In all cases, be the food simple or the outcome of a French chef's
culinary alchemy, it is its Flavor that makes it agreeable and by so
doing stimulates the flow of the juices necessary for proper digestion.
In the case of the mouth and its salivary glands this is obvious to
all. Everybody knows that the fragrance of good food "makes the mouth
water."
In the case of the stomach, the connection is much less obvious.
Until a few years ago even the medical men were in the dark on this
extremely important aspect of the question, although French and German
physiologists had made important discoveries.
[Illustration: A French chef's culinary alchemy]
It remained for Professor Pawlow of St. Petersburg to throw the bright
light of scientific experiment on this subject.
He demonstrated in his St. Petersburg laboratory that the mere presence
of food in a dog's stomach--which is like a man's in that respect--does
not suffice to cause a flow of gastric juice, but that the psychic
factor we call appetite--a keen desire for food--causes an abundant
flow of that fluid, without which the digestion cannot proceed.
Now it might be said that there was really no need of laboratory
experiments to tell us that food eaten without enjoyment lies like lead
in the stomach and does more harm than good.
It is nevertheless a great advantage to have a scientific demonstration
of the fact and an explanation of it, because it encourages us in the
right way of eating.
Instinct showed that way long ago; it did its best to intimate that
food should be eaten with interest and enjoyment.
Too often, unfortunately, no attention has been paid to this instinct.
Among the Russians (who do not, in this respect, differ from other
peoples) "an absolutely unphysiological indifference towards
eating often exists," Professor Pawlow says. "In wider circles of
the community a due conception of the importance of eating should
be disseminated. How often do the people who have charge of the
commissariat pay attention solely to the nutritive value of the food,
or place a higher value on everything else than taste!"
Yet it is the "taste" (Flavor) of food that arouses the appetite. As
the French say, "the appetite comes while we are eating." Medical
men of various countries in former times paid special attention to
the restoration of a patient's appetite. In more recent text books
less attention is paid to appetite as a symptom; but Prof. Pawlow's
experiments have again, and for all time, demonstrated its importance.
Those young ladies who think it is "nice" and "feminine" to pretend
to have no appetite should read the Pawlow papers, and have all that
nonsense knocked out of their heads. A poor appetite is a danger
signal--a thing to arouse pity and to be cured, just like a headache or
a fever.
"Appetite juice" is one of the suggestive names Professor Pawlow gives
to the fluid which digests food in the stomach. There is little or
none of it for the man who eats without noticing his food, unable to
distract his thoughts from his work, as so often happens to those
who live in the midst of the incessant turmoil of large cities. This
inattention to the act of eating (to the Flavor of the food) prepares
the way for digestive disturbances with all the various diseases
following them. No medical treatment can help such a patient--unless he
reforms and eats rationally.
Thus, the studies of Dr. Pawlow fully bear out my contention as to the
Vital Importance of Flavor in Food.
[Illustration: An American quick-lunch]
There is one more of his observations to which superlative importance
attaches. One of his experiments on dogs showed that if food was given
gradually in small quantities, it led to the secretion of much stronger
gastric juice than when the animal was allowed to eat the whole ration
at once.
This was a laboratory demonstration of the wisdom of the best medical
treatment of a weak stomach; "and such a regulation of diet,"
continues the professor, "is all the more necessary, since, in the
commonest disorders of the stomach, only the surface layers of the
mucous membrane are affected. It may, consequently, happen that the
sensory surface of the stomach, which should take up the stimulus of
the chemical excitant, is not able to fulfil its duty, and the period
of chemical secretion, which ordinarily lasts for a long time, is
for the most part disturbed, or even wholly absent. A strong psychic
excitation, a keen feeling of appetite, may evoke the secretory impulse
in the central nervous system and send it unhindered to the glands
which lie in the deeper as yet unaffected layers of mucous membrane."
Doubtless the very interesting physiological detail here pointed out
by the eminent Russian professor, explains the dietetic as well as
gastronomic wisdom of the old fashioned table d'hôte of the European
hotels. Half a dozen or more courses follow one another leisurely in
course of an hour or more during which the pleasant Flavor of one dish
after another keeps the appetite on edge and gives plenty of time for
the deeper as well as the surface layers of the glands to secrete their
beneficent and comforting digestive juices.
From such a leisurely dinner, with courses skilfully made up of
contrasting flavors to prevent the appetite from flagging, we rise
cheerful and at peace with all the world, whereas an American
quick-lunch, or a railroad dinner gulped down in ten minutes makes us
feel like swearing off eating for all time.