The Importance of Proper Digestion and Food Assimilation

It has been observed that health is the result of what one assimilates,
not what one necessarily eats. We accept lots of food into our bodies,
but only that which has been properly assimilated can be utilized for
rebuilding and repairing cells and malfunction areas. Proper assimilation
is acquired by "drinking the solid foods and chewing the liquid food."

This is an old and true axiom. We should thoroughly chew the solid
foods, mixing saliva with them until the food becomes a liquid; then we drink
it. The liquid foods must be swished (or chewed) in the mouth, then
swallowed. The saliva thoroughly mixed with the foods is the key that
opens up the doors of digestion. Without mixing saliva with the food,
the balance of the digestive juices are not activated for good assimilation.
By gulping, "inhaling" or bolting the food down without properly mixing
saliva with it, we only get eight to ten percent of its value. By properly
chewing we can raise this to forty or forty-five percent. The balance
is generally cellulose or indigestible fiber.

We not only receive far better health, but also save money. Food is one
of our largest expenditures, and if we can get four to six times better
assimilation, this promises superior health and a happier life. With one
fourth or one third of the food we have been used to eating, we can receive
much more power and energy.

Another must for good health is to slow down the eating procedure, relax
and be happy. Discuss pleasant things during mealtime, even laugh a little.

Such foods as soups, gruels, porridges, and purees contain so little
solid matter that the bulk, considerable though it may be when the food
is eaten, is soon reduced to a very small volume. On this account liquid
foods are almost always constipating. The only exceptions are those liquid
foods which contain much sugar, acids, or fats.

Pasty cereals such as oatmeal mush, are decidedly constipating in their
influence, because of their pasty consistency and the little mastication
which they receive. New bread, hot biscuits, "noodles," and doughy foods
of all sorts are likewise objectionable.

If the above principles are not applied, constipation and/or
indigestion can result. Premature old age and death, misery and even
crime originate from constipation more than from any other bodily disorder.
Constipation is not in itself a disease, but is a symptom, the cause of
which may be disease or simply neglect.

Indigestion is basically poor assimilation or difficulty in processing
food in order to get the proper value from it. The use of aluminum-
based digestive tablets sold on the market give only temporary relief and
aluminum poisoning is a side-effect or after-effect. However, by eating
nutritiously and supplementing our diets with a good quality herbal colon
formula (not to mention stabilized probiotics), we can set ourselves on a
much better path.

One California doctor who advised his patient to restrain his desire
for bowel movements at night and "save it till the next morning" so that
"he might have a well-formed stool," had not the first conception of the
normal function of the colon.

That one bowel movement a day is normal and efficient evacuation of the
bowels is another error which is universally entertained. One bowel
movement a day is a positive indication of constipation. X-ray examinations
of the colon after a test meal shown that in persons whose bowels move
once a day the body wastes are usually retained for fifty hours or more.
Hurst, of London, and not a few other authorities finding this condition
almost universal have been led to regard it as normal. But in this they
are certainly in error.

X-ray examinations show that in eight hours from the beginning of a
meal the process of digestion has been completed, the digested food has
been absorbed, and the unusable residue has been pushed half way through
the colon, in other words, is within two and a half feet of the lower
opening of the colon. In eight hours the food has traveled more than
twenty-five feet or ten times the distance which remains to be traveled.

When the work of digestion is finished and

the useful part of the food
has been absorbed, there remains nothing to be done but to dispose of the
indigestible and useless residue by pushing it along two or three feet
further. Certainly no good reason can be assigned for the further retention
of the waste matters. It is indeed highly absurd to suppose that forty
hours are needed to transport the feces two and a half feet when they have
already traveled twenty-five feet in eight hours.

Dr. John Christopher, a naturopathic doctor, recommended moving the bowels
at least three times a day or after each meal. Four movements daily is a
still better rhythm and is easily established by a biologic regimen. When
toxic waste matter is left to stagnate in the lower bowel tract, the system
becomes polluted with poisonous gases which congest and irritate the surrounding
organs, causing adhesions, and other ailments.

The carmine capsule test shows that in most cases in which the bowels
move once daily, the waste disposal function is always several days in
arrears.

The colon contains the waste and residues of several meals--anywhere
from five to twenty or even more, so that there is ample opportunity
for the putrefactive process to get well under way. The putrefaction
is the source of the foul odor and gases which originate in the colon,
and which are not only most offensive to the sense of smell, but as is
well known, are also highly poisonous, and may give rise to nausea,
"biliousness," loss of appetite, foul tongue, bad breath, dingy skin,
headache, Bright's disease, and a host of other grave disorders.

Meat also has become a culprit in the developement of constipation, as
it encourages putrefaction of the colon both by introducing putrefactive
organisms in great numbers and also by providing material which is best
calculated to encourage the growth of putrefactive organisms in the colon.
Through the putrefaction of undigested remnants of the meat eaten,
ammonia and other alkaline substances are formed which paralyze the
bowel.

The infection of the bowel which results from meat-eating also gives
rise to colitis and causes a spastic or contracted condition of the
descending colon, a condition found in the most obstinate forms of
constipation.

Most persons who suffer from constipation also habitually drink too
little water. Women drink less than men. It is difficult to account for
this scanty use of a necessary of life, which costs little and is of
such inestimable value to the body. The consequence of a scanty use of water
is abnormal dryness of the feces, which delays their passage through the lower
colon, and often causes an actual stoppage in the pelvic colon or the rectum.

Persons who sweat much, either as the result of hot weather, vigorous
exercise, or hot baths, are likely to suffer from constipation, unless
special care is taken to supply the body with water sufficient to make
good the loss. The skin ordinarily throws off as perspiration an ounce
and a half of water each hour, or more than a quart in twenty-four hours.
By active exercise or sweating baths this amount may be increased to thirty
or forty ounces in an hour. The kidneys excrete two to three pints daily.
It is evident, then, that care must be exercised to replace the water
that is lost through the skin and kidneys.

Of course, one may receive temporary relief of constipation by using
an herbal laxative to clear the lower bowel tract, but only lower bowel
tonics will get at the cause. With these quality tonics and stabilized
probiotics, we feed the eliminative organs and allow them to work on
their own and eventually eliminate the use of enemas, colonics and
laxatives. The proper procedure is to build up the body, to cleanse
it, and see that the bowels work freely.

About the Author

Editor of the semi-monthly e-zine named, "Your Electrical Body",
Rita has studied with master herbalists and naturopaths alike.
Endeavoring to follow the precepts of Dr. John Christopher, she has
aided numerous folks to enhance their health. Check out her FREE
E-zine, FREE Catalog and gift along with an informative ebook offer.
http://www.electricalbody.com/ebook.htm

Written by: Rita Lambros-Segur, M.H.