A logical conclusion from this data is that anything that would prevent or reduce chewing would be unhealthful.  For example, food eaten when too hot tends to be gulped down.  The same tends to happen when food is seasoned with fresh Jalapeno or habaneo peppers.  People with poor teeth should blend or mash starchy foods and then gum them thoroughly to mix them with saliva.  Keep in mind that even so-called protein foods such as beans often contain large quantities of starches and the starch portion of protein foods is also digested in the mouth.

Once the food is in the stomach, it is mixed with hydrochloric acid, secreted by the stomach itself, and pepsin, an enzyme.  Together these break proteins down into water-soluble amino acids.  To accomplish this the stomach muscles agitate the food continuously, somewhat like a washing machine.  This extended churning forms a kind of ball in the stomach called a bolis.

Many things can and frequently do go wrong at this stage of the digestive process.  First, the stomach’s very acid environment inactivates pylatin, so any starch not converted to sugar in the mouth does not get properly processed thereafter.  And the most dangerous misdigetion comes from the sad fact that cooked proteins are relatively indigestible no matter how strong the constitution, no matter how concentrated the stomach acid or how many enzymes present.  It is quite understandable to me that people do not wish to accept this fact.  After all, cooked proteins are so delicious, especially cooked red meats and the harder, more flavorful fishes.

To appreciate this, consider how those enzymes that digest proteins work.  A protein molecule is a large, complex string of amino acids, each linked to the next in a specific order.  Suppose there are only six amino acids:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  So a particular (imaginary) protein could be structured:  1, 4, 4, 6, 2, 3, 5, 4, 2, 3, 6, 1, 1, 2, 3, etc.  Thus you should see that by combining a limited number of amino acids there can be a virtually infinite number of proteins.

But proteins are rarely water soluble.  As I said a few paragraphs back, digestion consists of rendering insoluble foods into water-soluble substances so they can pass into the blood stream and be used by the body’s chemistry.  To make them soluble, enzymes break down the proteins, separating the individual amino acids one from the other, because amino acids are soluble.  Enzymes that digest proteins work as though they are mirror images of a particular amino acid.  They fit against a particular amino acid like a key fits into a lock.  Then they break the bonds holding that amino acid to others in the protein chain, and then, what I find so miraculous about this process, the enzyme is capable of finding yet another amino acid to free, and then yet another.