The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE HEALTH BULLETIN. 125WHAT ISTHE MATTER WITH YOUR STOMACH?Samuel Hopkins Adams, in the Ladies' Home Journal.The American stomach is a generallycondemned organ. We tend tohold it criminally responsible for allour lesser ills. Nearly half of allmedical advertising is aimed at thestomach. As a matter of fact our digestionis as sound as any of our functions.The trouble isn't with ourstomachs. It is with our heads. Welack common sense about our processesof nourishment. Nine-tenths ofthe digestive disorders which lead tothe doctor's office or to the hospitalare not only preventable and avoidable,but, medically speaking, they areinexcusable. In other words, almostall of our troubles of this sort are dueto our own stupidity."The average man," says a notedauthority, "never considers his stomachuntil it fairly yells for help."Now the human stomach is a bag,equipped with nerves and suppliedwith gastric juice which serves to digestfood. It is not an absolutely essentialportion of the anatomy. Peopleget on very well and comfortablywith half a stomach or a third, oreven a fourth; and, at a pinch maylive without any at all, the small intestinemaking shift to do the workof digestion. But normally the stomachis there to receive food, digestit, extract from it the energy necessaryfor the running of the humanmachine, and pass the residue on tothe intestines for disposal. The processesare highly intricate in detailand, in some phases, still mysterious(nobody can tell, for example, whythe stomach doesn't digest and destroyitself) ; but, in normal conditions,they are carried on so capablyand quietly that the body is no moreawara of them than of the circulationof the blood. When we becomeconscious of our digestion it is becausesomething is wrong with it.MIND WHAT YOUR STOMACH TELLS YOU ABOUTFOODEvery stomach has its little eccentricitiesand inhibitions. This onesays: "I cannot digest salt fish."Another warns: "Don't give me preservedstrawberries, for I won't havethem." A third ordains: "Anythingbut honey." Or bananas. Or smokedmeat. And so on. There is but onerule to cover all these cases: Mindwhat your stomach tells you; itknows best.In a broad general sense it may besaid that we pamper ourselves toomuch in the matter of food. Over refinementis a prevalent fault. We eattoo much delicately prepared andhighly seasoned food and too littlecoarse and simple food. Processes ofpreparation sometimes devitalize ourviands. Certain nourishing qualitiesare polished out of the shining whiterice which we get exclusively. Ouroatmeals are refined down to a pointwhere only half of their value is left.And the white flour which is so generallyused lacks certain essential attributes.Whole-wheat bread is givenonly medicinally nowadays, yet wholewheatflour is the natural flour, andif it were in common use a majorityof those who depend upon laxativesto aid their digestive processes couldcast away those noxious drugs.The same is true of uncooked fruitsand vegetables. A considerable portionof the virtue of our vegetablefoods goes up the kitchen chimney.How many people come back froma vacation in the wilds feeling as ifthey had acquired a brand-new digestionand talking enthusiastically