The man is "eating" sugarcane

[Tait-ka]

Can you watch this short video clip?
How would you describe this?
Would you say, "The man is eating sugarcane"?

 

[jutfrank]

It looks like he's stripping the tough rind off with his teeth. He only begins to eat at the end, when he bites into the soft white part.

 

[Tait-ka]

It looks like he's stripping the tough rind off with his teeth. He only begins to eat at the end, when he bites into the soft white part.

At the end, he begins to chew the soft white part and then he spits it out after he extracts (sucks?) all the juice in it.
Would it still be called "eating"? He spits out because the white part is indigestible.

 

[Piscean]

It's not an activity that we often see or need to describe.

In the unlikely event that someone asked me to describe what the man is doing, I'd say He's stripping the tough rind off with his teeth and then biting into the soft white part and chewing it - more or less what jutfank said.

 

[PeterCW]

If I wanted to keep the statement down to five words then I would use "chewing" rather than "eating". Most native speakers would connect the word with chewing gum and would understand that the pith was not being swallowed.

 

[tedmc]

The person in the video strips the rind off the sugar cane with his teeth and chews the pulp to extract its juice which is then swallowed, I don't think "eating" is an appropriate word to use. It's a healthy activity to exercise the jaw and clean one's teeth.

 

[SoothingDave]

4 out of 5 dentists do not recommend cleaning your teeth with sugar.