It turns out you've probably been eating burgers wrong your entire life

Burgers. Undeniably one of the most delicious foods an omnivore can consume. But, equally, one of the messiest.

And what with the current vogue for supersizing burgers by topping with deep-fried mac and cheese patties, pulled pork, avocado, and more, tackling a burger is no mean feat.

The bun goes soggy and falls apart under the weight of the burger fillings, the lettuce spills out on to your plate, and you end up with a juice and sauce mélange dribbling down your wrist. Elegant it is not.

However, it turns out we've all apparently been eating burgers wrong our whole lives — and no, we don't mean you should use a knife and fork.

The correct and best way to eat a burger is in fact to flip it upside-down, according to those in the know.

Yes, the unfamiliar sight may make you feel uneasy, but according to the experts, there are various reasons why this is a superior eating technique.

"Burgers are served the way they are purely for aesthetics," Simon Dukes, founder of the blog Burger Lad, explains to INSIDER.

"The crown (top of the bun) is generally thicker (and therefore stronger) than the heel, so for a better eating experience you should actually flip it upside-down to eat it.

"The crown will then hold the weight of everything else and there is less likelihood of it falling apart in your hands. A true burger connoisseur should always eat their burgers upside-down."

It's not just about stopping the burger disintegrating in your hands, though.

There are actually two schools of thought when it comes to the upside-down eating technique: some advise flipping the burger on your plate as soon as it's delivered to your table, while others argue you should leave it the "right" way up on your plate but pick it up with your thumbs on top, thus flipping it as you bring it towards your mouth.

Advocates of the latter method maintain that it's a lot more natural to pick an item up that way (rather than with fingers on top and thumbs underneath).

There's also the argument that a burger actually tastes better eaten upside-down — according to one Reddit user, "As one bites down on a hamburger their tongue touches the burger from the bottom, meaning that toppings are easier to taste when a hamburger is upside down.

"The tongue will come into contact with the toppings just before the patty, which is the ideal circumstance."

It's a technique many burger-lovers swear by, but is relatively unknown, and even some of the biggest burger connoisseurs aren't au fait with the technique.

"So at first I would have said that this is ridiculous," Matt Ester, founder of The Burgerlist, tells us. "I’ve always eaten burgers the 'proper way.' But it actually makes sense.

"I think naturally they should be eaten the right way up, and I don’t think it was intended to be eaten upside-down. I guess whoever discovered this has thought about the science behind it, so I’m going to give it a try on my next burger!"

Our verdict on the upside-down burger

We paid a visit to a local London Bleecker Burger to put the theory to the test, and we were pleasantly surprised.

By the time we got our hands on our burgers, the heel was already thoroughly soggy. Flipping it over meant that the fluffy crown, once dry, absorbed all the juices just enough, and the heel (now on top), stayed in one piece.

As for whether your tongue hits the toppings first by eating upside-down, we weren't convinced — all the aspects of the burger mushed together in a delicious fashion once in your mouth, but had we tested a burger with more toppings the verdict might be different.

Overall, we're converts. Upside-down burgers it is.

It turns out you've probably been eating burgers wrong your entire life

Our verdict on the upside-down burger

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