Chewing with Your Mouth Open: The Science of Table Manners!
The predominating culture of the West is a culture that embraces etiquette: don't blow your nose on your napkin, don't put your elbows on the table, and don't eat with your jaws agape. Bad manners, it is thought, show that what you feel for others is less important than your own personal pleasure. However, researchers from Oxford University led by Charles Spence experimented with a series of foods, and their findings suggest that chewing with our mouths open makes food taste better!
Eating with your mouth open is never encouraged in etiquette!
To many folks, the sight and sound of someone chewing with their mouth open is enough to send them into a tailspin of hysteria and despair. These people (and there are a lot of them) are disgusted by the sight of partially chewed food as it is being masticated by the teeth and lips. Furthermore, when it comes to sound, a handful of popcorn, a cracker, potato crisps, or crunchy carrot sticks being ripped apart by the molars and then sucked, chewed, and swallowed is offensive and impolite to these sensitive souls. If you are one of them, you will insist that your hyper-acute nature is a matter of common decency and manners – that everyone should consider the feelings of others when they are eating, especially when that eating is being conducted in a public forum like a restaurant.
There is even some scientific evidence that suggests that food tastes better when the mouth is open – something to do with the release of volatile organic compounds, blah, blah, blah. Regardless of science and culture, there might be times when it is simpler and better to fit into the prevailing manners of your companions and close your mouth when you eat.
I wrote the following for my musical revue: HOW RUDE!
CLOSE YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOU’RE EATING!
DON’T BE A HEIFFER WHEN YOU BITE!
NO WANT WANTS TO SEE FOOD
ONLY PARTIALLY CHEWED
WHEN THEY’RE OUT TO EAT AT NIGHT!
Eating with your mouth open is never encouraged in etiquette!
THE CHINESE CULTURE AND FOOD!
Chewing with your mouth closed is not necessarily a skill that all cultures embrace. In some countries – China, for example, open-mouth chewing is regarded as a sign of pleasure. Chinese children are told that they MUST eat with their mouths open!
CHEWING WITH YOUR MOUTH OPEN MAKES FOOD TASTE BETTER
According to the study by the University of Oxford, the mastication of food with your lips parted may actually help to release more of the volatile gasses that stimulate our sensory neurons! In other words, eating with your mouth open improves the flavors and smells that make us enjoy our food!
Here is a short list of the ways in which open-mouthed eating is likely to contribute to our enjoyment!
SMELL: The aromatic compounds that come from food on the palate directly improve our olfactory perception of food, and these compounds are released when we begin chewing. An open mouth directly contributes to our sense of enjoyment of the food we eat; the study says that the sense of smell is heightened as gasses reach the back of the nose. Click here for a great article about food and the sense of smell.
TOUCH: Most of us eat french fries with our hands and end up with grains of salt sticking to the fingers. Licking fingers after eating french fries means opening your mouth! But we also touch food with our lips, gums, and all of our mouth. Opening our mouths aids in the release of saliva, which aids in healthy digestion!
FLAVOUR: Once again, as your breath passes over the food you are eating, it improves certain aspects of the tasting experience. The feel of the organic texture of the skin of an apple on your tongue contributes to a heightened appreciation of the juicy nature of the fruit!
SOUND: Apparently, we have evolved to like noisy foods -- think of the pleasurable crunch of an apple! When your gob is open, the crunch is amplified, and science tells us that the crispy sound will heighten our experience of eating. Picking up and biting into a slice of pizza is all about the crunch of the first bite of the crust! Obviously, we can best hear the crunch when lips are parted.
If you like NOISY FOODS – THINK CRUNCHY!
Chewing open-mouthed may actually help our species to survive!
From an evolutionary standpoint, a well-fed species has a much better chance of surviving and procreating; therefore, eating with your mouth open is the evolved thing to do. Read it here in the Guardian!
Who will tell my Mother about olfactory sensory neurons?
Regardless of the science, when you are around the table with your family, it might be hard to bring up the work of experimental psychologists. If you listen to science, you will soon be eating with your hands, and I don't know about your mother, but mine would kill me. Your parents instil manners, but don't forget that a group of scientists looking into the data say your parents are wrong. Eat your food with your mouth open and live longer!
Bonus: Eating with Our Hands is NEVER Encouraged in Polite Circles!
Another habit likely to improve the taste of food when eating is the use of our hands and fingers. The feel in the hand of a slice of birthday cake is decadent and sinful...which, of course, adds pleasure. The sugary residue of buttercream on a hand, the feeling of grains of salt on your fingertips, the pure naughtiness of shoving your hand into a bag of crisps -- these things bring change or bring out certain aspects latent in us all. We are animals, and sometimes we want to eat like animals. So enjoy your ice cream and please, lick the bowl!
