Strength from Eating Author:Bernarr Macfadden Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. PROCESS OF DIGESTION. Though I have tried to avoid all possible use of technical terms, in the following very abbreviated description of the d... more »igestive organs and their processes, their use will be occasionally required. In order to make the work of digestion as clear as possible without a lengthy description, we will follow the food in its travels through the alimentary canal, explaining the actions of the organs and various digestive juices with which it comes in contact. After food has been called for by appetite and has gone through the first process of digestion by thorough mastication, it is swallowed and allowed to enter the stomach. Now immediately upon entrance, this food comes in contact with the gastric juice which is secreted by the peptic glands, and which exudes in tiny drops from the inner surface of the stomachlike perspiration from the pores of the skin. Not only the quality but the quantity of this digestive juice furnished depends greatly upon how much food is needed—in other words on how hungry you are at the time the food is eaten. The feeling of hunger, the ability to heartily enjoy the food eaten, is an unmistakable indication that there will be secreted a full supply of these digestive juices, that will be poured forth copiously as the process of eating and digesting continue; and the more intensely the food is enjoyed, the more each morsel is dwelt upon in the act of mastication by the sense of taste in the endeavor to secure its most delicious flavor before swallowing, the more freely does the gastric juice flow, and, naturally, the more perfectly is the work of stomach digestion performed. The time required for stomach digestion depends greatly upon the character of the food, and upon how carefully the work of mastication has b...« less