[Sidenote: Chief function of the stomach]
The importance of the stomach as an organ of digestion has been
overestimated in modern times. From the discussions in the average
text-book and physiology, one would be led to believe that the stomach
is the only organ of digestion, when, as a matter of fact, the chief
purpose of the stomach is that of a receptacle for the storage of food
for digestion further on. I do not mean by this statement that there is
no digestive action in the stomach, but I do mean to say that there
are no digestive processes completed in the stomach, and that all foods
which are acted on by the gastric juice can also be acted on by the
digestive juices in the intestines. This has been proved by the fact
that surgeons have successfully removed the entire stomach from both
animals and men without seriously interfering with the nutrition of
the body. They merely had to eat more often, as the depot or storage
receptacle had been removed.
[Sidenote: Inaccuracy of digestive tables]
The stomach should be considered as a preliminary organ of digestion.
The tables published in the physiologies giving the digestibility of
various foods as so many hours, refer entirely to the length of time
it takes for the food to pass out of the stomach. According to these
tables boiled rice is given as one of the most digestible of foods. As a
matter of fact, the chief reason why rice passes out of the stomach more
quickly than other grains, is because it contains practically nothing
but starch, and as starch is not digested in the stomach, the rice is
passed on to the next station where it can be acted on by an alkali.
[Sidenote: Comparison of predigested and uncooked cereals]
In this connection it becomes necessary to refer to the interpretation
of the experimental results obtained by investigators at the Battle
Creek Sanitarium. In these experiments cereal products which had been
put through various processes of predigestion were compared with
uncooked whole wheat, the contents being removed from the stomach after
a given period. The results of this experiment showed a greater amount
of starch digestion in the case of the dextrinized or super-cooked
foods. These results were published as proof that starchy foods
should be put through a process of super-cooking, dextrinization or
predigestion. To those who are not familiar with food chemistry, such
results would appear very convincing, but to a well-informed food
scientist they only illustrate how misinterpretation of scientific facts
may indicate conclusions opposed to the truth.
Starchy foods are not intended by Nature to be digested in the stomach,
but in the intestines, and the processes of partial digestion of these
foods, by artificial means, before entering the stomach, serve only to
interfere with Nature's plan, and to deprive both the stomach and the
intestines of their natural functions.