4. Do Not Consume Fats With Proteins.

This means do not use cream, butter, oil, etc., with meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, etc.

Fat depresses the action of the gastric glands and inhibits the pouring out of the proper gastric juices for meats, nuts, eggs, or other protein. Fats mixed with foods delay the development of appetite juice and diminish its quantity. The presence of fats in the stomach diminishes the production of chemical juice. Fatty acids lessen the activity of the gastric glands, lessen the activity of the gastric juice and lower the amount of pepsin and hydrochloric acid and may lower the entire digestive tone more than fifty per cent. This inhibiting effect can come even from fats in the intestine. Oil introduced into the rectum decreases the amount of gastric juice, though it does not alter its quality. (Oil enemas are bad.)

One of my correspondents, a very careful student, a professor of anatomy in one of the country's leading universities, suggests that fat and starch is a poor combination. Among other reasons which he offers is this one, which strikes me as having some weight: "According to Cannon, * * * fats remain long in the stomach when taken alone and when combined with other food-stuffs markedly delay their exit through the pyloris. Under normal circumstances starches are retained in the stomach a relatively short time. By delaying the passage of the starch from the stomach into the intestine, due to the presence of the fat, we are affording excellent opportunity for fermentation, especially in the case of those who are enervated or otherwise possess weak digestive powers."

I fully agree with this student, W. R. Beard, of Columbus, Ohio, when he says: "At best, food combining, especially concentrated types, is a questionable experiment and an outgrowth of human ingenuity and of questionable merit." The less complex are our food mixtures, the simpler are our meals, the more efficient may we expect digestion to be.

Mr. Beard says that it has been his experience that the amount of fat taken with starch need not be great to cause fermentation. I have not personally observed this, but it may be an oversight on my part, that is, I may have attributed the resulting fermentation to something other than the combination.

Pavlov points out on the other hand, that fat and starch--bread and butter--is less difficult to digest and explains that, "bread requires for itself, especially when calculated per unit, but little gastric juice and but little acid, while the fat which excites the pancreatic glands insures a rich production of ferment both for itself and also for the starch and protein of bread." In dealing with the influence of the fat-starch combination upon digestive secretion, he comes very near to a recognition of the principle of incompatibility of foods. He says: "There is no struggle in this case between the several food constituents, and therefore no one of them suffers." It will be noticed that a fat-starch combination is not only good in the stomach, but equally good in the intestine.