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Gastric
Juice
Q. How is the gastric juice produced?
A. Gastric juice is a
special fluid produced by certain glands of
the stomach.
Each food generates
its own gastric juice. Pawlow has shown that each natural
food contains subtle elements which act upon the
nerves with which they come in
contact in such a way
as to cause the digestive
glands to secrete fluids exactly adapted to the digestion of the particular
food in question. This action is due in part
to the flavoring substances of food, and in part to little-known substances that are known as peptogens.
The gastric juice produced by different food substances varies greatly in both quality and
quantity. Milk produces the least active digestive fluid.
Meat produces a strongly acid digestive
fluid. Bread produces during a long period a
moderately acid but highly active gastric juice.
Represented numerically, the digestive value of the juice produced by the substances
named, according to Pawlow,
stands as follows: milk, 11 ; meat, 16; bread, 44.