Good Health | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 16, 1879

Good Health.

Fresh and Stale Bread.

EVERY dyspeptic knows that new bread is not easy of digestion. The reason why, has not been clearly stated heretofore by any scientific authority; but recently, the celebrated French chemist, Boussingault, has concluded a series of experiments which show beyond a question that one of the great reasons for the indigestibility of new bread is not its newness, but its temperature. This he proved by placing bread which had been baked six days previous and dried during the whole interval, in the oven again, when it re-acquired all its original properties.

The process of baking produces various mucilaginous substances which, if eaten when warm, forms a pasty mass which in the stomach is formed into small compact masses which are impenetrable by the gastric juice. These portions of food remain in the stomach undigested, and occasion all the inconvenience and irritation which would result from the presence of other foreign bodies in the stomach. The results may be pain in the chest and stomach, disturbance of the circulation, cerebral congestion and pain in the head, irritation and even inflammation of the membranes of the brain, attacks of apoplexy, and even cramp and delirium.—Good Health.