Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-10-08
FOOD AND DIGESTION.
THE PROPER COMBINATIONS FOR
PERFECT DIGESTION.

bhOrltJ-lhey were OlVen TO the Lower
Animals-The Wholesomeness of Fruits.
They, with Seeds, Intended For Man.
The comparative dictetic value Of fruits
and vegetables is u matter which seems to
be very little understood Vegetables are
unquGstionably valuable article of food,
but it needs only II superficial study of the
subject of diGtCtics to make it clear that
vegetables are very greatly inferior to
grains in nutritive value and in their
composition are far less suited to the hui
man stomach than are the seed products
commonly known as fruits and grains. An
interesting fact. also, is that, considered
from the standpoint of comparative anat-
omy, mans digestive organs are very diff
fGrcnt in structure from those OF animals,
which subsiSt upon roots, leaves, buds,
twigs, stems and other products include Il
under tho general term Vegetables An
other fact of very great interest in This
connection is that vegetables were not in
cludcd in the original bill of fare given to
man by his Creator as recorded in the first
chapter of Genesis. Vegetables were given
to the lower animals for their sustonancc,
and seeds and fruits were reserved for man.
most highly elaborated products of the
vegetable kingdom. Vegetables arc much
coarsGr In character and much less per
fcctly elaborated. Ncnrly all vegetables
contain "A large amouniN& woody matter,
which requires the action of very power
full digestive juices and of strong muscular
action on the part of the digestive organs
to reduce them to fluid state and to cS-
tract from them the comparatively small
amount of nOuriShmCnt which they con
tain. To q much less degree is this the
case with fruits and grains while in the
case of fruits we find food substances more
nearly prepared for assimilation and in
form more easily attacked by the digestive
organs of man than any other.
The writer has met many cases in which
invalids were really suffering, and that Sc
rious!y, in Ignorance of these facts To Il
person in vigorous health and with strong
digestive powers, these principles may be
ignored with comparative impunity and
often for II long time, but person whose
digestive powers are feeble, and especially
one suffering from dilatiOn of the stomach
i'm extremely common condition, cspe-
cially among women, in consequence of
their injurious mode of drcss-Oftcn suf-
fcTs seriously III consequence of the great
labor required of the digestive organs in
the use of such coarse vegetable products
as celery and salads of varoIS sorts. In
some instances the tubcrS-parSnirs bCctS,
turnips and cahbagc-are the only articles
which need to be excluded from the diet
AIRY, while ih Others even potatoes are
source of serious digestive disturbance.
arising from he use of vegetables are rem
dcrcd conspicuous only when these articles
are consumed in connection with others
with which they do not well agree. Many
persons have recognized that various arti-
clcS of food can he eaten separately or with
certain others when in other combinations
they prove extremely unwholesomc. The
reason for this is the fact that fruits and
vegetables require so different degree
and kind of activity on the part Of the di-
gcstiyc organs. a ruling principle in rcla-
ton to the combination of food is this:
Those articles of food should be eaten to-
gethcr which arc digestcd together; in
other words, the bill of fare should be so
arranged that the combination of food sub
stances will harmonic with the action Of
the digestive organs upon those substances.
In applying this principle to vegetables
we find that the starchy vegetables are
hard of digestion, and that the large guam
tity Of potash salts which they contain is,
according to BungC, II source of irritation
to the stomach and intcrfcrcs with gastric
digestion. The coarse, woody structure Of
nearly all vegetables also renders necessary
the retention of the digcstcd mass in the
stomach for IL long time, thus lcngthening
the time Of disintcgration. Thus we find
three reasons for very considerable cx-
tension of the gastric digestion of the Vege-
tables
In the case of fruits, on the other hand.
when ripe and properly cooked, VIC have
substances which arc digested and asSim-
Hated with very great ease. The time re-
quired for the digestion of cabbage is be-
tween four and five hours, while u ripe ap-
pie digGsts in one hour If these two ar
ticles are taken into the stomach mt the
same time, both must remain there until
both are digcsted, rs they will become so
intimately intcrmingled that they cannot
possibly be separated The apple, digcsted
and ready for absorption, if not absorbed
undcrgoes fermentation. 1t is II principle
which is constantly recognizable in rcla-
ton to digestion that the delay of the alb
sOrption of n food product after it has been
digcsted is certain to result in its dctcriOr-
alton through fermentation and dccompo-
sition, which arc set up by the numerous
microbes constantly present in the ALI
mentary canal. The same is true if tho
digestive product of one norton of the ali
<iGntary canal is not passed along with
due promptness to another part of the di-
gostive apparatus, where its further elab.
Grafton is to take place preparatory to alb 4
sorption.
The combination of fruits and vegetables
for the reasons given form one of the most
unsuited of all combinations for person
of feeble digestive powers. AS before re-
marked, persons with dilated stOmachs arc
likely to suffer from the use of
vegetables, and still more so from the com
binatiOn Of vegetables With fruits, for the
reason that with these persons there is n
great delay of the food in the stomach in
of weakness of the muscular
walls of the stomach, and hence inability
of the organ to empty itself with duo
1t is quite clear to the writer that vege-
tables might be wholly eliminated from
the bill of fare Of human beings without
my serious loss. Still, for healthy persons
these esculents are sometimes valuable, as
they afford an opportunity for an agreeable
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