WHY SOUP BEFORE THE DES SERT?

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 April 1914, Page 7

WHY SOUP BEFORE THE DES SERT?

Why should soup come first at a dinner instead of an ice or cheese or demi tasse is a question few probably ever gave a thought to, much less discussed. The chances are the majority who did would come to the conclusion that it was some old-time custom, such as shaking hands. But it is not custom, it is good, sound dietetics. Dr. Review writes in a most interesting manner concerning the order in which we eat our food. He explains that the routine. observed in our bills of fare at dinner is strictly in accordance with the physiological needs of our stomachs." Even the custom of dressing ?or d:uner and of decorating the table wtih. flowers and fern dishes is not without physiological significance, sinw agreeable surroundings conduce to good digestion,' just as worry, annoi ance, fatigue are the deadly enemicß of that important function. The custom of serving caviar, anchovies, or some similar tit-bit before soup is an excellent one. Those dishes appeal strongly to the sense of smell, and as Povlov showed in his experiments, any dish that helps stimulate the flow of saliva and gastric juice almost invariably appeals primarily to the sense of smell. Soup, following the tit-bit contains meat extractives which further stimulate the flow of the gastric juices of the stomach. These meat juices are the only foodstuffs that will directly incite the flow of the gastric juices independently of the sense of smell. The flow of the digestive ferments has now been fully accomplished, and the stomach is in readiness to receive the principal article of the meal, the roast, or meat course. The entree which sometimes intervenes between soup and meat has no particular function to perform further than consuming time needed for a sufficient secretion of the digestive juices required by the meat course. The proteids contained. in meat, while highly nourishing, cannot be properly digested unless the stomach is prepared to deal with them. Carbohydrates or starchy foods usually form the dessert. Until quite recently it was believed that the stomach was a sort of huge churn, in which all the food, mixed together was churned and tossed until digested. To-day we know that this is not so. The food first introduced into the - stomach takes position next to the gastric mucous membrane, getting the benefit of the gastric juices secreted by it. Subsequent food takes a more central position, and is shifted on to the gastric membrane only after the previous food has been disposed of, and has been expelled from the stomach. Now <he gastric secretions, that is, the juices of the stomach, contain no ferments which will act upon starch. All starchy foods depend upon the ferments contained in the saliva for digestion, and moreover, the ferment of the saliva, H brought into contact with the gastric juice, has its digestive powers neutralised. It is necessary, therefore, that the ice cream or corn starch pudding should remain centrally located in the stomach, an<l protected from the gastric juices by interposing layers of food, if the ferments of the saliva are to properly di*»*t it.— "London Budget."