Part 20 (1/2)

[11] The system is gradually developed, and all changes of food, apparel, labor, exercise, or position, should be gradual. Even a change from a bad to a good habit, on this principle, should be gradual.

302. _Some temperaments require more stimulating food than others._ As a general rule, those persons whose sensations are comparatively obtuse, and movements slow, will be benefited by animal food; while those individuals whose const.i.tutions are highly impressible, and whose movements are quick and hurried, require a nutritious and unstimulating vegetable diet.

300. What kinds of food are appropriate to old age? Why? What kinds to childhood? Why? 301. What is the effect when there is a sudden change from a vegetable to an animal diet? How should all changes of the system be made? 302. Do different temperaments require different kinds of food? What general rule is given?

CHAPTER XVI.

HYGIENE OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS, CONTINUED.

303. The MANNER in which food should be taken is of much practical importance; upon it the health of the digestive organs measurably depends. But few circ.u.mstances modify the proper manner of taking food, or should exercise any controlling influence.

304. _Food should be taken at regular periods._ The interval between meals should be regulated by the character of the food, the age, health, exercise, and habits of the individual. The digestive process is more energetic and rapid in the young, active, and vigorous, than in the aged, indolent, and feeble; consequently, food should be taken more frequently by the former than by the latter cla.s.s.

305. In some young and vigorous persons, food may be digested in one hour; in other persons, it may require four hours or more. The average time, however, to digest an ordinary meal, will be from two to four hours. In all instances, the stomach will require from one to three hours to recruit its exhausted powers after the labor of digesting a meal before it will again enter upon the vigorous performance of its duties.

306. _Food should not be taken too frequently._ If food is taken before the stomach has regained its tone and energy by repose, the secretion of the gastric juice, and the contraction of the muscular fibres, will be imperfect. Again, if food is taken before the digestion of the preceding meal has been completed, the effects will be still worse, because the food partially digested becomes mixed with that last taken. Therefore the interval between each meal should be long enough for the whole quant.i.ty to be digested, and the time of repose should be sufficient to recruit the exhausted organs. The feebler the person and the more debilitated the stomach, the more important to observe the above directions.

303. Why is it important that we regard the manner of taking our food?

304. How should the intervals between meals be regulated? 305. What is the average time required to digest an ordinary meal? 306. Why should not food be taken too frequently?

_Observation._ In the feeding of infants, as well as in supplying food to older children, the preceding suggestions should always be regarded. The person who has been confined by an exhausting sickness, should most scrupulously regard this rule, if he wishes to regain his strength and flesh with rapidity. As the rapidity of the digestive process is less in students and individuals who are engaged in sedentary employments, than in stirring agriculturists, the former cla.s.s are more liable to take food too frequently than the latter, while its observance is of greater importance to the sedentary artisan than to the lively lad and active farmer.

307. _Food should be well masticated._ All solid aliments should be reduced to a state of comparative fineness, by the teeth, before it is swallowed; the gastric fluid of the stomach will then blend with it more readily, and act more vigorously in reducing it to chyme. The practice of swallowing solid food, slightly masticated, or ”bolting”

it down, tends to derange the digestive process and impair the nutrition of the system.

308. _Mastication should be moderate, not rapid._ In masticating food, the salivary glands are excited to action, and some time must elapse before they can, secrete saliva in sufficient quant.i.ties to moisten it. If the aliment is not supplied with saliva, digestion is r.e.t.a.r.ded; besides, in rapid eating, more food is generally consumed than the system demands, or can be easily digested. Laborers, as well as men of leisure, should have ample time for taking their meals. Imperfect mastication is a prevailing cause of indigestion.

What persons would be benefited by observing the preceding remarks?

307. Why should food be well masticated? What is the effect of ”bolting down” food? 308. How should mastication be performed? Why?

309. _Food should be masticated and swallowed without drink._ As the salivary glands supply fluid to moisten the dry food, the use of tea, coffee, water, or any other fluid, is not demanded by nature's laws while taking a meal. One objection to ”was.h.i.+ng down” the food with drink is, the aliment is moistened, not with the saliva, but with the drink. This tends to induce disease, not only in the salivary organs, by leaving them in a state of comparative inactivity, but in the stomach, by the deficiency of the salivary stimulus. Another is, large quant.i.ties of fluids, used as drinks, give undue distention to the stomach, and lessen the energy of the gastric juice by its dilution, thus r.e.t.a.r.ding digestion. Again, drinks taken into the stomach must be removed by absorption before the digestion of other articles is commenced.

_Observation._ Were it customary not to place drinks on the table until the solid food is eaten, the evil arising from drinking too much at meals would be obviated. The horse is never known to leave his provender, nor the ox his blade of gra.s.s, to wash it down; but many persons, from habit rather than thirst, drink largely during meals.