we eat and research shows that what you feel in the hand can change or bring out certain aspects of the tasting experience. 

Again, I'm just sharing the science, and not promoting it - but if you feel OK with touching your food and eating with your mouth open, then apparently you will having a much tastier experience than those of us sticking to our manners! 

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