If we masticate--submit to vigorous jaw action--everything that we
take into the mouth, liquid as well as solid, until the nutritive part
of it disappears into the stomach through compulsory or involuntary
swallowing, and remove from the mouth all fibrous, insoluble and
tasteless remainder, we will take into the body, thereby, only that
which is good for the body.
* * * * *
The first thought that will arise in the reader's mind on perusal
of the above declaration will undoubtedly be, "What! masticate
milk, soups, wines, spirits, and other liquids; nonsense! That is
impossible!"
It is not, however, impossible, and, furthermore, it is _absolutely
necessary to protection against abuse of the stomach and possible
disease_.
Liquid for adults, for anyone after the eruption of teeth, is an
artificial and unnatural sustenance; something not taken into
consideration when the human body was planned. Liquid food (drunk
without mixing with saliva) is a sort of nutritive self-abuse, and
the only way to avoid the ill effect is to give it the same chance
to encounter saliva that the constituent ingredients would have had
in a more solid state. For the importance of this see Dr. Campbell's
able treatise on mastication reprinted from the London _Lancet_ in the
"A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION."
* * * * *
The only things necessary to life that we are compelled to take into
the body that do not excite the sense of taste are pure air and pure
water. These are necessary to life, but are not what is called
nutrition. They do not, alone, replace waste tissue. They do not
challenge the sentinel, Taste, and hence do not require retention in
the field of taste.
If water be pure and tasteless you cannot masticate it, as it will not
submit to more than one action of the jaw before causing involuntary
swallowing. If it have taste it is a sign that it contains mineral or
vegetable substance that needs treatment of some sort to render it
suitable for the body, and it will then resist some mastication, some
mouth-treatment, as in tasting, before compelling swallowing, just as
the sapid liquids do.
Anything that has taste, even soup, wine, spirits or whatsoever is
tried, will resist numerous mastications before being absorbed by the
Food Filter. Above all things, milk, wines, etc., should be sipped and
tasted to the limit of compulsory swallowing.
* * * * *
In considering the reasonableness of masticating everything that
has taste until it is absorbed by Nature's Food Filter, it must be
remembered that the only liquid food provided for man that is not
artificial is milk, and the natural means provided for taking milk into
the stomach is by sucking, which is like mastication.[7] The milk of
fruits, such as cocoanut milk, for instance, is found, in liquid form,
only in the unripe fruit, and remains liquid only while it is ripening
into pulp.
[Footnote 7: Before the eruption of teeth in a child there is no
secretion of saliva, only mucous; but mother's milk is strongly
alkaline, and hence has no need of saliva to prepare it for digestion.
All milk that has "stood" or has been mixed with water is acid, and
requires saliva to give it the quality of mother's milk.]
* * * * *
Insalivation does not seem to be complete without jaw action, although
saliva (sometimes only mucous) flows freely into the mouth without
it under conditions which we term "watering of the mouth" excited by
keenness of appetite. (See Pawlow's, Campbell's, Van Someren's, and
other evidence in "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION.")
The normal perviousness or natural opening of the Food Filter for
swallowing food is directly assisted and affected by movement of the
jaws exercised in vigorous manner.
Mastication, or mouth-treatment, therefore, even of liquids that excite
taste, seems to be a necessary part of thorough insalivation.
* * * * *
Nature has a good reason for everything she plans.
It is asserted by physiological chemists that saliva, taken from the
mouth and kept at normal temperature, will dissolve breads and similar
foods and convert the starch in them into maltose, glucose or sugar.
The converted form is that which is suitable for further digestion.
Saliva also converts some acids into alkali and readily neutralises all
acids.
It is also asserted that saliva does not dissolve some things (proteid
substances) nor chemically affect them as visibly as it does starch
and acid, but, even if this be true, it is no less essential that
the juices provided in the mouth should have an opportunity, through
mastication, or, movement about in the mouth, to do what they are able
to do in assisting digestion.
Experiment shows that if all foods are submitted to the examination
and action of these juices until involuntary swallowing takes place,
the results in aiding subsequent digestion are important in promoting
healthy nutrition.
Separation, neutralisation, alkalination, saccharidation, of the
proteid and carbohydrate elements of common foods and perhaps a
partial emulsification of fats are all possible in the mouth and are
more easily and quickly done there than inside the body. Much care in
Mouth-Treatment is an assurance of economy and safety in Alimentation.