Should you keep your chopsticks separate? Just look at the bacteria content on your chopsticks!

"Come on, have some of this. You can't reach it, I'll give it to you." Such warm table manners are common in many Chinese families. If you don't do this, you may appear to be impolite and unenthusiastic, and you may even be accused of being a poor host. This seemingly warm initiative may hide the risk of spreading disease to others, and seemingly friendly behavior does not represent "love."

1. Sharing tableware increases the probability of disease transmission

According to a survey conducted by the Department of Gastroenterology at Jiulongpo District People's Hospital, many digestive tract diseases are easily transmitted between family members, mainly because of the sharing of tableware. "From a scientific point of view, using your own chopsticks to pick up food for others is not a good habit, and can even be called a bad habit. Taking Helicobacter pylori as an example, its infection rate is about 60%. The most common related diseases are chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers, with symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, acid reflux, heartburn or other malnutrition. 1%-2% of patients will develop gastric cancer. If a carrier uses his own chopsticks to pick up food for others, the saliva on the chopsticks will send the bacteria along with the food to others, causing others to be infected with the disease. "At present, there have been many cases of COVID-19 infection caused by collective dining in Chongqing. Using your own chopsticks to pick up food for others has the risk of cross-infection of the virus, and the probability of disease transmission will increase."

Image source: Pixabay

2. Serving chopsticks can prevent the infection and spread of diseases

Experiments have shown that when samples of chopsticks used by patients, ordinary people, and chopsticks used at large tables and served chopsticks are taken out and cultured in containers, the chopsticks used by patients have the highest number of bacteria, and the chopsticks used at large tables after "saliva exchange" have a significantly higher number of bacteria than chopsticks used by individuals, while the number of bacteria on served chopsticks is very, very small.

3. Changing table manners is more beneficial to health

We must change our dining etiquette habits, not use our own chopsticks to pick up food for others, and use public chopsticks when dining together, and advocate the separate dining system. To avoid cross-infection of diseases through saliva, a good habit is to use public chopsticks, because public chopsticks do not come into contact with the human body, but only with food. Using public chopsticks can directly block the infection and spread of diseases such as oral diseases, digestive tract diseases, and stomach diseases. Therefore, using public chopsticks is a safe, healthy, and hygienic way of dining, and it is also a manifestation of civilized etiquette.

Contributor: Chongqing Jiulongpo District Science Popularization Creation and Communication Society

Author: Tian Fuyun, Jiulongpo District People's Hospital

Review expert: Zhang Mingjun, Director of the Laboratory Department of Jiulongpo District People’s Hospital, Chongqing

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