The A. B. - Z. Of Our Own Nutrition | by Horace Fletcher
Do we eat too much? Can we learn to eat right? Without loss of enjoyment? Without care being a nuisance? Without social interference? With assurance of health? With increase of energy? With increase of endurance? To all these vital questions, this book answers only "YES".
| Title | The A. B. - Z. Of Our Own Nutrition |
| Author | Horace Fletcher |
| Publisher | Frederick A. Stokes Company |
| Year | 1903 |
| Copyright | 1903, Horace Fletcher |
| Amazon | The A. B.-Z. Of Our Own Nutrition |
By Horace Fletcher, A.M., Author of "Menticulture", "Happiness," "That Last Waif", "Glutton or Epicure" Etc., Etc. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Including Italian Translation Thirty-fourth Thousand.

Introduction- Do we eat too much? Can we learn to eat right? Without loss of enjoyment? Without care being a nuisance? Without social interference? With assurance of health? With increase of energy? With increase o...
Do We Eat Too Much?- (A propos of the Scientific-Military Experiments at Yale University) Do we eat too much? Nine out of every ten physicians tell us Yes, and tell us true! How much too much? Luigi Cornaro suggested...
Do We Eat Too Much? Part 2- The duty that the soldiers are engaged in at Yale has no element of risk, and need not have any feature of monotony or tediousness in it, much less has it the romance of sacrifice, for it deals with a...
Do We Eat Too Much? Part 3- Encouragement has powerful influence in stimulating effort and also in creating and conserving conditions in which men may do their best. What we are trying to learn is, what man may do, under favou...
Postintroductory- [Just before going to press the author has received a letter from his esteemed colleague, Dr. Hubert Higgins, giving the gist of interviews with an eminent European physiologist and with a famous Am...
Extracts From Dr. Higgins' Letter- Palazzina Tasso, Campo S. Polo, Venezia. October 3, 1903. Dear Mr. Fletcher, - A. appears to me to have an exceedingly broad and philosophic grasp of the problem of nutrition. He recognises that a...
Extracts From Dr. Kellogg's Letter- Battle Creek, Mich. October 7, 1903. Mr. Horace Fletcher. Dear Friend, - Yours of September 30th just reached my hands and I hasten to reply. I saw a newspaper note in reference to the soldiers whi...
A. B. - Z. Primer. Explanation- THIS is a condensed presentment of a subject of basic importance to everyone, supported by numerous appendices of great scientific weight. The special object of such brevity and elementary treatment ...
Some Pertinent Questions- WILL the reader not ask himself the following questions? 1. How much do I know about my own nutrition? 2. Do I know the particular need and purpose of my last meal and what it is likely to accomplis...
The Psychology Of Nutrition. A. Appetite Attention Appreciation- Appetite is the most important factor in digestion (vide Pawlow). Normal Appetite is indicated by a desire for some particular simple food accompanied by a watering of the mouth. False Appetite is...
The Mechanical And Chemical Physiology Of Nutrition. Buccal Digestion Through Mouth Thoroughness- Mouth treatment of food, which permits, aids, and includes insalivation (mixing with saliva), and which is both actively digestive in its functions and preparatory to final digestion, is the only actu...
The True Chemical End-Point Of Digestion. The Digestion-Ash What It Should Be Like When It Is Normal- First In adults; or, in children after the eruption of teeth and the ingestion of solid food: The non-liquid and non-gaseous waste of the human body, which, in its normal state, is not offensive, sho...
Preface To 1906 Editions- SINCE the former introductions were written much success has been attained in further advancing the reforms advocated in the A. B. C. Life Series. Professor Chittenden has published his report on the ...
History Of Development And Supporting Evidence. Summary Of The Foregoing Pages- By An Experimenter Of One Month's Experience. (Requested and given as a test of effectiveness) The entire principle of economic nutrition is simple and practical. It does not prescribe that we shall...
First Scientific Recognition Of The Principles Of Economic Nutrition Outlined In "Glutton Or Epicure"- [With the exception of a brief review of Glutton or Epicure, by Dr. Joseph Blumfield, of London, published in The Lancet, no scientific or professional recognition of the principles of an economic nut...
Was Luigi Cornaro Right?- A Paper read before the Physiological Section of the British Medical Association, August, 1901, by Ernest Van Someren. Mr. President and Gentlemen: Being a general practitioner, it is with some trep...
Was Luigi Cornaro Right? Part 2- For nearly a year I also had been experimenting on myself and others with various diets, and was ready to believe that in the manner of taking food and not altogether in its varying matter lay perhaps...
Was Luigi Cornaro Right? Part 3- As long ago as the seventeenth century, before the transformation of matter into energy by the animal organism, known as Metabolism, was understood, the fact was recognised that by the lungs, kidneys,...
Was Luigi Cornaro Right? Part 4- Owing to deliberation in eating, necessitated by this new habit, satiety occurs on the ingestion of considerably less food. By carefully studying one's self I believe it possible to cultivate an insti...
The Cambridge Tests- [In connection with a report of the Cambridge Examination the writer wishes to acknowledge the interest and assistance of Dr. Francis Gowland Hopkins, head of the Physiological-Chemical Department of ...
Experiments Upon Human Nutrition- Note by Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., M.P., F.R.S. In 1901 Dr. Ernest Van Someren submitted to the British Medical Association, and afterwards to the Congress of Physiologists at Turin, an account of s...
Report Of A Plan For The Institution Of An International Inquiry Into The Subject Of Human Nutrition- [Sir Michael Foster's Note (preceding) and Professor Chittenden's article in the Popular Science Monthly (following), which form a part of this book, show a common want of exact knowledge relative t...
Proposal To Found An International Laboratory Of Research For The Study Of Nutrition In All Its Aspects- Notwithstanding the enormous development which the study of Experimental Physiology has undergone during the last half-century, and the constant multiplication of physiological laboratories fitted in ...
Outline Of The Proposed Subjects Of Research To Be Undertaken In The Proposed International Laboratory- I. To determine with greater precision than has yet been possible the efficiency of the animal organism considered as a machine in which potential energy of the organic constituents of food is convert...
Suggestions As To Staff And Personnel Of The Proposed International Laboratory- For the coordination and general direction of the several investigations, the services of an eminent physiological chemist (preferably one having the principal European languages at his command) is es...
Suggestions As To Desirability Of Location- The place fitted for the establishment of an International Institute should be one which can be reached with comparative facility by investigators of the different nationalities. It must be one free f...
Suggestions As To Management Of The Proposed International Institute- It is proposed that: First, there should be a small body of trustees who should undertake the financial responsibility; and, Second, a board of scientific assessors, representing several nations, who,...
Persistent Scientific Doubts- [Notwithstanding the report of the Cambridge examination of the claims for an economic nutrition advanced by the authors, American physiologists were still doubtful if a nitrogenous economy like that ...
Physiological Economy In Nutrition- By Russell H. Chittenden Director of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Among the many problems awaiting solution, none is of greater importance for the welfare of the individual and...
Physiological Economy In Nutrition. Part 2- In this case there is a positive waste of valuable food material which we may calculate in dollars and cents; a loss of income incurred daily which might be expended more profitably in other direction...
Physiological Economy In Nutrition. Part 3- Siven's experiments, in particular, certainly indicate that the human organism can maintain itself in nitrogenous equilibrium with far smaller amounts of proteid in the diet than is ordinarily taught,...
Physiological Economy In Nutrition. Part 4- In other words, there was a close approach to what the physiologist calls nitrogenous equilibrium. In fact, it will be noted that on several days the nitrogen output was slightly less than the nitroge...
Introduction To Dr. Harry Campbell's Contribution On The Importance Of Mastication- [Since the publication of Van Someren's paper,Was Luigi Cornaro Right?, read before the British Medical Association, and reprinted elsewhere in this volume, much more attention has been given to the...
Observations On Mastication. Section I. From London Lancet, July 11, 1903- By Harry Campbell, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Lond). Physician to the Northwest London Hospital. [London Lancet, July 11, 18, 25, and August 8, 1903] The Effects of Mastication The primary object of mastication...
Mastication Facilitates Swallowing- Many foods cannot be swallowed without first going through some preparation in the mouth. Soft, moist, pultaceous foods, such as milk pudding and porridge, can be and often, indeed, are swallowed with...
Mastication Promotes The Flow Of Saliva And The Insalivation Of The Food- The more efficiently food is masticated the greater is the salivary flow, and the more intimately is it mixed with the saliva, or, as we say, insalivated. The saliva has apparently no effect on fats; ...
The Muscles Of Mastication- Let me at the outset draw attention to certain anatomical points, in connection with the muscles of mastication. These are (a) their massiveness; (b) the very close relation of the pterygoids to the n...
The Influence Of The Contraction Of The Masti-Catory Muscles On The Local Circulation Of Blood And Lymph- When a muscle is at rest the blood flows sluggishly through it, while there is a complete, or all but complete, stagnation of the lymph current; if a lymphatic trunk of a limb at rest be cut no lymph ...
Influence Of Mastication On The Jaw-Bones- It is well known that the size of a bone is largely determined by the degree to which the muscles attached to it are exercised. That the jaws do not grow to their normal size, if not adequately exerci...
Influence Of Mastication On The Teeth- The teeth being developed within the jaw-bones and remaining, even after eruption, in close anatomical and physiological association with them, must necessarily share in their nutritive tendencies. If...
Section II. Changes Which The Jaws And Teeth Of Man Have Undergone During Man's Evolution From His Anthropoid Ancestors- From London Lancet, July 18, 1903. During man's progress upwards from the anthropoid his diet has undergone a progressive change, and a parallel adaptation has taken place in his jaws and teeth. Diet...
Instances Of The Vigorous Use To Which The Jaws And Teeth Are Put Among Existing Primitive Peoples- A study of existing primitive peoples brings forcibly home to the mind how laboriously the jaws and teeth of our primitive ancestors were used. I have already shown how in pre-agri-cultural and early ...
The Chewing Of Very Tough Substances In Order To Extract Therefrom Liquid Or Nourishment- The recently extinct Tasmanians included among their articles of diet a species of sea-weed which, even when cooked, was so tough as to require long-sustained mastication in order to extract its nutri...
Mastication In The Preparation Of Beverages- I find that among widely separated aboriginal peoples chewing is resorted to in the preparation of beverages, both intoxicating and non-intoxicating. The Gran Chaco Indians make an intoxicating drink ...
Mastication In The Industries- Even among moderns teeth are used for many purposes other than mastication - e. g., for holding pins and needles and for severing cotton; also in some industries - e. g., among diamond workers - where...
The Instinct To Masticate- Seeing that the maxillary apparatus of man has for long ages past been put to vigorous use, it is not surprising that the need to exercise it should express itself as a powerful instinct. This instinc...
The Causation Of Inefficient Mastication- The effects for good upon the organism of efficient mastication being profound and far-reaching, it follows that inefficient mastication must lead to many evils. What these are we have now to consider...
Section III. Evils Resulting From Inefficient Mastication. Too Much Food Is Eaten- Inefficient mastication conduces to excessive eating. Now it is obvious that soft foods, and these constitute the bulk of our modern dietary, pass much more readily into the stomach than coarse, hard ...
Inefficient Mastication. A Mass Of Unmasticated Food May Lodge In The Throat And Cause Fatal Suffocation- This may-seem to be a very exceptional kind of evil, but I am informed by one whose experience makes him an authority on the ways of the British soldier that it is by no means uncommon for soldiers in...
Inefficient Mastication. An Excess Of Starch Is Apt To Pass Into The Stomach- We have just seen that inefficient mastication tends to promote over-eating, and what has been said on this head applies to all kinds of food, starchy foods among others. It leads, however, to a furth...
Evils Resulting From An Insufficient Quantity Of Alkali In The Stomach- I doubt if it is adequately realised what a large amount of alkaline saliva passes into the stomach as the result of prolonged mastication. Its presence there serves the useful purpose of prolonging t...
Inefficient Mastication. The Tongue- If the tongue is not properly exercised in childhood and youth, we find it imperfectly developed; hence in inefficient masticators it is generally small. It must not be forgotten in this connection th...
Inefficient Mastication. The Jaw-Bones- If the jaws are not adequately exercised in youth by mastication they fail to grow to their normal size and shape, and there is apt in consequence to be overcrowding of the teeth. The main defect of t...
Inefficient Mastication. The Teeth- Imperfect use of the teeth leads to many ills. When adequately exercised and made to execute for one or two hours every day a lively dance in their sockets, during which the circulation of blood and l...
The Causation Of Dental Caries- Dr. Wallace, in his philosophical work on The Cause and Prevention of Decay in Teeth, contends that the cause of the prevalence of dental caries is that the natural food-stuffs are, to a large exten...
Section IV. Means Of Insuring Adequate Mastication- From London Lancet, August 8, 1903. In order to secure the full advantages accru-ng from the use of the jaws and their appendages, it is, above all, necessary for them to be adequately exercised dur...
Means Of Insuring Adequate Mastication. Continued- A lady who has the catering for a large number of girls gives the bread in this way, and she tells me that there is keen competition for the most crusty portions. I do not say that starch in the liqu...
Professor Pawlow's Demonstrations Of Psychic Influence In Digestion- [In presenting a theory of human alimentation involving mental or nervous as well as mechanical and chemical factors which influence it for good, it is not often that an author is able to enlist the a...
Lecture IV. General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism- The Work Of The Nervous Apparatus Of The Salivary Glands - Appetite, The First And Most Potent Exciter Of The Gastric Secretion. Constituent parts of a complete innervation mechanism - The special du...
General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism. Part 2- I hope, indeed, to furnish you with evidence sufficiently convincing, that the alimentary canal is endowed not with mere general excitability; that is to say, does not respond to every conceivable for...
General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism. Part 3- The great multiplicity of excitants of salivary secretion, has without doubt, some connection with the complicated physiological functions of the saliva. This is the first fluid encountered by everyth...
General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism. Part 4- An analogous experiment with bread was also carried out by Dr. Glinski. The eating of fresh moist bread produced no secretion worth mentioning, while dry bread, on the other hand, caused the saliva to...
General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism. Part 5- In order to prove that the dog is perfectly healthy and normal, we lay aside the stones and proceed to our old experiment of sham feeding. As you see, the first drop of gastric juice makes its appeara...
General Scheme Of An Innervation Mechanism. Part 6- If the dog has not eaten for a long time, every movement, - the going out of the room, the appearance of the attendant who ordinarily feeds the animal - in a word, every little triviality may give ris...
Lecture V. Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic- Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic Or Appetite Juice In The Secretory Work Of The Stomach - The Inefficiency Of Mechanical Stimulation Of The Nervous Apparatus Of The Gastric Glands. ...
Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic. Part 2- We have now begun the analytical examination of the variations of our secretory curve. But owing to the importance of the matter we did not confine ourselves to conclusions which might be drawn from e...
Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic. Part 3- Finally, I am able to demonstrate to you the following instructive experiment. In the presence of some of my listeners, whom I had invited to attend an hour before the lecture, I carried out the follo...
Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic. Part 4- Why and wherefore is the secretion instituted by psychic influence maintained? What would first occur to all your minds is naturally the immediate influence which the food exerts upon the walls of the...
Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic. Part 5- The acidity of the purest juice known at that time was scarcely 0.3 per cent. As a further proof that none of the older observers ever really obtained a secretion from mechanical stimulation pure an...
Period Of Occurrence And Importance Of The Psychic. Part 6- In the ordinary gastric fistula in dogs, when the operation has lasted a long time - over a year - folds of mucous membrane are often formed in the neighbourhood of its inner orifice which completely ...
Lecture VIII. Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct: Experiences Of The Physician- It would be desirable, in the interests of medicine, that the methods described in these lectures should be employed in experimental investigations into the pathology and therapeutics of the digestive...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct: Experiences Of The Physician. Part 2- We may now return to our subject. If it be at all admitted that human instinct is the outcome of an every-day experience, which has led to the unconscious adoption of the most favourable conditions fo...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 3- We have already seen that no other excitant of gastric secretion, so far as quantity and quality of the juice are concerned, can compare with the passionate craving for food. To a certain degree we c...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 4- It is precisely in the so-called intelligent classes of Russians that a proper conception of life generally is often found wanting, and where an absolutely unphysiological indifference towards eating ...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 5- Thus it is represented that some medicinal remedy calls forth a secretion of gastric juice, and this, by its presence in the stomach, awakens an appetite. Here we have to deal with a false explanation...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 6- We could, for instance, intentionally discard digestion in the stomach, and thus transfer it to the bowel, by prescribing substances which do not excite the gastric glands. On the other hand, by lesse...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 7- The facts just related bring forward a new aspect from which the relative nutritive values of different foods may be judged. The older criteria must frankly make room for the new or else be displaced ...
Physiological Action And The Teaching Of Instinct. Part 8- I believe that the inhibitory influence of the alkalies on the digestive glands, which was here proved experimentally, may furnish a basis for the following representation of their mode of action in p...
Swallowing And Movements Of The Stomach And Intestines- By W. B. Cannon, M.D. Of the Physiological Laboratory of the Harvard Medical School. Boston, Mass., U.S. A. [Note. - In the beginning of 1896 Dr. Professor Henry Pickering Bowditch, one of our Board ...
The Movements Of The Food In The Oesophagus- By W. B. Cannon and A. Moser. From the Laboratory of Physiology in the Harvard Medical School Extracts from American Journal of Physiology, 1898 The movements of deglutition, in common with many othe...
The Movements Of The Food In The Oesophagus. Part 2- Inasmuch as the movement of these different foods varied in different parts of the oesophagus, it will be convenient to divide the latter into three sections. The first or cervical portion extends fro...
The Movements Of The Food In The Oesophagus. Part 3- Meltzer's experiment to measure the rate of liquids in man by passing a stomach tube containing litmus paper was repeated by us with some modifications. Congo red paper was used, since it is more sens...
The Movements Of The Stomach Studied By Means Of The Rontgen Rays- By W. B. Cannon, M.D. Front the Laboratory of Physiology in the Harvard Medical School Extracts from American Journal of Physiology; 1898 Since the stomach gives no obvious external sign of its worki...
The Anatomy Of The Stomach And Its Relations To The Shadow- It must be constantly borne in mind that the shadows described in this research are cast by the gastric contents, not by the stomach itself. Therefore the movements of the organ are not seen directly,...
The Normal Movements Of The Stomach- Since the time of Haller the chief contributors to the knowledge of the mechanics of the stomach have been Beaumont, Hofmeister and Schiitz, and Rossbach. Beaumont's famous investigations on Alexis S...
I. Movements Of The Pyloric Part Of The Stomach- Within five minutes after a cat has finished a meal of bread, there is visible near the duodenal end of the antrum a slight annular contraction which moves peristaltically to the pylorus; this is foll...
2. Movements Of The Pyloric Sphincter Of The Stomach- Ross-bach mars his otherwise careful work by dedaring that the pylorus is tightly closed during the whole digestive period of from four to eight hours, and that then the sphincter relaxes and the peri...
3. Activity Of The Cardiac Portion Of The Stomach- The part played by the fundus apparently has not hitherto been properly appreciated. It has been regarded as the place for peptic digestion, or as a passive reservoir for food; but it is in fact a mos...
The Movements Of The Stomach In Vomiting- The appearance of the stomach during vomiting has been studied particularly by Open-chowski. He says that when an emetic is given there follows a quivering of the stomach-wall, which, beginning near t...
The Effect Of The Movements Of The Stomach On The Food- In my first observations on the active stomach a bulging of the stomach-wall was to be seen in front of the passing waves. But as food did not immediately appear in the intestine, and as, after the py...
Salivary Digestion In The Stomach- The absence of movement in the fundus would seem to give the food during its stay there little opportunity to become mixed with the gastric juices, and thus to undergo peptic digestion. The truth of t...
The Inhibition Of Stomach Movements During Emotion- Early in the research a marked unlikeness was noticed in the action of the stomachs of male and female cats. The peristalsis seen with only a few exceptions in female cats failed to appear in most of ...
The Movements Of The Intestines Studied By Means Of The Rontgen Raysi- By W. B. Cannon. From the Laboratory of Physiology in the Harvard Medical School Extracts from American Journal of Physiology, 1902 Introduction The investigation of intestinal movements has been be...
The Movements Of The Small Intestine- When the food has been distributed through the intestine so as to present the appearance shown in Figure 1, a noticeable feature in most or all of the loops is the total absence of movement. If the an...
Rhythmic Segmentation Of The Intestinal Contents- This is by far the most common and the most interesting mechanical process to be seen in the small intestine. The nature of the process may best be understood by referring to the diagram in Figure 2. ...
Peristalsis- The phenomena of peristalsis and segmentation are usually combined in some manner while the food passes through the small intestine. Peristalsis is observed normally in two forms: as a slow advancing ...
Rhythmic Segmentation And The Pendulum Movement- There is little doubt that the segmentation of the food which I have seen is due to an activity of the intestinal musculature similar to that which causes the so-called pendulum movement. This activit...
The Course Of The Food In The Small Intestine- Chyme is not forced from the stomach by every wave that passes over the antrum, but only at intervals. When the pylorus relaxes, the food, moved towards the pylorus under considerable pressure, is squ...
The Competence Of The Ileocecal Valve- The ileocecal valve in the cat is situated three or four centimetres from the blind end of the caecum. Its position is usually marked in shadows of the food in the colon by a slight indentation, towar...
The Movements Of The Large Intestine- When the large intestine is full, palpation through the abdominal wall demonstrates that the material in the lower descending colon and in the sigmoid flexure is usually composed of hard, incompressib...
Antiperistalsis In The Colon- The colon of cats which have been without food for a day usually contains enough gas to make the position of the gut distinguishable with the fluorescent screen (see Fig. 1). The first food to enter t...
The Appearance Of Tonic Constrictions- It has already been noted that as the food accumulates in the ascending colon it is at first confined to this region by antiperistaltic waves. With further accessions, however, the contents naturally ...
Defecation- The process of clearing the colon is a process of repeated reduction of the amount of material present. Figure 8 (3.11) is a radiograph showing the food in the colon at 3.11 P.M. About 3.25, with a sl...
The Question Of Antiperistalsis- In 1894 Griitzner published an observation and made an assumption about which there has since been much controversy. He maintained that when normal salt solution, holding in suspension hair, powdered ...
The Effect Of Emotions And Sleep- Observations on the stomach of the cat showed that the peristalsis is inhibited whenever the animal manifests signs of anxiety, rage, or distress. Since the extrinsic innervation of a large part of th...
The Battle Creek Laboratories. The Mammoth Sanitarium And The Large Adopted Family Of Dr. And Mrs. J. H. Kellogg- [A report of one experiment has been selected from Modern Medicine relative to the work of the laboratories connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium because it relates to the effect of cooking and m...
Experimental Investigation Of The Influence Of Mastication And Cooking Of Food, Etc- Experimental Investigation Of The Influence Of Mastication And Cooking Of Food, Etc - In The Laboratories Of The Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitarium, Under The Direction Of Dr. J. H. Kellogg. From Mod...
Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey And The "No Breakfast Plan"- The No Breakfast Plan, evolved from the long experimental experience of Dr. Dewey, to secure much needed rest for the stomach and intestines, is described in a book bearing that title which can be h...
Professor Jaffa And The Fruitarians- Professor Jaffa, too, of the University of California, has been doing most valuable service in testing the usefulness of fruits and nuts as human foods. He generously furnished the author with elabora...
Explanation Of The A. B. C. Life Series The Essentials And Sequence In Life- It would seem a considerable departure from the study of menticulture as advised in the author's book, Menticulture, to jump at once to an investigation of the physiology and psychology of nutrition...