Happiness eating with your hands 

To talk about the goodness and the increasing consensus that finger foods are obtaining among contemporary consumers, i.e. those foods in small single portions eaten without the use of cutlery, we want to start from the importance of the sense of "touch" for the perception of emotions and taste.

It was once thought that touch was man's most "intimate" sense. Today, many scientists even consider it fundamental, because it is the only one capable of perceiving mechanical stimuli. Touch is the first sense that develops in humans. Most mankind, for practical reasons, eats with their hands. The use of the spoon and the knife date back to the birth of civilization, that of the fork can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The culture of limiting direct contact between hands and food as much as possible was codified in the sixteenth century with etiquette. Touching a food reconnects us to our primary need for survival, and eating with our hands is a way of grasping the soul of food. Starting with the first forms of biscuits, biscuits or sweets, finger foods have historically represented a sublime form of the art of communication. During the famous banquets and banquets of the Roman Imperial era, people ate lying down leaning on their left elbow and nibbling the food with their right hand, in a position that today we would find very uncomfortable, but which had a double advantage: it allowed them to ingest a greater quantity of food and allowed the guests who were overly satiated to doze off between one course and another. This particular posture, however, made it virtually impossible to use cutlery that requires the use of both hands: the food arrived already cut into small pieces by slaves called "scissores", and only spoons (ligulae or cochlearia) find a certain frequency of use, used to collect sauces and farinata.

However, preparing finger food does not have to be a trivial and serial gesture. Like the foods presented at imperial banquets, those prepared for a dinner or banquet must have three characteristics: goodness, healthiness, beauty.

The first stems from the excellence of the basic products;

the second is attention to the preparations, which, unlike the ancient Roman ones, must be light and easily digestible; the third is generated by easy-to-use tools that are beautiful to look at and hold.

I conclude by revisiting a famous quote by Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: "The discovery of a new finger food benefits humanity more than the discovery of a new star".

WHY IS EATING WITH YOUR HANDS GOOD FOR YOU?

Do you remember when you were a child and told not to eat with your hands? Well, perhaps it was not a completely "healthy" teaching! It seems, in fact, that according to research by the University of Nottingham, eating with the hands is not only a good habit during the first years of life, but can even be good for the health of the little ones. Why? Let's find out together! That's right: research from the University of Nottingham, published in the British Medical Journal, argues that getting children used to eating with their hands would affect their future relationship with food. In fact, research has shown that replacing baby food and baby food with small pieces of food during weaning can help children maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle even in adulthood. In light of this, the kitchen environment could be transformed into a real playful and educational place: in addition to cooking with children, you could in fact think of leaving them free to interact with food in a natural and spontaneous way.

During the research, researchers at the University of Nottingham monitored 155 children between the ages of 20 months and 6.5 years during their weaning period. Of these, 63 were fed with the classic baby food, while the remaining 92 were able to eat small pieces of carbohydrates and proteins with their hands. Both groups were then offered sweets, carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables. While the second group preferred carbohydrates, the choice of the first group was directed towards sweets. According to the researchers, offering children reduced portions of carbohydrates and protein in the style of finger food would increase their awareness of food. It would teach them the nutritional value of food, so as to ensure a balanced relationship with nutrition and avoid the development of eating disorders during growth. This is because, according to research, those who are used to eating baby food and smoothies do not perceive the caloric value of the food ingested and are led to eat it in larger quantities, especially if it is rich in sugar.

And you, what do you think of this research? Would you train your children to eat with their hands? Let me know what you think in a comment!