Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1909-01-07
iCOpyrIght. BY Joseph B. Bowles,
THE SIMPLE DIET

To return to nature is not always
easy, even when we know what nature
would have us do. Habit, II has been
said, is second nature, and nowhere
Is this more true than in eating-the
oldest habit. But II improvement is
desirable II must be most desirable In
eating, which underlies all life proc
esses; and yet change should be made
only after careful consideration, and
then with all due elaboration.
Beef is digested chiefly in the stom-
ach by the action Of the gastric fluid.
When reduced to q fine pulp by mas
tication before entering the stomach
It tends to pass out before being prop.
erly digested. for the pylorus tends to
open when the food is sufficiently re-
duced by the movement Of the stom-
ach and the action Of the gastric fluid.
Hence many authorities say that meat
should be bolted as the dog swallows
his meat in large Jumps. This Is
scientifically correct, but the very OPP
posite is true Of bread and potatoes.
Flesh digests in from three to five
hours; rice remains in the stomach
about one hour. When flesh and rice
are eaten at the same meal, there is
a conflict. The meat and rice are CON-
pletely mixed by the movement OF the
stomach. II now the homogeneous
mass is retained four hours, the rice
undergoes fermentation. If the meat
Is carried into the intestines within
two hours its digestion must be imper-
feet, falling to receive the proper sup
ply OF gastric fluid-an error which
cannot be fully corrected by further
digestion in the intestines.
Much as this important phase OF die
tetics has been neglected by the med
ical profession invalids are never
put upon a bi.diet, much less upon a
mixture of several foods, however cas-
lily digested. Beef is one of the COM
monest invalid diets, because it is al.
most pure proteid. digesting easily in
the stomach. Rice, IS per cent
starch, is a common invalid's diet, but
meat and rice would not be prescribed
to be eaten together.
Proteid foods (meats, eggs, beans
etc. digest principally in the stom
ach; carbonaceous foods (fruits, po-
tatoes, cereal foods, etc), principally
in the intestine. When these classes
of foods are mixed, there is a conflict
which must have disquieting effect
upon the nervous system.
1t is natural to suppose that q
hungry animal under natural condi-
tons would confine itself to one kind
of food. Neither man nor the pig is
naturally omnivorous. Acorns are the
natural food Of the pig, which. like
man. becomes a prey to an almost in
finite variety of diseases when he be-
comes by force of circumstances ON
nivorous. A high authority on the dis
eases of the pig says that they are due
to it's being fed upon the waste hui
man foods from our tables.
Pavlov, the Russian physiological
chemist. has shown that the system
adapts itself to the digestion of the
food while 1t is in the mouth, the
character Of the digestive fluids Sc
creted varying with the food. How
bewildered 1t must be by ten-course
dinner offering perhaps so different ar.
ticles of food!
Considering these facts, we must
conclude that serious injury is done
to the system by eating variety OF
foods at the same meal. Perhaps we