Before eating, you should always do two things:
- Blow your nose
- Wash your hands
It is obvious why you should always wash your hands before eating (though many still choose not to for some reason). But why should you blow your nose before eating?
Our sense of smell is closely linked to not only memory, but also our sense of taste. You can observe this by holding your nose while eating something. You will notice that the food loses most of its flavor and becomes quite bland. (You can use this “trick” to make eating undesirable foods or medications more palatable.) It turns out that we need to actually smell what we eat in order to fully (actually?) taste it. As such, if your nose is full of dust and dirt, you will not be able to smell as much of the food, and so you will not savor it as much as you can with a clear, empty nose that can inhale more odor molecules from the food. Of course, make sure to wash your hands after blowing your nose.