We do not need, however, to seek for any one specific remedy against intestinal decomposition, but should study the selections, combinations, and proportions of our food at each meal with the view of reducing to the minimum the growth in the alimentary tract.
DIGESTIVE EXPERIMENTS
It is well known that only a portion of the food taken into the alimentary canal is digested and absorbed into the circulation. It is obvious that the undigested food plays no part in the process of metabolism, therefore it is necessary to know the amount of the various food elements that are digested. For this reason we will notice briefly the method used in making digestive experiments.
Determination of the amount of food the body uses
The food eaten for a certain period of time is analyzed and weighed, and the intestinal excreta, corresponding to the quantity of food under study, is also weighed and chemically analyzed. The difference should show the amount of food actually digested.
There are several serious difficulties in the way of making accurate digestive experiments:
Quantity of feces and time consumed in passing food through the body
1. It is very difficult to determine the quantity of feces (intestinal excreta) that corresponds to a given quantity of food. A digestive experiment is usually conducted for a period of about one week, the man or animal being given a spoonful of lampblack at the beginning and at the close of the experiment. The lampblack being a finely powdered form of pure carbon, is insoluble in the digestive juices, hence passes through the body without change, thus blackening or marking the feces at the beginning and at the end of the test period. The subject under experiment should be given the same diet for a few days before and after the experiment, so that the error due to the inability to accurately separate the feces will be reduced to a minimum.
Measuring the digestible portion of food
2. The digestive juices, and especially the bile, pour considerable material into the alimentary canal which cannot be distinguished from the undigested elements of food. However, it is fair to assume that when large quantities of body-proteids are poured into the alimentary canal, and passed out with the feces, this amount of matter is wasted by the body, hence should be charged against the food which stimulated the secretion. For example: If grain causes a large secretion of digestive enzyms, it is no more than fair to say that grain is less digestible than milk, which wastes less body-matter in its digestion.
Certain foods may either aid or hinder digestion
3. A further difficulty with the accuracy of digestive experiments, and one to which in the past too little attention has been paid, is the influence upon the digestibility of one food by the presence of others. Some foods, such as fruits, aid the digestion of other foods, while in many cases the presence of a certain article seriously hinders the digestive process of all. This emphasizes the great necessity The mono-diet system for observing the laws of chemical harmony in combining our food at meals, and it also emphasizes the importance of limiting the diet to the fewest number of things possible, which in the opinion of the writer will lead inevitably to the mono-diet system, especially in curative or remedial feeding.
Difficulty of determining amount of undigested food
From the standpoint of the above difficulties, all digestive experiments thus far made are only approximately correct, and we are forced back to the conclusion that if we obey the laws of nutrition, Nature will give us her highest result expressed in endurance. If a single article of diet is taken by a man who is accustomed to large quantities of a highly varied bill of fare, the digestive process will not act in the usual way. On the other hand, if several articles such as nuts, grains, and milk are taken at one time, it will be impossible to determine what percentage of the proteid or of the fat from the three various sources remains undigested in the intestinal residue, hence no accurate results can be shown regarding the digestibility of each particular food.
MECHANICS OF DIGESTION