STOMACH AND INTESTINAL DIGESTION 25 



This moves the food around and around from one end 

 to the other, thus causing it to become thoroughly 

 mixed with gastric juices. As the glands in our 

 stomach need to secrete from one-eighth to one-tenth of 

 our weight in gastric juice daily to carry on the work 

 of digestion properly, we can understand why much 

 blood is needed by the stomach during the digestion 

 of a hearty meal. 



It is not a hard problem in arithmetic to calcu- 

 late how much gastric juice our own stomachs must 

 secrete from the blood each day. If the weight is one 

 hundred pounds, ten pounds, or about five quarts, 

 must be secreted. Just think of it ! A gallon or more 

 of this useful fluid to be daily supplied by these busy 

 glands ! Surely even very young boys and girls can 

 see why it is unwise to handicap the stomach by lessen- 

 ing its supply of blood, diluting the gastric juice, or 

 compelling it to do more than its normal share of work. 



Salt, pepper, and other seasonings are called con- 

 diments. A small amount of these, better added 

 during the cooking, improves the taste, and so is 

 a healthful stimulant to the gastric glands. How- 

 ever, we should not get into the habit of seasoning 

 too much. Too much seasoning over-stimulates the 

 glands, causing more food to be eaten than the body 

 needs. Food that is pleasing in appearance is said 

 to cause the gastric glands to pour forth their secre- 

 tion more freely than that which is not tempting. 

 On this account, it is important to have our meals 



