Mastication: Digestion Begins In The Mouth (3)
It would be well, also, to note that the retaining of a normal appetite–of that sense of taste which enables you to discriminate not only as to the character of food needed, but also as to quantity–depends largely on perfect mastication.
The message of warning which taste gives in connection with eating is: “That while any taste is left in a mouthful of food in process of mastication or sucking, it is not yet in condition to be passed on to the stomach; and what remains after taste has ceased is not fit for the stomach.”—Horace Fletcher.
If the food is bolted, if the sense of taste is outraged continually, its power naturally becomes dulled and you are left without a guide, which should at all times clearly indicate the character of the food needed to nourish the body, and which should refuse to recognize any flavor in any food after the needs of the system have been supplied.
One can readily imagine the condition of a man under the circumstances described. He has no definite idea as to what to eat, and his only guide is the feeling of fullness in the stomach.
The importance of good teeth is of course very great and extreme care should be given to them that they may be preserved to the end of life. The principal cause of decayed teeth, however, is the lack of exercise from which they suffer through persistent insufficient mastication. If they are given the proper use required in order to masticate the food as here suggested, they will immediately begin to improve in condition. The fermentation of foods in the stomach, as evidenced by a foul breath and coated tongue, also has much to do with the decay of the teeth; and upon the recognition and adoption of the habit of proper mastication, these foul conditions will naturally disappear, and the tendency of the teeth to decay from this cause will immediately cease, if the teeth are put in good condition, all decayed parts removed, and filling used where needed.
