The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-04-20
MINUTE TO THE MoUTHFUL.
How to Avoid Dyspepsia, So Common
Among Busy Americans

who looked as if he might be doctor
to a New York Herald reporter, "but
the.denial cannot be snbstantiated by
proof. They are dyspeptio, and the
chief cause of it is, let us say, their
ayarice; that is. their inordinate de-
sire TO get what they want all at
once without stopping by the way to
really enjoy what they have. The real
pleasure of eating finds lis seat in the
mouth, where the nerves of taste are
located, and the longer the food can
be reasonably retained there the more
extended will be the duration of the
pleasure of eating.
'It's a case of nature combining
business and pleasure. When the
food is swallowed there results only
what may be called an insensible
pleasure; that is to say, the sense of
repletion and the satisfying of a eray-
ing; negative pleasure, so to speak,
inasmuch as the food swallowed mere
ly removed the discomfort caused by
the need of it. This is purely ami
NAL, the lower order Of beings merely
eating to live. Nastication, not deg
luton and digestion, is therefore the
real pleasure of eating, and Amori-
cans, notoriously and reprehensiyely,
do not mastieate their food. They do
not realize what il is TO roll sweet
morsel under the tongue, and yet it is
one of the greatest delights the world
has ever known, and il is equally pos
sible to the poorest as we'll as to the
richest.
81 have observed not few Amer
leans at their eating. As rule, the
eater will close his jaws eight or ten
times on a mouthful of meat, raise
his chin to straighten out his neck
and will swallow the monthful with
very apparent effort. Inferior meat
eating animals will do the same. In
other words, they gobble ii down.
"With softer foods-bread, eggs,
vegetables, oatmeal and that sort.
half as many movements of the max
illaries serve the purpose, and down
the food goes. Fluids are practically
poured down as if the mouth were O
funnel to the digestive organs. Asar
example, let us experiment with our
selves for a moment and count Tho
number Of jaw movements necessary
to thoroughly and sufficiently prepare
the food for easy deglutition and di
gestion.
"Ordinary meats, varying as TO ten.
derness, will require from 100 to 1sa
crushings to grind them thoroughly
and have them thoroughly saturated
with saliva. 1t will be observed, too,
that there is no effort in swallowing,
as the food goes down almost by peris-
taltic action of the muscles at the
back of the mouth, and when swal-
lowed it finds a comfortable lodg-
ment quite unlike the feeling that
follows the swallowing Of chunks Of
unchewed food.
'Fowl and most fish require less
mastication than meat, say from rs
to 100 crushings; bread, vegetables
and soft foods from so to 80, and
liquids, while not strictly edibles,
should be held for moment or two
in the mouth in order that the saliva
may mix with them and make them
more assimilable. A glass Of milk
poured down the throat is turned to
curd, which lies like a lump Of putty
in the stomach. No kind of food
should be swallowed until it has been
thoroughly mixed with saliva.
ALLOWING a minute TO the mouth
full for mastication, the ordinary meal
should occupy from 20 TO 80 minutes,
according to the time orthe appetite
of the eater, and those minutes should
be succession of pleasurable sensa-
tions renewed every 60 seconds.
There is real pleasure in such eating,
and there is health, for, generally
speaking, dyspepsia is impossible il
only ordinary care be taken by the
eater in his food selection.
"Children should be educated to
eat properly and the adult will not be
dyspeptic. The person who is in the
chronic hurry Of some Americans
with only five minutes in which TO eai
his meal, would far better swallow
five thoroughly masticated moutbfuli
IN that time than to fill himself W
with two dozen swallowed whole. i
is not the quantity one takes which
nourishes, but what is assimIlated
The effort Of the digestive organs te
do the work themselves and tn,
mouth makes wrecks of them, and
dyspepsia is the result, which makes
wrecks Of Americans"
| Force and Tact.