What your eating technique says about you!
Britain might like to think of itself as the nation that invented good manners when it comes to eating etiquette but according to a new study by POLO we’ve shed our traditional stiff upper lip and become a ‘sensual’ food nation. A third of Brits (33%) admit forgoing cutlery and eating food with their fingers and 15 per cent of us (one in six) even lick the plate.
The national study, which provides a fascinating insight into our daily eating habits, marks the launch of the nationwide POLO campaign asking “are you a sucker or cruncher when you’re eating a POLO mint?” POLO are inviting mint-lovers across the nation to join in the debate on Facebook and declare whether they are a sucker or cruncher.
While you might expect Britain to be conservative when it comes to table manners, the Sucker or Cruncher study reveals that we’re a nation of pleasure-seekers and have a sensual relationship with our food
Food habits like sucking sweets (52%), eating one crisp at a time (65%), licking our ice creams in a circular motion (56%) and saving the best food until last on our plate (35%) all indicate the use of delayed-gratification techniques, intended to prolong and intensify our eating pleasures – rather than seeking an instant hit (only 11% of the UK admit to crunching their sweets).
This sensual side is reflected in our other habits: our preferred date would be a candlelit meal (37%) and our ideal way of relaxing is a weekend away with our loved one (41%).
However not everything we do is so refined with 15% of the population confessing to sharing dinner with their dog!
Body language expert Judi James who helped commission the research said “The way we eat and how we treat food can often give away more about us than a ten minute conversation. Our subconscious food habits reveal our attitudes to everything from relationships to work and define us as a nation”.
To join the debate and declare whether you are a sucker or a cruncher visit Facebook and search POLO crunchers or POLO suckers
Stats and Facts compiled by Judi James
• Suckers are strategic, thoughtful and sophisticated and can apply self-control. They also tend to be calm
• Crunchers are impulsive, competitive and impatient. They are likely to be high achievers but have higher stress/anxiety levels
• The rise of fast food and the 24/7 lifestyle e.g. snacking/eating at desks means traditional etiquette rules have taken a battering and we are now more likely to eat in less formal ways
• Women appear to have worse eating habits than men. Two fifths (39%) admit eating with their fingers compared to less than a third (31%) of men
• A third of us suck and play with a sweet in our mouths before swallowing it (33%) and a quarter of us gobble more than one sweet at a time
• And our favourite place to eat them is in front of the TV (34%)
• Two fifths of us like to dunk our biscuits (39%)
To join the debate and declare whether you are a sucker or a cruncher visit facebook.com/polosuckers or facebook.com/polocrunchers
