Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1905-10-19


anoes Make Sour stomachs--Dys-
peptics should Eat without Fear
Appetite and Hunger Not the Same
Two Meals Day-Never Eat
When Tired.
I am more and more convinced as
the days go by that II is not SO much
a question of what you eat as how you
eat. The matter Of diet consists large
~ in not eating too much. We should
eat to live; not live to eat. The aver
age, OF | may say, the great majority,
Of the human family eat too much, too
often and too ignorantly. One-fourth
Of what we eat keeps us, the remain
ing three-fourths we keop-at the risk
OF our lives. Man Is the only animal
that will eat when i'll. DO not give
yourself unnecessary pain for an hour
Just for the sake Of tickling your pal
ate for a minute.
Some persons are satisfied II only
they can get full, no matter Of what
The feeling of fullness seems to be
their guide as to when they have had
enough A few days ago heard Of a
man of very large abdominal dimen-
sions land extension) who was asked
If he paid any attention to the subject
of eating; If he had any rule as to
the amount he ate at each meal. He
said he had very definite rule. at
is this" said he. Il always sit six
inches from the table, and when my
body touches the table l know have
had enough"
How to Eat.
Proper mastication; that is, thor
ough masticatlon, is the secret of the
whole matter However do not ad-
vocate the method of counting the
number of times that each mouthful of
food should be masticated, as one
should not study mental arithmetic
when eating. Get into the habit of
masticating every particle of food 30
thoroughly that it is liquidized ere
swallowing. Do not let 1t go until you
have extracted from 1t every particle
of taste. Bear in mind that the long
er you keep food in the mouth the
less time you will have to keep 1t in
the stomach. Not only this, but we
should recognize the fact that the
mouth has work to do that the stom-
aeh cannot do Digestion begins in the
mouth. Here the food should mix
thoroughly with the saliva, which is
slightly alkaline This acts directly
upon the starchy foods white bread
rice, potatoes, etc., converting them
into sugar. The foods are next re-
ceived into the stomach, there to meet
with the gastric Juice. This medium
is Of acid reaction. Then, by what is
known as the churning process Of the
stomach, the contents arerrgdueed to
a viscid fluid mass, known as chyme
Thssproteid parts Of the food Gas found
in lean beef, mutton, smoked ham
Goldfish, beans, peas, lentils, eggs
cheese, grains, dried fruits, nuts, etc.)
are converted into an absorbable sub
stance called peptones. When diges-
ton is completed, the pyloric valve
opens and the chyme passes into the
duodenum, or second stomach. Thii
substance is now composed of digested
undigested and partially digested
foods. You will observe that the en-
tire process of digestion is not really
completed in the stomach. That is the
reason that l am trying to impress
upon you the desirability of thoroughly
mixing the food with the saliva (alka
line. medium), because the starchy
foods and fats are not digested in the
stomach (acid medium), but mus
await their arrival in the duodenun
(alkaline medium). Take, for In
stance, mashed potatoes. The major
fly of persons think they need nc
mastication. They are so well pre-
pared (that depends) that they art
quite ready for the stomach. Not so
no matter how fine they may be. They
should mix thoroughly with the salivt
in order to convert the starch int
dextrine; for their digestion cannot b.
completed until they reach the duoden
um. This applies with equal force t.
all foods that contain starch.
/ no longer wonder that Americans
as q rule, are race Of dyspeptics
How TO eat seems Of so little impor
lance as compared with what to eat
The result is we have a national dis
ease for which there Is no better nami
than Americanitis. Truly, many
man digs his grave with his teeth
not only in oyer-eating, but by insun
Client mastIcation.
We followed the process Of the food
as It were, to the duodenum, Here
then, we have a substance composed o
the starch which was changed int
dextrine, also starch which has un
dergOne little or no change, fats Who'll
" unchanged, and the proteids which
were not changed into peptonea
These are now acted upon BY the bill
ami pancreatie juice which, Ia turn
converts the starch into dextrine, tn,
proteids into psptones and emuislhei
the fats. Next comes absorption
through the minute blood vessels Of thl
intestines and then that aIl-lmportan
act OF assimilation. There are thou
sands Of persons whose digestion
seems to be perfect, but they remain