The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-02-18

Cooking, masticating, digesKng, as
Stimulating and absorbing are distinct
parts of that great process, that converts
animal and vegetal materials into nv
ing and growing animals. All food
must be reduced to a fluid mass before
this conversion can occur. Masses or
food are useless until they have been
comminuted into particles too small to be
even seen. They must be reduced to
particles before they can be dissolved:
The first two stages of this wonderful
conversion of vegetals to living beings
is cooking and chewing
processes, that reduce the size of food so
much as to bring each particle in close
contact with saliva, and then reduce
them still more by what is well called
digestion. These processes OF insaliva-
ton or solution are chemical. We cook
our meats, that we may lessen their
toughness, or may diminish the adhesion
of their fibers, or compel the minute par
ticles, of which their tibers are composed
to separate from each other. The hard
digestion of any flesh, then, depends
upon the adhesion of these tibers and
their particles and the way of preparing
bneIu IOI lllG SuCCCSSlhS SItiSSCS Vi oOlu-
ton. Mastication and insalivation ac-
complish two important purposes, name
", to reduce masses of food into smaller
parts, and then to mingle them with
saliva. The process of cutting them into
smaller masses than we can easily, or
safely masticate is of all others, not only
the first, but the most important. The
next process, that of cooking may pre-
cede it. But all these processes are i'm
portant. The tenderness of our food
depends upon the way of cooking we
may adopt Boiling more than any
other way of preparing for the several
changes that may succeed it in the regu-
lar course of converting meats and veg
etals into living flesh, softens it and sep
arates the fiberS into particles from each
other. Frying hardens them more or
less and so renders them indigestible.
The one way lessons the labor of masti-
cation and digestion, whilst the other
increases it. Bad teeth have a similar
effect.
Any imperfections in any one stage Of
the preparation to convert food into a
living organic mass may be considered
causes of indigestion. These few words
on indigestion may plainly show why
we should eat slowly, why we. should
well masticate our food, and why some
persons do not easily digest it, and
change it to a milky fluid, that can be
easily absorbed and contributed to the
quantity and richness of their blood.
Often we dine with friends who do not
seem to know that they in eating have
anything else to do but to place between
their jaws as large masses of food as
they can place there and move their
jaw little or just enough to shape the
mass of their food so that they can push
them down their gullet into the gastric
sack below. They do not seem to know
that food is useless and may be iniuri-
Gus unless they prepare it for complete
digestion, and aid the normal functions
of the stomach and duodenum to convert
it into milky fluid that may pass easily
through the mucous membrane of the
food canal. Not long ago we were
called to visit man who was in great
distress. He had crowded his breakfast
down some thirty minutes before. He
was in greater distress than he could
possibly enjoy. The cause clearly was
an overloaded stomach. So we gave
him half bowl of mustard water, and
he soon vomited four halves of breakfast
biscuit. The biscuits were large and
hard. He was astonished at the result
of our prescription and was inclined
to deny that he ever swallowed
them. He paid our fee and we gave
him good advice. First, to properly
cook his food; secondly, to place within
his mouth only small pieces of any food
to use his knife very freely; thirdly,
to masticate every kind of food until it
was reduced to a soft pulp and had been
mingled with proper amount of oxy-
gen. All readers may not know that
one advantage of thoroughly masticating
our food is that in so doing we neces-
sarily mix air with the pulpy mass. and
thus assist nature in the process of di-
gestion. In this condition of pulp the
gastric juice combines with every parti-
Gle, and converts it to milky fluid and
is readily absorbed. All kinds of food
treated in this way mingle and form a
nutritious mass that never distresses or
torrents.
Our readers should remember that
indigestion and gastric pain is induced
by neglecting the natural laws of eat
ing.
People generally are not aware that
meat, vegetables and fruits are useless,
except as qualification to the appetite,
unless they are reduced in size so much
that their nutritious particles may be OBJ
tanned and absorbed, and so enter the
vital currents from which means of
growth are drawn.
Artificial teeth, where natural ones are
lost, contribute largely to our strength
and beauty. They enable the most reck-
less man to chew his food well, and so
increase the amount of food that his age
and growth require. Those who wish to
possess health and beauty must use the
usual means of obtaining them. They
must avoid inducing indigestion by fail
ing to masticate and absorb their food.
Prairie Farmer.