Omaha daily bee., 1915-12-14
OurDeady Habits
Nc. 2-Bolting Our Food
Part l.
by Woods Hutchinson, A. NJ, NJ. d

The Worlds Best Known Writer on Med
cal Subjects.
Our American dyspep eia, our nervous
ness. our vanishing teeth, our premature
badness and our early death have all
been confidently ascribed to "boltlng our
food"
The reason" why. reasons we're as
plenty as blackberries. The starch was
not properly mixed with our saliva and,
ussshnee escaped digestion. Our teeth did
not get enough exercise and, hence. loos-
cned and fell out. Our food was swal-
lowed in solid chunks and. hence, acted
like lead in the stomach and laid the
foundations for dyspepsia and constipa-
tlon.
Worst and deadliest OF all, we were
gravey assured that the stomach had no
teeth and. hence. that anything which
escaped mastication in the mouth cou d
not be tackled I'm the intestines and
passed through the body unchanged
causing an appalling wastage of good
food materials.
One by one these scareheads were ex-
ploded. The main reason why the SAIL
vary digestion OF starch, which consists
in changing 1t into sugar. was supposed
to be destroyed by boiling the food, was
that this change can only take place in
an alkaline solution. like the fluids of the
mouth and. hence. the process would
stop as soon as the food reached the acid
stomach
But II was one day discovered that in
stead of the stomach being constantly
acid, the left two-thirds or first pouch
into which the food fell was alkaline
after a meal and remained so for three
quarters of an hour or more.
50 that all that was necessary was to
put down the starch, shoot the saliva on
top of 1t and the sugar fermentation
could go on perfectly for from three
quarters of an hour to an hour and a
'thalf in the stomach.
But worse remained. 1t was found that
even under the most favorable of cir
cumstances only a part OF the starch was
changed to sugar in the mouth and
stomach and that the most important
part of this first step in the digestion of
insoluble starch, turning it into soluble
sugar, took place under the Influence Of
the powerful ferments of the pancreas in
the intestines.
The most valuable feature of the saliva
is its wetness and, as was proven by the
drinking at meals test. the more you can
add to this wetness within reasonable
limits the better the digestion will take
place. So far as starchy foods are con-
cerned-that is to say, bread, crackers,
cereals. rice. corn. potatoes, etc.-ali that
is necessary in the way of chewing. Is
enough to reduce them to a soft pulp
capable of being readily penetrated by
the watery juices in the stomach and in
the intestines. Anything beyond this is
a waste OF time and muscular energy.
oPf haw baf "a 70
we do certain naturel. habitual things
are different from what we suppose. We
have always been sure that the chief
virtue of masticating our food was to
mix It thoroughly with the digestive fer
ment of the saliva
Now we know that while this sugar
fernent of the saliva is of some inpor-
lance. yet the two things which are most
important to mix with our food in mas
tication are water and air. This does
not mean that you are to chew with you
mouth open and masticate audibly as
$.wel as rhythmically. though the con
c&ision would be quite as rational as th
"Chew-Chew'' fad which had its vogu
some years ago.
Porousness of our food is as importan
for good digestion as porousness of =
soil il for q good crop. One reason why
breads and hard biscuits. hot or cold
are such excellent foods, and mushes
and cereals and gummy buildings an6
Stops OF all sorts such poor ones, is tina
pulp of bread or hard biscuit remains
porous when wet while a pulp Of mushes
whether cormeal, oatmeal or hastS
pudding, or soft biscuit. or soggy dough
is almost as waterproof as so much
gum.
For the same reason, another popular
illusion fell-namely that soft-boiled
eggs are more digestible than hard.
boiled-when it was discovered by the
irrefutable method OF dropping a tea,
spoonful OF chopped up hard-boiled white
of egg and a teaspoonful of soft-boileC
white of egg into test tubes of pepsir
and hydrochloric acid side by side tina
the hard boiled was dissolved first. be
cause the pepsin could penetrate into &
quicker than 1t could into the gumml
pulp Of the soft-boiled. But. OF course
hard.boiled eggs must be REASONABLE,
well chewed. and nobody bothers to chew
a soft-boiled egg, and couldn't II h,
tried
So much for three-ouarters of ou
sr-TOodstuff starches When It comes L
the bulk of the remainder, the meats
the situation is even more surprising. l
was long ago discovered by experiment.
both on human beings and animals tina
so active and vigorous are the pepsin o
the stomach Juice and the psncreatio
OF the pancreatin, that meat swailowe'
in cubes three-quarters Of an inch squar
is we'll digested In a healthy stomach ant
Intestine.
Not that II Is advisable TO swallow
in chunks Of this size, but simply as a
illustration Of what the digestion ca
do If it Is put to It. Our ancestors of tn
stone age. and for the matter Of tina
OF the fifth and sixth centuries. coul
gorge thirty pounds OF meat at sitting
when they could get It. In chunks tn
size of which was merely limited by III
swallowing diameter OF their throats. an
he none the worse for 1t. except a littl
drowsiness for three or four days. Tha
is the sort Of a pedigree our stomac
has.