Greetings! Today we start a new series entitled “Twenty-seven Varieties of Indigestion“. Good digestion is at least as important as good food. If one’s food is perfect but ferments in the stomach and decays in the intestine, it enters the blood stream as poison. Spoiled food is deadly, and that which spoils within the tract is as poisonous as that which spoils without the body. A poor ration well-digested will do the body more good than good food if it is not well-digested. Thus it may be that this new series is of even more importance than any which have preceded it. Furthermore, in today’s call we shall look at numbers 1-3, in the causes of indigestion.
Good Digestion
As a rule nature has provided each person with digestive forces which will function normally provided proper food is properly eaten and nothing is done to interfere with the digestive processes. Our troubles usually come from practices which retard digestion and therefore the correction is automatic when these practices are abandoned.The proper food has been described in prior classes. We will now explain correct and incorrect eating habits and other matters which aid or hinder digestion.
The Causes of Indigestion
1. Eating too Fast
The food should be prepared for the stomach by thorough mastication and salivation in the mouth. Many people 
bolt in ten minutes the food which should have forty-five minutes of chewing. Digestion should begin in the mouth, but these people give it no time to begin here, and the work that is not done here must be done, if done, farther down. This is a very common cause of indigestion.
2. Overeating
A very common cause of indigestion is eating too much. There is a limit to the amount, even of good food, which the stomach can successfully handle at one time. The ordinary healthy person should stop eating while he still has an appetite.
3. Meals too Close Together
Time is required by the stomach to do its work. A few foods will digest in an hour or two; others require four hours and 
some five hours. Raw cabbage digests in two hours and thirty minutes, while boiled cabbage requires four hours. The average person should allow five hours between the meals. This provides time for digestion and for the stomach to have a short period of rest before undertaking the work of digesting the next meal. The rest is necessary for two reasons. First, a tired stomach cannot digest the next meal even if it be of perfect food. After the gastric glands have been strongly stimulated to produce gastric juice, they will not respond again until after four hours.
They must rest to prepare for further activity. A rested and ravenous stomach is quite sure to take good care of the next meal if it is properly eaten. Many people never stop to think that the stomach must have rest. They think it is like heart-can work always. But the heart rests more time than it works-it rests between beats. The stomach must have rest between meals. Making it work continuously will bring disaster. Many people are afraid to be hungry a short while, but that is a fine experience for then you know the stomach will take good care of the next meal.
Again, if the stomach is asked to work continuously without rest, it will be short-lived. You cannot work without rest and continue to work very long. The day’s schedule should provide for eating hours spaced at least five hours apart, and as far as possible should be at the same hours every day. Regularity is the word.
Object Lesson:
Our preparation for the judgment, can be likened to the preparation process of the food for the stomach. Our experience must be thorough, and we must take the time to get ready.
“Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ’s loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work.These workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God…” ED 260.
Join us next week and invite a friend! We shall study causes number 5 & 6. Blessings!
* Study adapted from the book, Abundant Health by Julius G. White