Why shouldn't we only drink/inject food?

[Skhandelwal]

There is an old saying from India, If you keep your stomach healthy, head cool, and feet warm, no sickness/disorder can touch you. Basing on that, all of our body(regardless of work out) doesn't do a 100% job at digesting food. So why don't we make things a lot easier for ourself but drinking, or even better, injecting food. Don't tell me it is b/c of our craving appetite.

-Thx.

 

[kaisxuans]

yea, injecting food mayb a good solution to everyday eating. but yes, we all have a craving appetite.
but do you know what our digestive system is for? BREAKING DOWN FOOD for us!
if it is so easy to just inject food, we won't need the digestive system and a lot of people will lose their jobs and not may people want to forgo the chance to TASTE food!
(visit my blog!)

 

[ganstaman]

I'm not sure why drinking it would be so much better than chewing it, but...

My guess is that eating hurts less than injecting. Plus the cost of processing nutrients for placement in needles (instead of using our relatively free digestive system to do that processing) and the cost of the needles. Not to mention the increased risk of diseases (like AIDS) with all this needle use.

And it is partly the appetite craving. I need those endophorins to be released if I want to be pleased.

Finally, because old saying from anywhere generally don't have a place in science. And needles hurt more than hamburgers. With tomatoes.

 

[kaisxuans]

haha, that is like kinda detailed but so do you understand now skhandelwal? a werd name/... haha

 

[Skhandelwal]

Thats basically my last my w/ my first name initial at the beginning. Anyways, forget about injecting, how about just grinding the food we eat until its powder or liquid? That should help our stomach digest it.

 

[ganstaman]

Thats basically my last my w/ my first name initial at the beginning. Anyways, forget about injecting, how about just grinding the food we eat until its powder or liquid? That should help our stomach digest it.

But what's to gain? Our stomachs seem to do fine jobs most of the time. I don't see what problem you think this will solve.

Plus, it still has negatives. Just watch Iron Chef and you'll see that the texture, color, and presentation of the food really does affect how much we enjoy it, in addition to the taste. Grinding it all up first takes much of that away.

 

[DaveC426913]

Basing on that, all of our body(regardless of work out) doesn't do a 100% job at digesting food. So why don't we make things a lot easier for ourself but drinking, or even better, injecting food.

I see some hidden assumptions in here. I'd like to ferret them out.

In "making things a lot easier", what do you mean by "easier"?
What is it that you seek to improve?
What, in how we eat now, do you consider undesirable that it could be eliminated?

 

[russ_watters]

Yeah, easier how? It would be a royal pain to be fed via IV your whole life. You can't just puree your food, you need special solutions of nutrients. It wouldn't be easy at all.

And puree-ing your food then drinking it doesn't really do much to aid digestion unless you are missing most of your teeth.

 

[turbo]

Not to mention the lack of enjoyment. Years back, a friend of mine was in a pretty serious car accident and had his jaw wired just partially open for months. Between that and the dental reconstruction afterward, he was seriously craving some real food for a long time. Sucking diluted baby food through a straw did not sound too appealing, and I felt real bad for him. For that time, I refrained from inviting him to cookouts where we were grilling steaks or burgers and tucking into fresh sweet corn, jalapeno poppers, etc. Yeah, he could have sucked on some Ensure or baby food and maybe enjoyed a beer or two, but smelling grilled porterhouse steaks, etc would have been torture. That guy can put away some food. He lost a lot of weight during that period, and actually looked a bit gaunt for the first time since I've known him.

 

[Astronuc]

how about just grinding the food we eat until its powder or liquid? That should help our stomach digest it.

That is the function of the teeth - to cut and grind the food, while saliva is mixed with the food to start the digestion process - in preparation for digestion in the stomach.

And others have mentioned enjoying the aroma and taste of the food.

 

[Moonbear]

Food isn't all digested in the stomach. As Astronuc accurately indicates, food begins to be digested in the mouth by saliva (starches begin to be broken down into simpler sugars there), and continues to be digested in the stomach. Some nutrients are absorbed in the stomach, while others are absorbed in the small intestine.

People who are forced to use liquid nutrients (total parenteral nutrition) provided intravenously do not fare well on that for a long time. It means that with everything we DO know about nutrition, there are still things we don't fully understand and don't get in a synthetic source that we do get through normal digestion of natural foods. Also, maintaining an IV line also involves risk of bacterial infection entering directly into the blood stream.

 

[kaisxuans]

yea yea it is a whole process and all. all in all people prefer what they have now and i don't think an of us want to go through the trouble to change in the drastic way.
(visit my blog!)

 

[Skhandelwal]

What I am trying to say is that the grinding machines do a better job at grinding than our teeth. For instance, normally, eating something solid takes longer to digest than eating something liquid.

 

[ganstaman]

What I am trying to say is that the grinding machines do a better job at grinding than our teeth. For instance, normally, eating something solid takes longer to digest than eating something liquid.

Assuming this is true (I don't know either way), are you basically just trying to cut down on 10 minutes of waiting after you eat before jumping into the pool without cramping?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Assuming this is true (I don't know either way), are you basically just trying to cut down on 10 minutes of waiting after you eat before jumping into the pool without cramping?

So that's what this is all about!

 

[turbo]

What I am trying to say is that the grinding machines do a better job at grinding than our teeth. For instance, normally, eating something solid takes longer to digest than eating something liquid.

If you read what other people are telling you here, you should understand that digestion begins in your mouth, and chewing your food may in fact be an important step in proper digestion. It mixes the food with saliva, which contains enzymes and who-knows-what-else that could play roles in digestion that we do not yet understand. Simply shoveling in ground up food and swallowing it may bypass a process that is important to your health.

 

[Skhandelwal]

But if I am going to grind solid stuff, they are going to turn into powder which I am still going to still chew, not swallow.

 

[Spirochete]

I'm a pharmacy tech in a pharmacy who prepares TPNs (total parenteral nutrition) so I know a lot about them. Intravenous nutrition requires professional preparation and careful monitoring by pharmacists.

TPNs requires that large volumes of fluid (a liter or more) be infused over several hours usually through the superior vena cava. The venae cavae are the largest veins in the body, they carry deoxygenated blood to the heart. Insertion of the IV is a surgical procedure requiring a doctor. The reason most TPNS are central is because other veins in the body can't handle the osmotic pressure of the dextrose concentrations that are required to provide adequate calories.

Fats also pose a problem, especially for long term use. It has something to do with how they aren't water soluble (duh). Fat preparations for IV use are chemically altered to make them H20 soluble but there is still a relatively high incidence of complications with them compared to carbs/protein. Short term IV nutrition can leave out fat, but long term fats are required.

Because of these and other problems, TPNS are relatively rare in hospitals. Gastric tubes are much more common and can be used most times the stomach/intestines are still able to absorb nutrients

 

[Skhandelwal]

Yeah, but what if I eat by my mouth, but always grind the food b/fore I eat, isn't that healthy for me?

 

[russ_watters]

It is no healthier than just eating it. But if you want to save the effort of chewing and don't mind the taste, go for it!

 

[Skhandelwal]

Wouldnt it digest faster though?(means quicker energy)

 

[russ_watters]

Well, you'll skip the 10 seconds of chewing, but to do it, you'd spend at least 20 seconds using your blender, so no.

 

[DaveC426913]

Wouldnt it digest faster though?(means quicker energy)

Fast digestion is not necessarily a desired goal. You need food to be digested over time
1] to keep you from eating too much
1b] to stop your stomach from growling
2] to spread your energy intake over time (glycemic index)
3] keep your intestinal tract going (try gonig without fibre in your diet for a few months)
other reasons I have not thought of

One thing to note, (sort of ties into your other discussion about strengthening your muscles): If you get in the habit of pre-masticating your food, you might become dependent on it that way. You might actually be weakening your system. What happens when you can't grind it up one day for some reason? Nasty things will happen to your GI tract. Try eating only easily-digested carbs for a month. You'll get sick.

 

[Danger]

I have mentioned here before that I'm a strict carnivore; the only pleasure that I derive from eating is in knowing that something died violently so that I could eat it. I have enough Irish blood that potatoes are honourary meat, so I eat them too. My perfect fast-food is a chainsaw and a cow—fire is optional.
The best thing about chewing is that the various properties of the food are exposed to you tastebuds and olfactory system; in short, flavour. If you've ever eaten when you had a severe head-cold, you know that without the sense of smell you can't detect the flavour of your food. You can taste the basic sweet, bitter, sour, salt as relayed by your tastebuds, but the flavour comes from the combination of that with odour.
Damn it! This is making me hungry. Do you know how hard it is to dig up a gopher at this time of night?

 

[DaveC426913]

I have enough Irish blood that potatoes are honourary meat

Heh. Another Murph.

 

[Danger]

Heh. Another Murph.

Aye... black Irish, at that, which is the source of my Spanish blood.
Actually, mostly Scots (descended from Robert the Bruce), but I think that potatoes are allowed in Scotland as well.