Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1917 — DIGESTION AND HEALTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DIGESTION AND HEALTH

By DR. SAMUEL G. DIXON.

Commissioner of Health of Pennsylvania. f Upon the health of every man. woman and child depends our national de-

tense. Let us, therefore, stop to realise the necessity of laying the foundation for the temple of peace. This structure must he made up of individual units strong and resistful to invasion. This strength depend s largely upon assimilation of foodstuffs.

Attention may be called to the-fact that starchy foods are more quickly and thoroughly digested In the secretions of the glands of the mouth than in any other part of the digestive sys-

tem. The digestion of March always begins with the saliva The proper mastication of starchy foods depends upon their being "held in the mouth long enough to permeate them thoroughly with ptyalin. If the starch Is shallowed without being saturated in the mouth it passes on through the stomach proper into what might be called the second stomach, where it* digestion is again taken up, but there is no substance like the secretions of the mouth. The expert chemists are constantly testing the commercial substances sold' as digestive agents, yet I never heard of any of them that would compare in digestive strength with the saliva of the mouth.

The important lesson to . maintain . health In youth and old age is the proper digestion of the starchy foods by mixing them up with the saliva in the mouth and not swallowing them down until that takes place. This will produce the chemical condition necessary for it to be taken up and circulated through the body and give strength to It along with that given by meats, beans and fats. • The following represent some of the starches to be and mixed with the saliva before swallowing: Potatoes, corn, rye, hominy, rice, white bread, toast, macaroni, bananas, crackers, all cereal breakfast foods, tapioca, arrow roots, sage, buckwheat* barley and parsnips.