HASTY EATING by John Harvey Kellogg

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 23, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 25.

HASTY EATING.

By John Harvey Kellogg

According to an old adage, "Haste makes waste." A good illustration of this is presented by the typical Yankee, while swallowing his food with business dispatch, using "water power," or, rather, tea and coffee power, with but little regard to the consequences. If it is necessary to take food, it is equally so to secure the needed nourishment from it, promoting health and strength, with due regard to decent and refined habits. Certain kinds of food—well represented by the grains, rich in starch—require a combination with the saliva of the mouth, this being the special solvent of starch, the most important step in the digestive process. If hastily forced into the stomach, this saliva cannot be properly combined with it, of necessity reducing the amount of nourishment afforded.

If ordinary food passes into the stomach without being properly masticated, in masses, it will not be permeated by the gastric juice, in which case it will not be naturally digested, of course not furnishing its usual nutrition. The digestive organs are to that extent taxed, reducing their power to nourish the body. It would be wiser to take less food—if there seems to be insufficient time for the meals—that diminished quantity, well digested, affording more real nourishment than twice the quantity, but imperfectly digested, since only the digested food can be of any service.—Dr. J. H. Hanaford.