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Spices and condiments encourage indigestion by
inducing overeating. They irritate the mucus
membranes, make them secrete more juice, and in
course of time deplete our resources. But; for the
time being/ they give us a false sense of increased
digestive power; they make us misjudge our own
digestive power. So we deceive ourselves and
continue to overeat with serious consequences. All
spices and condiments must be removed from the
diet of a dyspeptic as a first step in the cure.
CAUSES OF INDIGESTION
(2)
In the last section/ we saw some causes of
indigestion which relate to wrong choice of foods.
In this section/ we shall deal with those which
pertain to wrong modes of eating.
CAUSE (1) Hungerless Eating:—
This is perhaps the most potent cause of
indigestion. There seems to be a good deal of con-
fusion with regard to the nature of hunger. Hence it
will be dealt with separately, in greater detail in
a later section.
Hunger is preceded by an emptying of the
stomach- The stomach is an elastic bag; its size
is always equal to the volume of its contents. When
all the food has left the stomach, it contracts and
assumes a very small size. This contraction takes-
place in successive stages and at each stage a little
of air imprisoned in the stomach is expelled. If the
stomach is completely empty/ the wind which comes
out is absolutely odourless. But this is not the time
for eating/ but for drinking water. Hunger usually
develops two to three hours alter the escape of
these clean wincls,