Comparison of predigested and uncooked cereals
In this connection it becomes necessary to refer to the interpretation of the experimental results obtained by investigators at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In these experiments cereal products which had been put through various processes of predigestion were compared with uncooked whole wheat, the contents being removed from the stomach after a given period. The results of this experiment showed a greater amount of starch digestion in the case of the dextrinized or super-cooked foods. These results were published as proof that starchy foods should be put through a process of super-cooking, dextrinization or predigestion. To those who are not familiar with food chemistry, such results would appear very convincing, but to a well-informed food scientist they only illustrate how misinterpretation of scientific facts may indicate conclusions opposed to the truth.
Starchy foods are not intended by Nature to be digested in the stomach, but in the intestines, and the processes of partial digestion of these foods, by artificial means, before entering the stomach, serve only to interfere with Nature's plan, and to deprive both the stomach and the intestines of their natural functions.
COMPOSITION OF THE GASTRIC JUICE
Action of pepsin on proteids
The gastric juice contains three principal enzyms or digestive principles. These are hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and rennet. The hydrochloric acid and the pepsin are secreted by different cells, and could be considered as separate digestive juices, but as the action of one is dependent upon the other, I will consider these actions as one. Pepsin, in the presence of hydrochloric acid, acts on proteids, and changes them into proteoses Peptone and proteoses and peptone. Comparatively little food is completely peptonized in gastric digestion. Proteoses are intermediate products between food proteids and peptone, being the principal product of the action of the gastric juice. Thus it is seen that this stomach-action is only preparatory for the digestive processes of the intestines.
Action of gastric juice on fat
The gastric juice does not act on fat, but in the case of animal food, in which the membranes or connective tissues that enclose the fat-cells are formed of proteid material, the gastric juice sets the fat-globules free by dissolving these enclosing membranes.
Purpose of hydrochloric acid
The chief action of hydrochloric acid in the stomach is to aid the action of the pepsin. Pepsin alone has no digestive power. There are no other acids produced by the secretive glands of the stomach. If other acids are found in the contents of the stomach, it is because they have been taken in with the food, or produced by abnormal fermentation.