1. Get Healthy Skin
2. Flush Toxins
3. Reduce Your Risk Of Heart Attack
4. Cushion And Lube Your Joints And Muscles
5. Get Energized And Be Alert
6. Stay Regular
7. Reduce Your Risk Of Disease And Infection
8. Regulate Your Body Temperature
9. Burn More Fat And Build More Muscle
10. Get Well

"Shall we or shall we not? Yes or No? " asked the lawyer. Was the witness evading the question when he answered, " Partly yes and partly no? " Not at all. There are some questions which can neither be truthfully nor satisfactorily answered by one word. Strange to say, many of the magazine articles treating this subject have attempted to answer yes or no for all individuals. About the briefest answer which can be given to the question, Should we take water with meals? would be: seventy per cent of us should; thirty per cent should not — or at least not more than eight ounces of all fluids.

To the average person a stomach is just a stomach. He does not realize there is great variation as to size, shape, position, muscular, and secretory powers. No two leaves are alike. It is not strange that stomachs also vary.

An attempt will here be made to develop the treatment of this subject from a scientific stand-point. The first requirement is to state facts on which conclusions may be based.

The gastric juice is well represented in its chemical value by the amount of hydrochloric acid which it contains. If this is greater than average, water drinking with meals may be an advantage ; if less than average, a disadvantage; if average, not harmful.

So much for the secretory factor in the case. Motility is the other important factor. Motility refers to the motor power or the mechanical ability of the stomach to receive food, hold the same within its grasp, mix thoroughly with its own juices, and, at the proper time, pass it on to the duodenum. The size, shape, position, and muscular power of the stomach determine its motility.

The first real information regarding its muscular contractions was obtained by observation of a man who had received a bullet wound in the stomach, leaving a permanent opening through the abdominal wall. Generalization from such a specific instance was a mistake. Our present information on this subject is quite different. Much of this was obtained by means of the X-ray, which affords opportunity to observe stomachs of many kinds — normal as well as abnormal. This has helped to answer the question, " Should we drink water with meals? " and has given sufficient reasons therefor.

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