Greetings! In today’s class, we shall finish up our countdown on the 27 varieties of indigestion!
15. Vinegar
It is claimed by some that the acetic acid in vinegar prevents the action of the salvia, and that one teaspoonful can stop the starch digestion of an ordinary meal; that it also hinders the digestion of protein.
16. Fried Foods
Fried foods are more difficult to digest and should not be eaten frequently.
17. Complex Mixtures
Simple foods compounded are easier to digest than are complex mixtures and a great variety. The cooking should be simplified. We do not need so much to know how to put ingredients together as we do know how to keep them apart. The more we learn about healthful living the less cooking there is to do and the simpler it becomes.
18. Combinations of Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables should not be eaten in the same meal. Especially, by people with weak digestion; they may cause fermentation.
Cereals, grains, legumes, nuts, olives, squash, melons, pumpkins, and tomatoes all combine well with either fruit or vegetables.
Protein and Starch Can Combine
Every now and then you read or hear that protein and starch should not be combined in the same meal. There are several ways to interpret this. First, it might apply to protein in animal flesh which health reformers do not use and therefore we do not need to consider it here. Inasmuch as nature combines protein and carbohydrates in very many foods as they grow, we cannot take exception to her arrangement.
19. Combination of Milk and Sugar
The combination of milk and sugar or milk and honey is one which favors fermentation. Therefore, it is better to do away with animal milk and refined sugars.
20. Too Much Sugar
Sugar ferments rapidly. Most people of today far overeat their sugar requirement, beginning in childhood. It is the undoing of many. White refined sugar is an irritant in the digestive tract.
“Far too much sugar is ordinarily used in food…Especially harmful are the custards and puddings in which milk, eggs, and sugar are the chief ingredients. The free use of milk and sugar taken together should be avoided.” MH 301
21. Caffeinated Tea Coffee, Cocoa
Caffeinated tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, and colas and similar drinks all hinder digestion. Usually cocoa hinds more than tea or coffee, although they are more injurious than cocoa in other ways. Their use is a bad habit and for many reasons should be discontinued. Other reasons will be discussed in a later class.
22. Too Much Liquid Food
The use of an abundance of liquid food often contributes to indigestion because this excess liquid dilutes the stomach juice and hinders it from beginning its work. Most people can safely take some liquid food, but many overdo it. In certain conditions, none should be used.
23. Drinking With the Meals
Worse still is the practice of drinking with the meals.
“The more liquid there is taken with the meals the more difficult it is for the food to digest; for the liquid must be absorbed before digestion can begin….Soft or liquid foods are less wholesome than dry foods which require thorough mastication.” MH 305
Their use is only a habit. Cease to do so and soon you will enjoy your meals more than before and will have better digestion and better health.
The times to drink are any time between two hours after eating and one hour before the next meal. Early in the morning, an hour before dinner, and at bedtime, are good drinking times.
24. “Soft Drinks”
“Soft drinks” are a very common cause of indigestion. They often contain sweetening agents some of which are very irritating as well as easy to ferment. Their flavors are unnatural and often not healthful. They are harmful in many other ways, but at this time we are stressing good digestion. Do not indulge. Save your health and your money.
25. Chewing Gum
Dr. J.H. Kellogg says, “The habit of chewing gum is likely to produce sour stomach by interfering with the digestion of starch through lessening the activity of saliva.”
26. Loss of Minerals
In an earlier class the mineral content of the four digestive juices were given. Their ability to digest food depends upon these minerals, which are picked out of the blood by the glands which supply the juices to the digestive tract; but they cannot get them from the blood unless they were in the foods previously eaten. Therefore, he who uses foods which have lost more or less of their natural mineral content may rightfully expect that sooner or later his digestive juices will be too weak to do their work. Result, indigestion. It is said that half of the food eaten in the U.S. has lost more or less of its minerals. This, then, is not an imaginary menace to good digestion. All the more reason, that we need to grow our own food!
27. Aluminum
Many people have become convinced that the use of aluminum utensils for food and drink is the source of very serious digestive disturbances. The number of such people is rapidly increasing. Doctors in may parts of the country are beginning to recognize this, and such recognition by doctors is growing rapidly.
Beside those habits which people deliberately or unwittingly practice, there may be pathological conditions present and causing fermentation which can be determined only by a physician. As an example: When the hydrochloric acid in the stomach is deficient it is not able to destroy the bacteria which enter the stomach as it should do, and these will pass into the small intestine and cause fermentation and gas there.
That concludes our count, on the 27 varieties of indigestion. Join us in next weeks class, and invite a friend! We shall be studying about sour stomach, and also about high acid in the stomach. Until then!
*Study adapted from the book Abundant Health, by Julius G. White.