EATING HASTILY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1693, 31 March 1917, Page 4

EATING HASTILY.

A great (min of evils follows that grout mistake which in this age of hurry so many are making—eating too fast. It is not the small matter it may seem. Even under the most favourable conditions, with the best of teeth, rapid mastication cannot properly divide and break up the food particles and effect a due admixture of the salivary secretion. Under these conditions, when a (•rude mass of inadequately crushed and undivided solid material of any description is passed into the stomach, much harm results, and unfortunately a man may live under an affliction of hurried dinners and endure the consequent loss of health for years without knowing why he is not well or how easily the cause of his illness might be remedied. Lumps of food taken into the stomach act as mechanical irritants, and set up a condition in the delicate lining membrane of the stomach which greatly impairs, if not altogether prevents, the process of digestion. Another evil is very liable to accompany rapid eating — i.e., over-eating. Not only is the patient inclined to over-eat, but inasmuch as he does not digest and assimilate his food properly nature fallaciously seems to require a much larger quantify of food than would be necessary under natural conditions, and thus the stomach is dilated, stretched, slips down in the abdomen, does not empty itself properly, produces a poor quality of digestive (laid, becomes inactive, and the whole system suffers from a lack of nourishment.