Chapter XXIX: Diet for Indigestion

Indigestion is a symptom of a functional disturbance or is due to a local disease in some portion of the digestive apparatus. Therefore diet must be adapted to the sensibility of the stomach and bowels, to gastric and intestinal secretions, mobility, absorption and elimination, to the abnormal increased feeling of hunger or to the absence of the sensation of hunger.

The food should be of easy solubility and offer slight resistance to the digestive juices. It should not mechanically or chemically irritate or impede intestinal peristalsis. It should not increase fermentation or putrefaction and the greater portion of it should be absorbed.

The object of diet is not to eat less food than usual but to secure more nourishment until the proper quantity is consumed each day. The restriction of foods does not mean limitation. Regular hours for meals should be religiously observed by sufferers from indigestion. The food should be thoroughly masticated. Good judgment should be used by each individual in selecting and preparing the foodstuffs; also in the amount taken at each meal, and the proper length of time to continue the diet.

You may take:

_Soup_--in moderate quantity: Doxsee's clam juice, and little neck
clams; cream of peas, etc.; vermicelli; tapioca; tomato; clear
soups of chicken, beef, mutton.

_Fish_: trout; bass; perch; shad; weakfish; whitefish; smelts; raw
oysters.

_Meat_: roasted or boiled beef; mutton; venison; calf s head;
tongue; sweetbread; lamb chops; squab; roasted partridge; pigeon;
calf's-foot jelly; Armour & Co.'s Vigoral; Valentine's or Wyeth's
beef juice, or Wiel's beef jelly.

_Eggs_: raw; soft-boiled; poached; omelette; eggs on toast.

_Bread_--all over a day old: brown; graham; gluten; rye; zwieback;
crackers; cracked wheat; corn meal; hominy; wheaten and graham
grits; rolled rye and oats; granose; cerealin; macaroni with
toasted bread-crumbs; farina, boiled with milk; Milkine; Horlick's
or Mellin's food.

_Vegetables_: spinach; green peas; greens; lettuce; watercress;
sweet corn; asparagus; celery; artichokes; baked tomatoes;
cauliflower.

_Dessert_: baked, roasted or stewed apples; stewed pears or
peaches; baked bananas; grapes; oranges; and most ripe fruits, if
fresh.

_Beverages_: hot, cool or cold water an hour before meals. Drink
freely of the same during meal-time, but not to wash down food.
Drink also: cereal coffee; buttermilk; koumiss; fresh cider;
bouillon.

_Avoid_: coffee; tea; milk; ice-water; cocoa; chocolate; malt
liquors; spirituous liquors; sweet and effervescent wines; sugar;
candies; foods containing much starch; rich soups; sauces and
chowders; all fried foods; hot or fresh bread; griddle-cakes;
doughnuts; veal; pork; liver; kidney; hashes; stews; pickled,
canned, preserved and potted meats; turkey; goose; duck; sausage;
salmon; salt mackerel; cabbage; radishes; cucumbers; cole-slaw;
turnips: potatoes; beets; pastry; jellies; jams; nuts.