The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-12-06
WHEN CEREALS ARE INJURIOUS.
Little Talks on Health and Hygiene by
Samuel G. Dixon, N. D., IL. D.,
Commissioner OF Health.


as an example of starchy foods
and through it, study their effect
on the system. In the first place
it should be thoroughly chewed
so that the alkaline secretions of
the glands in the mouth are
thoroughly mixed with it. Ifthis
is done, the process Of digestion
which turns The starch into sugar
is well started before the food
passes from the mouth into the
stomach, where it meets with
an acid secretion intended for
the digestion of proteins or meats.
Here the starch digestion, if it
has been started, is arrested.
There are two ways of prepar-
ing or cooking these foodstuffs,
oatmeal among tn EN-. The
Scoth cook it "a very short time,
their idea being to retain a GER
tain degree of hardness of the
grain that may act mechanically
and stimulate the nerves of the
muscular walls of the intestines
and thereby take the place of
laXatives that are too often used
by those leading sedentary lives.
This half-cooked mass of food is
often mixed with milk or cream,
which helps to wash it down
Immediately upon taking it into
the mouth, which entirely pre-
vents the natural digestion.
When taken in this way, oat-
meal or other starchy food is
wasted as far as nourishing the
body is concerned and often acts
as a foreign substance in the
digestive tract, thereby interfer-
ing with general digestion of
other foods. This not only pre-
vents the body getting nourish-
ment from a general diet but it
produces toxins or poisons which
are absorbed by the body and
cause various ills, all the way
from a slight disturbance of
health to such an extreme that
sometimes will cost a life.
The better and most practical
way to cook oats or other starchy
foods is to submit them to cook
ing for hours, often all night,
that the grain be thoroughly
softened. which makes it more
easily digested. This softer
preparation of the food, however,
is also often eaten with milk or
cream, reducing its consistency
to a Semi-liquid which goes
down the throat almost imme-
diately after entering the mouth.
1t therefore is. subject to the
same criticism as the less
thoroughly cooked oatmeal as far
as the alkaline digestion in the
mouth is concerned. This, how
ever, is not irritating to the
digestive system and would seem
to 60 through a certain degree
of digestion in the intestinal
tract. Nevertheless, it is robbed
of a great deal of its food value.
The oats and other starchy
foods, as we have said, should be
thoroughly cooked and kept in
the mouth sufficiently long for
the first process of digestion to
take place.
Going back, then to our
thoroughly cooked oatmeal, we
may say that the wisest way to
prepare starchy food is to make
it into cakes or some other form
that will necessitate chewing be-
fore it can be swallowed. If,
however, owing to the conditions
we meet in life, we are compell-
ed to take food in mush form,
it is advisable to select that
which is thoroughly cooked and
sufficiently dry to hold its own
form. This form should not be
destroyed by adding large guam
titles of milk and cream. The
food should enter the mouth in
solid form so that more or less
mastication will be required.
When this is followed out oat-
meal becomes valuable food,
and many persons who have had
to give up the eating of starches.
can, if they follow this advice,
resume their consumption with
impunity and often be much bene-
fited. This is true especially, as
| has heen said in vonth and old