19 

 Have you ever heard that 



EVERY PARTICLE OF FOOD CONSUMED, 



whether it be a spoonful of milk-pudding or a hard cracker, must assume a 

 fluid form before it can serve the body as nourishment? Digestion is largely 

 a process of liquefaction, and the change has to take place somewhere between 

 the lips and the marvellous surface of the small intestine, which absorbs and 

 passes these fluids through its own substance to the blood and lymph which 

 bathe every portion of the muscles, nerves, bone-cells, etc., of which the body 

 is built up. 



The long tube, which extends from the mouth right through the trunk, 

 in which digestion takes place, is, virtually, as much cut off from direct com- 

 munication with the lungs and heart, for instance, or with the limbs, as if it 

 were completely outside instead of inside the trunk. Consequently, 



THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE INDIVIDUAL 



depends upon 



(a.) The reduction of nutrient material to fluid form within this tube: 

 (6.) Upon the efficiency with which it is absorbed and distributed to the 



different tissues, which call for repair or energy. 



If the food is by its nature incapable of digestion, as, for example, the 

 skins, stones, and seeds of fruit and vegetables; or if the surface of the 

 intestine is unequal to its work, as in cases of cholera or typhoid fever: or 

 if the eater is worried or plunged into profound thought, so that an unusual 

 amount of blood is busy in the brain ; or if he is overtired, so that the blood 

 and nerves are half poisoned by the chemical results of great fatigue then 

 no absorption is possible, and all sorts of miseries, known as indigestion, are 

 the result. 



NOW FOR A WORD OF GOOD ADVICE. 



If the appetite fails, do not hurry to force it ; just go without eating until 

 hunger returns. No healthy person suffers from occasional absence of all 

 food, except water, for twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Hunger is the body's 

 cry for food; when it wants nourishment, hunger makes itself felt. A loss 

 of appetite in a healthy, well-fed person usually means that too much food 

 or food of an improper kind has been eaten ; or maybe the eater was overtired, 

 worried, overexcited, or otherwise incapable of making use of the food he 

 forced down, thinking it the right thing to do. 



FOLLOW NATURE'S LEAD, 



and do not force food on the unwilling digestive organs; they will ring an 

 insistent dinner-bell when ready for work. Of course, if illness be the cause 

 of loss of appetite, then the form and frequency of the diet is a matter for 

 the physician to decide. 



It may be useful here to mention another important fact. Readers may 

 be puzzled over 



THE APPARENT INCONSISTENCY 



of insisting that all food must be well absorbed and yet saying (on page 11) 

 that unless some indigestible material be eaten, such as cellulose, constipation 



