A Victorian Guide to Healthy Living by Thomas Allinson

Author:Thomas Allinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Basic Code 1: HIS037060
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781844684748
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2010-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

OVER-INDULGENCE: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

ALLINSON was, of course, a great opponent of rich food and drink and too much of them. He points to this over-indulgence as the cause for many ills, and especially those that affect the digestive system. He lays outs his case in his essay, Stomach Troubles:

‘Many writers on disease have said that all our ailments come from our stomachs. This is a broad assertion and not entirely correct. That our feeding habits are the cause of a great many of our troubles no one can deny, and a goodly number of people dig their graves with their teeth; still diseases come from other sources than our stomachs. If everyone ate proper foods, they would still suffer from chest complaints, if they did not breathe pure air. If we overeat and obey not other natural laws, we suffer doubly. Overfeeding makes all complaints worse, as it supplies the system with waste, and waste keeps going all kinds of diseases. The broad assertion can be made, that all our stomach troubles and complaints arise from wrong treatment of this organ. We can easily and pleasantly overload it with food, or we may eat too often or surcharge it with fluid. Hot fluids can be emptied into it, or ices and cold things crammed into it. Foods may be eaten that it cannot digest or that are unfitted for it. Medicines, poisons and irritating fluids are sometimes taken into it, set up irritation, and disorder it. When we know in how many ways we can upset this delicate organ, it is not surprising that we suffer as we do, but that we do not suffer more.

‘The stomach is a bag in which food lies until it is wholly or in part digested. It is an expansion of the gullet and guarded by two valves. The gullet end is kept closed by a muscle, otherwise the food would return into the mouth, while the bowel end of it has a projection across it that only allows fluids or semi-solid matter to pass over it whilst digestion is going on. The stomach churns the food the whole time that digestion is going on, so that every particle of food has an opportunity of coming into contact with the gastric juice and being dissolved. Only a certain amount of gastric juice can be secreted daily; if we overload the stomach, some of the food remains undigested and sets up irritation or causes pain or diarrhoea. If we eat too often we keep the gastric cells always at work; they become weak and secrete an inferior juice and then indigestion arises. When we swallow too large a proportion of fluid, digestion is delayed until the extra liquid is absorbed. The time taken to absorb this fluid varies from half-an-hour to an hour. If very hot things are eaten, they destroy the ferment of the gastric juice; ordinary fermentation then sets in and stomach flatulence arises. Very cold drinks stop digestion until they are heated up to the temperature of the body which is about 100 Fahrenheit.

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