This is a very important rule and should be adhered to strictly.
It has reference to the use of water, tea, coffee, cocoa or other
watered
drinks while eating.
Milk is a food, not a
drink.
Animals and so-called primitive peoples do not drink with their
meals and there is every reason to consider this instinctive
practice to be best.
Laboratory tests have determined that water leaves the stomach
in about ten minutes after its ingestion. It carries the diluted,
and consequently weakened, digestive juices along with it, thereby
interfering seriously with digestion. It is often argued that water
drinking at meals stimulates the flow of gastric juice and thereby
enhances digestion. The answer to this is (1) It is not the natural
way to stimulate the secretion of digestive juices and results
sooner or later in an impairment of the secretory power of the
glands; and (2) It is of no value to digestion to increase the
secretion of digestive fluids, only to have them carried out of the
stomach, into the intestine, before they have had time to act upon
the food.
Water taken two hours after a meal enters the stomach at a time
when the gastric juice is there in abundance and the reactions are
proceeding nicely. The water sweeps these on into the intestine and
retards digestion. Take your water ten to fifteen minutes before a
meal, thirty minutes after
fruit meals, two hours after
starch meals, and at least four hours after
protein meals.
Drinking at meals also leads to the bolting habit. Instead of
thoroughly masticating and insalivating his food the one who drinks
with his meals soon learns to wash it down half chewed. This
practice should be avoided at all costs. Milk is a food and should
be slowly sipped and held in the mouth until thoroughly insalivated
before swallowing. No other food should be taken in the mouth with
the milk. Thoroughly chew, insalivate and taste all food before
swallowing. Food that is treated in this way can be swallowed
without the aid of a liquid.
Cold drinks, water, lemonade, punch, iced tea, etc., that are
often consumed with meals, impair and retard digestion. Cold stops
the action of the
enzymes which must wait until
the temperature of the stomach has been raised to normal before
they can resume their action. When the cold drink is first
introduced into the stomach this is shocked and chilled. After it
is sent out of the stomach and the reaction sets in, there is a
feverish state resulting in great thirst. Ice cream acts in these
same ways. Eating ice cream is like putting an ice pack to the
stomach.
Hot drinks weaken and enervate the stomach. These destroy the
tone of the tissues of the stomach and weaken its power to act
mechanically upon the food. The weakening of its tissues in this
way often helps in producing prolapsus of the stomach.
Extremes of heat and cold interfere with the secretion of the
digestive juices. The functional powers of the secretory glands are
at their highest when working in a temperature conforming to that
of the normal body temperature, or at least, when the temperature
does not exceed 100 degrees F.
Water in coffee, tea, cocoa, lemonade, etc., is water still.
These drinks also stimulate the appetite and lead to overeating.
Aside from this, the first three named each contain powerful
poisons that act as excitants. Their habitual use impairs
digestion, wrecks the nervous system and injures the kidneys. The
coffee and tea user, as a rule, perspires excessively in
summer.
A splendid rule for drinking is to drink all the water
desired ten to fifteen minutes before meals, thirty minutes after
fruit meals, two hours after starch meals and four hours after
protein meals.
