The etiquette and hygiene of eating with your fingers
Health & Fitness By KEMI ILORI
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Human beings did not have eating implements from the word go. I am sure that our cave dwelling ancestors did not use cutleries. It is perhaps as a throw back from our original way of eating, that a large percentage of people feel more satisfied when eating with their bare hands. A lot of cultures, especially in Asia and Africa, eat with their bare hands as a matter of tradition.

History has it that even the English (Anglosaxons), were taught how to use eating implements by the Romans who colonized them. Indeed our very own outgoing President said that he enjoys his favourite food, pounded yam with egusi soup; when he eats it with his fingers and licks the fingers afterwards. What are the advantages, if any, of eating with our hands? What are the disadvantages? Is it accepted as being decent or bush and primitive?

These are question we will try to answer in this brief analysis.
Advantages: The fingers are very sensitive and help us to feel. When we eat with our fingers, we derive additional satisfaction because we are able to experience the texture of the food from feeling it. Our fingers are also adept at helping us to mould the food into a form that is comfortable for the mouth and throat to accept. You need to see the dexterity with which some people knead and mould a boulous of Eba (or other such solid food) before swallowing. The whole ceremony of processing food with our fingers before swallowing it, helps us to secret more digestive juice in the stomach in anticipation of the food that the mouth is about to receive.

This in turn, helps us to digest the food well. This is part of the reason why eating with the fingers is intensely satisfying. One of the advantages of eating with the fingers is that it acts as a temperature guide and a sorter. You are less likely to burn your mouth from hot food as your finger would have felt it. You can feel bones, stones, etc, and remove them.

The disadvantages of eating with your fingers can be viewed from a personal hygiene and etiquette perspective.

Personal hygiene demands that we wash our hands thoroughly before and after eating. A public hygiene joke says that a public worker was asked that what were the ten deadliest weapons? His answer was not guns or weapons of mass destruction, but hands “more specifically, the ten innocuous digits (fingers) that make up our hands”!

This is because the hands have the ability to habour dangerous germs which can cause life threatening diseases. Such germs include E. coli, shigella, salmonella, Staph. aureus, etc. We pick up these germs when we go to the toilet, handle money, touch doors of cars, buses, etc. Thorough, regular handwashing is very important for good health. Handwashing has been described as "the simplest of infection prevention practices, yet the most neglected" (Gruendemann & Mangum, 2001). People who eat with their fingers should preferably have short clipped fingernails. If fingernails are long, there is a tendency for them to habour germs that are difficult to wash off easily. A lot of people do not bother to wash their hands before putting things in their mouths with their bare hands. They may be lucky to get away with it, but it is better to err on the side of caution.

Etiquette: Table manners are the etiquette used when eating. This includes the proper use of utensils like forks, spoons, knives, etc. Different cultures have different standards for table manners. I had mentioned earlier that a lot of cultures in Africa and Asia, traditionally eat with their fingers. I believe that most of the 250 tribes in Nigeria have similar variations of eating with the hand. Most African cultures and some Asian cultures (like Indians, Malay, Pakistani), insist on the use of the right hand to eat. The Yoruba culture in Nigeria considers it an assault for you to eat with your left hand in the company of others! Except for the Chinese and Japanese whose etiquette is centred around the use of chopsticks, British and American table manners demand that you eat with cutlery (except finger foods like bread). All solid food must be carried to the mouth with a fork. Liquid foods are eaten with a spoon. Eating with your fingers in the traditional African way is strictly forbidden.

Whilst Western etiquette frowns on eating with the hands, religious etiquette seems to encourage it. It is interesting to note that the two major religions of Christianity and Islam encourage eating with the hands. I read that, Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "When a morsel of any of you falls, he should pick it up and remove any of the dirt on it and then eat it, and should not leave it for Satan nor should wipe his hand with towel until he has licked his fingers, for he does not know in what portion of the food the blessing lies.'' It may be argued that the use of cutlery was not established at that time. Notwithstanding, it is obvious that it was encouraged for people to enjoy eating with their hands.

From the foregoing, we can see that eating with the bare hands is good and accepted by a lot of cultures, but the proper hygiene of thoroughly washing one’s hands before and after food, must be strictly adhered to. It might however be insensitive to western hosts to eat with your hands when they entertain you. It is pleasant to note that Westerners visit countries where the table manners encourage eating with bare hands, they try to participate in the ritual. Human beings did not have eating implements from the word go. I am sure that our cave dwelling ancestors did not use cutleries. It is perhaps as a throw back from our original way of eating, that a large percentage of people feel more satisfied when eating with their bare hands.

A lot of cultures, especially in Asia and Africa, eat with their bare hands as a matter of tradition. History has it that even the English (Anglosaxons), were taught how to use eating implements by the Romans who colonized them. Indeed our very own outgoing President said that he enjoys his favourite food, pounded yam with egusi soup; when he eats it with his fingers and licks the fingers afterwards. What are the advantages, if any, of eating with our hands? What are the disadvantages? Is it accepted as being decent or bush and primitive?

These are question we will try to answer in this brief analysis.
Advantages: The fingers are very sensitive and help us to feel. When we eat with our fingers, we derive additional satisfaction because we are able to experience the texture of the food from feeling it. Our fingers are also adept at helping us to mould the food into a form that is comfortable for the mouth and throat to accept.

You need to see the dexterity with which some people knead and mould a boulous of Eba (or other such solid food) before swallowing. The whole ceremony of processing food with our fingers before swallowing it, helps us to secret more digestive juice in the stomach in anticipation of the food that the mouth is about to receive. This in turn, helps us to digest the food well. This is part of the reason why eating with the fingers is intensely satisfying. One of the advantages of eating with the fingers is that it acts as a temperature guide and a sorter. You are less likely to burn your mouth from hot food as your finger would have felt it. You can feel bones, stones, etc, and remove them.

The disadvantages of eating with your fingers can be viewed from a personal hygiene and etiquette perspective.

Personal hygiene demands that we wash our hands thoroughly before and after eating. A public hygiene joke says that a public worker was asked that what were the ten deadliest weapons? His answer was not guns or weapons of mass destruction, but hands “more specifically, the ten innocuous digits (fingers) that make up our hands”! This is because the hands have the ability to habour dangerous germs which can cause life threatening diseases. Such germs include E. coli, shigella, salmonella, Staph. aureus, etc. We pick up these germs when we go to the toilet, handle money, touch doors of cars, buses, etc. Thorough, regular handwashing is very important for good health. Handwashing has been described as "the simplest of infection prevention practices, yet the most neglected" (Gruendemann & Mangum, 2001).

People who eat with their fingers should preferably have short clipped fingernails. If fingernails are long, there is a tendency for them to habour germs that are difficult to wash off easily. A lot of people do not bother to wash their hands before putting things in their mouths with their bare hands. They may be lucky to get away with it, but it is better to err on the side of caution.

Etiquette: Table manners are the etiquette used when eating. This includes the proper use of utensils like forks, spoons, knives, etc. Different cultures have different standards for table manners. I had mentioned earlier that a lot of cultures in Africa and Asia, traditionally eat with their fingers. I believe that most of the 250 tribes in Nigeria have similar variations of eating with the hand. Most African cultures and some Asian cultures (like Indians, Malay, Pakistani), insist on the use of the right hand to eat.

The Yoruba culture in Nigeria considers it an assault for you to eat with your left hand in the company of others! Except for the Chinese and Japanese whose etiquette is centred around the use of chopsticks, British and American table manners demand that you eat with cutlery (except finger foods like bread). All solid food must be carried to the mouth with a fork. Liquid foods are eaten with a spoon. Eating with your fingers in the traditional African way is strictly forbidden. Whilst Western etiquette frowns on eating with the hands, religious etiquette seems to encourage it. It is interesting to note that the two major religions of Christianity and Islam encourage eating with the hands. I read that, Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "When a morsel of any of you falls, he should pick it up and remove any of the dirt on it and then eat it, and should not leave it for Satan nor should wipe his hand with towel until he has licked his fingers, for he does not know in what portion of the food the blessing lies.''

It may be argued that the use of cutlery was not established at that time. Notwithstanding, it is obvious that it was encouraged for people to enjoy eating with their hands. From the foregoing, we can see that eating with the bare hands is good and accepted by a lot of cultures, but the proper hygiene of thoroughly washing one’s hands before and after food, must be strictly adhered to. It might however be insensitive to western hosts to eat with your hands when they entertain you. It is pleasant to note that Westerners visit countries where the table manners encourage eating with bare hands, they try to participate in the ritual.