1. _Mastication._--Thorough mastication of all food up to the point of
involuntary swallowing, with the attention directed, however, not on the
mechanical act of chewing, but on the tasting and enjoyment of the food;
liquid foods to be sipped and tasted, not drunk down like water. There
should be no artificial holding of food in the mouth beyond the time of
natural swallowing, even if, as is to be expected at the start, that
swallowing is premature. It is not intended to 'count the chews,' or to
hold the food forcibly in the front of the mouth, or to allow the tongue
muscles to become fatigued by any unnatural effort or position, or in
any other way to make eating a bore. On the contrary, every such effort
distracts one from the natural enjoyment of food. Pavlov has shown that
without such attention and enjoyment of the taste of food, the secretion
of gastric juice is lessened. The point of involuntary swallowing is
thus a variable point, gradually coming later and later as the practise
of thorough mastication proceeds, until the result is reached that the
food remains in the mouth without effort and becomes practically
tasteless. Thus the food, so to speak, swallows itself, and the person
eats without thought either of swallowing or of not swallowing it;
swallowing is put into the same category of physiological functions as
breathing, which ordinarily is involuntary.
chiturbocermanic
