Before today, I never knew I had a problem eating burgers. But come to think of it, I had no idea I was eating apples, chinese food and cupcakes wrong either.

I thought it was completely normal for a burger’s contents to spill out of the buns by the second bite. Apparently, according to science, there is an ideal way to hold a hamburger. In fact, researchers spent four months in a lab getting to the bottom of the first world’s most extravagant problem.

According to gaming blog Kotaku, a Japanese television show Honma Dekka!?  brought on three researchers, “experts in fluid mechanics, engineering, and dentistry–try to figure out the best way to hold and eat a large hamburger.”

The research was humorously thorough, apparently featuring a 3D scan of a hamburger that studied how the particles interacted together while holding a large hamburger:

The resulting data showed that the typical way of holding a burger often found the user inadvertently squeezing the contents out of the buns. Following multiple trials, it was concluded that there was one superior way of avoiding spillage:

Thumbs and pinkies on the bottom:

Middle three fingers on the top:

With the uniformly spread fingers applying just enough pressure on the burger, the contents won’t slip out as they normally would. The result?

No spillage:

You are now eating a burger the way science has deemed is the most efficient, perfect way possible. Thank you so much science!

[H/T Kotaku, Images via FujiTV]