How To Eat a Gingerbread Man
How do you eat your gingerbread man? Do you bite off his head first? How you munch your gingerbread man may reflect elements of your personality.
According to a study by Dr. Alan Hirsch, Neurological Director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, “if you choose to bite the head first, you have a more aggressive personality, are an achievement-oriented natural leader who won’t take no for an answer.
If the initial bite is the right hand, it reflects an individual who tends to be skeptical and pessimistic, while those who initially bite the left arm have a flare for creativity and are more extroverted. Those who nibble first on the legs tend to be more sensitive, reveling in the company of others,” he said.
In a survey of 500 people, 64% ate the head first, 20% went for the legs and 16% ate arms first.
Gingerbread has been with us for a good long while. Ginger was flavoring food and aiding digestion 7,000 years ago in China and India. It was an important item in the spice trade and was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. It probably traveled to Europe with returning Crusaders.
In Anglo Saxon Britain, ginger was almost as popular as pepper. Geoffrey Chaucer writes about gyngebreed in 1386; recipes for gingerbread survive from the 14th century. Early gingerbread came as solid blocks of honey, breadcrumbs, ginger and spices, elaborately decorated and given as gifts, much as boxes of chocolates are today. In the late 16th century, at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, honored guests were presented with their portraits in gingerbread, giving rise to the gingerbread man we know and love.
