Eating food with forks and spoons has become the norm in our culture. Eating any other way is considered unhygienic or even primitive.  We try teaching our children how to use utensils early on and make sure to scold them when they “pick” at their food with their fingers.

But if you’ve ever been to India, you’ll notice that everyone eats with their hands – those remarkable set of eating utensils that we’re gifted with at birth. In some households, it is considered disrespectful to NOT eat with your hands. So you’ll see the 2 year old, the 30 year old, and even the 70 year old all eating with their hands and licking their fingers afterwards! So how did this custom arise and is there anything beneficial about it?

The Ayurveda POV

Ayurveda recommends eating with the hands over the use of utensils.  There is a lot of power that lies within the hands. It is considered the main organ of action for performing one’s Dharma (duty).  Many Hindus have been taught from an early age to do the following prayer while gazing at their hands immediately upon waking up. Even baby V, who’s only 18 months knows to gaze at his hands every time I sing the prayer to him after he wakes up.

“Karagre Vasate Lakshmi, 

Karamule Saraswati,

Karamadhye tu Govinda,

Prabhate Karadarshanam.”

This essentially translates to:  on the tip of the fingers resides the Goddess of Wealth (Lakshmi), on the base of the hand resides the Goddess of Knowledge (Saraswati) and in the center of the hand lies Lord Krishna (Govinda).

This prayer implies that all actions performed with the hands should have a touch of divinity to them.

This doesn’t just go for working and earning a living, but also for eating! The act of eating is one of the most divine because the food we eat is an offering to our digestive fire. This sustains our life.

In Ayurveda, we believe that our bodies are a microcosm of the macrocosm, nature so the same elements that make up nature are found within our bodies as well. So each of our fingers is considered an extension of the five elements of nature. Through the thumb comes fire, through the index finger comes air, through the middle finger comes space, through the ring finger comes earth, and through the pinky comes water.

In this way, each of the 5 fingers aid in the transformation of food before it even enters the gastrointestinal tract.

In meditation and yoga, there is a practice of using “mudras” or specific hand gestures to channel the body’s “prana” (life energy). In the same way, joining all of the fingers together when eating is said to improve mindfulness and is considered equivalent to yoga for our mind. Touching food with the fingers activates the millions of nerve endings in the hands allowing us to physically and spiritually connect. Signals are sent to the mouth and stomach to prepare for digestion as we experience the temperature and the texture of the food we are about to consume.

One task at a time

Messy hands means it’s harder to grab that phone, type on the laptop, or even flip the channels on TV. No texting, emailing, or watching TV while eating. You’re forced to sit and focus on one activity rather than multi-tasking. This creates more awareness within our minds allowing our bodies to properly digest and absorb nutrients from the food we are eating. Ayurveda believes that at times, how you eat is more important than what you eat. How many of us take lunch break while sitting at our desks replying to emails? It might be time to make a change.

Hygiene

“You don’t know where your hands have been?”

Regardless of where they’ve been, we have unlimited water and plenty of bathrooms and sinks to wash our hands in before using them to eat.

Research shows that “good” bacteria resides on our hands, mouth, throat, and the entire gastrointestinal tract. You may have heard about the skin micro-biome. Eating with our hands allows the good bacteria to enter into our body thus protecting us from the bad stuff. So it’s actually hygienic to eat with our hands (as long as you’ve washed the bad bacteria off!) 🙂

So Embrace It.

If you’ve never tried eating food with your hands, now is a good time to give it a try! You’ll notice that the food tastes better and the entire experience is enhanced!

Some tips on eating with your hands:

• Try to eat with just one hand as you’ll need the other hand to serve yourself more food or to have a sip of water
• Only your fingers should be used, the palms should remain clean. Use your fingers to make a bite sized ball and then use your thumb to plop it into your mouth.
• Don’t eat when you’re upset, angry, distracted, or immediately after working out.
• Try to sit cross-legged while eating. This posture assists with digestion.
• Chew each bite of food at least 40 times!

Eating with your hands is not only fun but also therapeutic– so roll up your sleeves, wash your hands, and dig in!

Namaste.