A PLEA FOR THE SIMPLE DIET.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 6

A PLEA FOR THE SIMPLE DIET.

IMMODERATE ADMIXTURES DAD

To return to nature is not. always easy, even when we know what Nature would have us do. Habit, it has been said, is second nature, and nowhere i.s this more true than in eating—the oldest habit. TV.it if improvement is desirable it must be most, desirable in eating, which underlies all life processes, and yet change, says Dr. T. .J, Allen, in the course of a. very reasonable paper, should be made only after e a rcful consideration, and th?n wUb all due d< liberation. Beef is digested ehieiiy in Ihe stomach by the action of the ::astric fluid. When reduced to a line pulp by mastication before entering the stomach, it tends to pass out before being properly digested, for the pylorus(the valve ' that connects the stomach with the intestines) tends to open when the food is sufficiently reduced by the movement of the stomach and thei action of the gastric fluid. Hence many authorities say that meat should be bolted as the dog swallows his meat in large lumps. This is scientifically correct, but the very opposite is true of bread and potatoes. Flesh digests in from three to iiv« hours ; rice remains in the stomach about one hour. When flesh and rice are eaten at the same meal, there is a conflict. The meat and rice are. Completely mixed by the movement of the stomach. If now the homogeneous mass is retained four hours, the rice undergoes fermentation. II the meat is carried into the intestines within two hours its digestion must be imperfect, failing to receive the; proper supply! of gastric fluid—an error which cannot, be fully corrected by further digestion in the intestines.

Much as this important phase of dietetics,, continues Dr. Allen, has been neglected by the medical profession invalids are never put upon a bi-diet, much less upon a mixture of several foods, however easily digested. Beef is one. of the commonest invalid diets, because it is almost pure proteid (nitrogenous matter), digesting easily in the stomach. Rice 85 per cent, starch, is a common invalid's diet, but meat and rice would not be prescribed to be eaten together. CONFLICTING DIGESTIONS.

Proteid foods (meats, eggs, beans, etc.) digest principally in the stomach ; carbonaceous foods (fruit, potatoes, cereal foods, etc.), principally in the intestine. When these classes of foods are mixed there is a conflict which must have a disquieting effect upon the system. It is natural to suppose that a bun?ary animal, under natural conditions, would confine itself to one kind of food. Neither man nor the pig is naturally omnivorous. Acorns are the natural food of the pig, which, like man, becomes a prey tc an almost infinite variety of diseases when he becomes by force of circumstances omnivorous. A high authority on the diseases of the pig says that they are due to its beijug fee upon the waste human foods from our tables.

It is a particular (act that the digestive organs of the pig very closely resemble those of man. Acorns anc a. few roots are the natural food ol the wild pig. In his natural state there is no healthier animal ; and in his domesticated state none more pitifully diseased, except:, perhaps,

man. Pavlov, the Russian physiological :hemist, has shown that the system adapts itself to the digestion of the !ood while it is in the mouth, the character of the digestive fluids secreted varying with the food. How bewildered it must lie by a ten-course :linner, offering perhaps 50 different irticles of food ! Considering these facts, we. must conclude, argues our authority, that serious injury is done 'to the system by eating a variety of foods at the ■:ame meal. Perhaps we may laid here the hitherto unaccountable reason <or the shortness of human life. And it this be the cause, we must find all the noted cases of longevity among those people whose diet is ihe simplest. Metchnikoff has found the largest percentage of centenarians arnong the Hungarian peasants, living largely on black bread (our informant forgets the Hungarian habit of indulging in sour milk, and its lifeprolonging value. —Ed.). Among the Irish peasantry, living eh icily on potatoes., centenarians are numerous. The noted cases of longevity have all been among the peasantry, living on a very simple diet. The most noted of centenarians, Cornaro, the Venetian, prolonged life GO years inrestricting his dieti to a uniform Quantity of eggs and unfermrnted wine almost exclusively. Several monodiet tests recently made under Dr. Allen's direction showed as would naturally be expected, if the principles above staled ire true, remarkable results. Pdg.ar Probst, a foundryman, eaiiug only beans for sixty days, gain-d eieb.f pounds in weight, working Sundays, two nights and several cv:nings extra during the period. On a forfy days' diet of oatmeal there was a gain of three pounds and better general conditions of health. On returning to his former mixed diet, Brobst lost four pounds in ten days. (An exclusive diet of beans would be injurious, and in no ease is a onesided diet of beans, meat, or anything else advisable,.)—"' Popular Science Sittings."