GIVING YOUR DIGESTION A CHANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 September 1925, Page 4

GIVING YOUR DIGESTION A CHANCE.

Among civilised people the digestive organs are constantly overworked. Tire process of digestion .-annul be “ bustled.’’ like the brain or the nervous system, says Walter Oallirhan in the “ Daily Mail.” Roast beef requires fully four hours for digestion and bread about threehours. .‘-"alt fish, goose, dried haricot l>i-:iiis and pens are not digested under about live hours. Speaking generally, an average dinner requires between lour and five hours for the digestive juices to do their work. The custom eating four meals a day is a continual tax upon the digestive apparatus. It is one of the gravest of all our dietetic fallacies that, constant stoking ol the human engines i- essential for producing energy. The stomach only winks normally when il is permitted roaxomible intervals of rest. Even during sleep, if a hearty meal has been taken an hour or so before retiring, the digestive machinery is hard at work. We rest tho muselcs after exertion and we relax brain activity while asleep: but the unfortunate stomach is worked overtime habitually. This is why the ordinary rejoinders to an inquiry concerning the health of our acquaintance* are “Pretty fair” or ” Kairlv well ” at the liest. while very often they are: “Not very well." or " Not at all up to the mark.” Three good meals a day should bo the maximum, with at least four-hour intervals between. Many person* engaged in sedentary occupation benefit hv reducing the meals to two a day. The habit of eating luncheon at halfpast one. afternoon tea with rake* and pastries at live, and a four- or fivecourse dinner at seven is n cruel test nf the working capacity of the longsuffering digestive tract. In eases of very feeble digestive functioning small and frequent meals have been recommended by some physicians. On tin- other band, in some forms of dyspepsia fasting within reasonable limits has proved beneficial.