ABNORMAL ACTION OF THE STOMACH 75 



96. Perverted appetite. After hunger has been satisfied with 

 all the food needed, a food with an artificial taste is often brought on, 

 and a new appetite arises. The taste soon learns to prefer the arti- 

 ficially prepared food, and the education of " living to eat " is begun. 

 Pie, cake, sweets of all kinds, spices, and seasonings are eaten mainly 

 to please an acquired appetite. 



Sweets and highly seasoned food do not satisfy a hungry man as 

 plain food does, but on the contrary their taste becomes sickening to 

 the stomach, before they begin to satisfy his hunger. Moreover, the 

 appetite for artificial things may persist after the stomach is filled. 



97. Intemperate eating. In the hurry of business or pleasure 

 men gulp down their dinners in huge mouthfuls, and overload their 

 stomachs before the surprised organs can take account of the kind or 

 quantity of food eaten. Some eat too much in prolonging the pleas- 

 ures of taste. Nearly everybody indulges an appetite for sweets and 

 highly seasoned food. Satisfying an appetite which is not the expression 

 of actual need of the body is as much intemperance as drinking strong 

 drink, and leads to the same kind of serious results. 



98. Insufficient mastication. A whole train of evils follows 

 intemperate eating. When food is swallowed in large lumps instead 

 of being masticated to a thin gruel, too little saliva is mixed with it. It 

 reaches the stomach too dry, and so a larger amount of gastric juice is 

 needed. But the saliva is the natural stimulant to the flow of juice, 

 and if it is small in amount, the gastric, juice does not flow in sufficient 

 quantity and food is not well digested. 



99. Too much food. An excessive amount of food stretches 

 and weakens the stomach, and peristalsis cannot take place so vigorously 

 as it should. The lumps of food are neither penetrated by the gastric 

 juice nor ground to pieces by the peristalsis, but only their outer sur- 

 faces are slowly dissolved. The food thus remains too long a time 

 in the stomach, and some may stay there until the next meal. 



100. Eating between meals. Eating at irregular hours or 

 between meals also disturbs the stomach. Two or three hours after a 

 meal the work of the stomach should be done, and it should be per- 

 mitted to rest. If more food of any kind is eaten, the stomach must 

 either be overworked or the food not be digested. 



Food which the gastric juice softens with difficulty behaves like 

 large lumps of food, and finally either is vomited, or is passed on to the 

 intestine to create more trouble there. 



