The Mouth

The mouth controls what is probably the most important part of the digestive process : chewing. Chewing your food thoroughly is the best single best way to promote good digestion. Since digestive enzymes act only on the surface of the food that is presented to them, the rate and completeness of digestion are directly related to the total surface area of food that is exposed to these digestive enzymes. A human being's relatively weak digestive enzymes can never completely do the work that is left undone by poor chewing.

Depending upon the kind of food you are eating, proper chewing can mean taking 20, 30, 40, or even more chew per mouthful. DO NOT consider you chewing to be complete until whatever you are eating is in smooth, semi liquid form. DON'T SWALLOW UNTIL YOUR TONGUE can NO LONGER DETECT any SIGNIFICANT LUMPINESS.
It's very important to emphasize that the primary purpose of chewing is not jus to break the food into pieces that are easily swallowed. Good chewing, through complex reflex mechanisms, also stimulates the increased production of digestive enzymes further down the digestive tract, promoting more efficient processing of food as it proceeds though the gut.

As the mouth initiates the digestive process with chewing, the salivary glands secrete saliva to wet down the food. This wetting, aided by the mucus content in the silva, allows the food to compacted into the mass that more easily swallowed. The silva also contains an enzyme called ptyalin, or salivary amylase. Ptyalin works to begin the breakdown of starches and other large carbohydrate molecules into simpler sugars. the acidity status of the silva, which is typically neutral to very weakly acidic, allows the optimal activation of ptyalin remains largely inactive.

Similarly, fat breakdown can be initiated in the mouth, as the silva also contains small amounts of a fat-metabolizing enzyme know as ligual lipase. As this enzyme is stable in an acid environment, it can act after reaching the stomach's acids. The function of this lingual lipase is of greatest importance in the initial digestion of fat n an infant's diet.

As a principle, it's important to realize that certain different enzymes cannot be active at the same points in the disgestive tract, since one level of acid in the disgestive environment can promote the activity of the activity of one enzyme while simultaneously suppressing the activity of another enzyme.

All enzymes in the body are sensitive to the level of aacid in thier immediate environment. However, some enzymes are activated by an acid environment, while others are suppressed by it. similarly, some enzymes are activated by alkalinity, which is opposite of acidity; or they are suppressed by it. This response to acid concentration, or pH, allows the body to exercise a sophisticated level of control over the point at which enzymes "turn on" or "turn off."

Chewing has yet important benefit that is little realized. The longer you chew, the less food you will eat. Remember: Few people really need to eat as much as they do. Short of real starvation, hunger is mostly mental; process, and the mind will not be satisfied if you stuff you face too fast, even if the caloric content of the food was substantial. It's also important, especially to those readers desiring to lose weight, to realize that you shouldn't eat if you not hungry.

In fact, most readers should be able to lose weight and strengthen their immune systems without having deal with unsatisfied pangs of real hunger at any time. be prepare to form a new habit: don't eat unless you are genuinely hungry.


From:
Optimal Nutrition for Optimal Health
By Thomas E. Levy