Good table manners taste bad

Enjoy eating more when you can get stuck in with your fingers? There’s a scientific reason for that, which means we may actually be losing out when we eat ‘politely’, according to research by Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University.

Feeling the food we eat – from the sticky sugar on a doughnut to the waxy skin of an apple – means we appreciate flavour more. Plus, noisy foods like crisps are also naturally more pleasurable. And what better way to hear the sound of food than to eat with your mouth open? This way, more of the organic compounds carrying the aroma and flavour of the fruit, veg or meat reach the back of the nose, from where they connect with the brain. Perhaps only do so in private, though!