The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-24

ders why man should fail to do the
small part required of him-to cook and
eat these foods properly, when SO much
of his comfort and happiness depends
on the right way.
The most common class of dyspeptics
are those who suHer from indigestion
of starch-badly cooked starch. No
food can be utilized in the body as food
that cannot be diffused throughout the
walls of the digestive canal. Starch
through the animal membrane and
must be changed into soluble sugar be-
fore 1T can be absorbed by the walls of
the lower part of the digestive canal
and this sugar is known as maltese
The saliva and the pancreatic Juice OF
the animal body contain minute guam
titles of substances which act upon the
cooked starch, changing it into sugar
a valuable food-and hence enabling it
to pass through the walls of the diges-
tive canal and enter the blood.
Young children and those whose d.
gestive powers are weak are often given
matted foods under the impression
that the diastase present in these will
assist the action of the saliva and pan
create juice.
Admitting the possibility of all com
mercfal matted preparations containing
the valuable property-diastase-t
results of many of these foods are not
uniformly good and often very disap-
source of failure possibly being in most
cases in not giving proper attention to
the preparation of the food, and very
often due to want of care,s as common
sense is not always the prerogative of
those who have the care of the feeding
of the sick and helpless young. The
partially digested stage claimed for
either the matted starches or the grains
makes them difficult to preserve in good
condition for any satisfactory length OF
jYpo yxyfff he, hAc Of md
do not get this in many instances, but
quite the reverse, they are liable to
changes which will render them value
less, if not harmful for the purpose
designed in the already weak and dis
organized digestive tract
Infants but a few months old should
not be given any form of starch food
as the ptyalin is not formed in the
saliva for several months after birth,
and they have neither saliva nor any
other digestive Juice to accomplish the
necessary conversion of the starch into
sugar, and artificial means should not
be resorted to in order to give them a
food that nature did not design for
the grown individual is almost identical
to the young infant as regards their d.
gestive powers, and in such cases the
same natural diet suitable for the babe
is best for the older person. Starch, be-
ing a sugar-making product, cannot
either in its natural OF pre-digested
state be given to some invalids.
There Is but one emergency when
"predigested' foods are permissible
that is when the digestive juices are I'M
equal to the task Of extracting the nu-
tritive constituents from the ordinary
food by mingling with it and saturatine
it thoroughly. When these do not flow
at the invitation of the stimulating
flavor, odor or some suggestive real OF
imaginary quality Of the food, it re-
mains an inert mass and not only fails
to feed the body, but creates disturb
ances in different parts of the system
But whenever it is possible allow the
natural process of digestion to be per-
formed and do not abuse these func-
tons and then condone the offense by
furnishing a panacea in the form OF
any of the matted (pre-digested) foods
no matter how eulogistic their recon.
mendatfons.