The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1909-01-16
THE SIMPLE DIET
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles)

To return TO nature is not always
easy. even when we know what nature
would have us do. Habit, 1t has been
said, is second nature, and nowhere
Is this more true than in eating-the
oldest habit But If improvement Is
desirable it 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 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
q conflict The meat and rice are COM
pletely mixed by the movement of the
stomach. II now the homogeneous
mass is retained four hours, the rice
undergoes fermentation. II the meat
is carried into the intestines within
two hours its digestion must be imper-
feet, failing to receive the proper sup
ply OF gastric fiuid-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
zeal profession inyalids 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 1t 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 conflict
which must have a disquieting effect
upon the nervous system.
1t is natural to suppose that a
hungry animal under natural condi
lions 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 prey to an almost In
finite variety Of diseases when he be
comes by force of circumstances ON
niyorous. A high authority on the dis
eases Of the pig says that they are du'
to its being fed upon the waste hu
man foods from our tables.
Pavlov, the Russian physiologica
chemist. has shown that the system
adapts itself to the digestion of tn
food while it is in the mouth, tn
character of the digestive fluids Sc
GREETED varying with the food. Ho'
bewildered It must be by ten-cours
dinner offering perhaps 80 different a.
ticles of food!
Considering these facts, we mus
conclude that serious injury is don
to the system by eating variety
foods at the same meal. Perhaps W
may find here the hitherto unaccoun
able reason for the shortness of h
man life. And II this be the cause, "
must find all the noted cases of lol
gevity among those people whose di'
is the simplest. Metchnikof hs
found the largest percentage of ce
tenarians among the Hungarian pea
ants. living largely on black brea
Among the Irish peasantry, livir
chiefly on potatoes, centenarians al
numerous. The noted cases of 10
revity in England were all among II
peasantry, living on very simple die
The most noted of centenarians. CO
marc. the Venetian, prolonged life
wears by restricting his diet to III
form quantity of eggs and unfermer
ed wine, almost exclusively.
Several monodiet tests recent
made under the writer's directi'
showed. as would naturally be expe'
ed IL the principles above stated a
true. remarkable results. Edgar Brob
a foundryman, eating only beans
60 days. gained eight pounds
weight, working Sundays, two nigh
and several evenings extra during {
period. On 40 days diet of oatme
there was a gain of three pounds a
better general conditions of heal
DR.. Landone Of Los Angeles, CAL,
ported gain in weight living on CT
tus for ten days. On returning
his former mixed diet Brobst lost fo
pounds in ten days. Can exclusive d
of beans would be injurious, and in
case is a one-sided diet of beans, p'