collagen, hyaline, and ground substance. Collagen is a protein that has many uses in the body. It is widely known as an injectable substance used by models and entertainers to puff up their lip size (as in “I just had my lips done, dahling.”). Yes, they are getting injections of animal collagen. Where else has a person encountered collagen? In commercial gelatin (about 40–45% collagen) and upon the ends of chicken bones; that opaque gristle-like material is made of collagen.
Currently there are about twenty-one types of collagen used in medical or cosmetic applications, in everything from catheters, corneal implants, and artificial skin (for skin grafts) to the cosmetic kind with which Paulina Pouter gets her lip tissue distended. And yes, most of it comes from animal tissue. I wonder if the vegan supermodel knows that? The next time you see the model with the ballooned high-fashion lips, just think—her lip stuffing could have been the posterior loin of a common Hereford. Ah, the price to pay for beauty.
Not only do the soft tissues of the body have a fascial wrapping (muscles, tendons, and the like), but all the bones of the body do, too. The skeletal system acts as the dynamic support, the moving framework, for the myofascial system. It is also an important production center for red and white blood cells in the bone’s marrow and the most abundant storage system for calcium and phosphorus. Almost two-thirds of the weight of a bone is calcium phosphate, the two most plentiful minerals in the body. The majority of remaining third is collagen, and collagen components, the building block of connective tissue (fascia).
All life implies movement. This system of your muscles, connective tissues, and skeleton, which is referred to here as the myofascial-skeletal system, is the prime source of movement, of life. One of the essential functions of nutrition is to provide energy for the neuromuscular system (nervous + muscular tissues) and quality tissue production for the myofascial-skeletal system. If your nutritional habits are sub-par, your body will eventually reveal this in the myofascial-skeletal system in many possible manifestations of disease: osteoporosis, osteomalacia, fibromyalgia, persistent muscle cramps, postural deviations, gout, osteoarthritis. And the list has just begun.
One of the misleading aspects of studying the body as separate organ systems, organs, and tissues is that this approach can easily convey the illusion of biologic independence. The truth is that the body operates as a whole unit, and it always has. Each organ system—nervous, muscular, skeletal, fascial—is a separate “finger” connecting to one “hand.” It is important to emphasize this as one studies individual functioning and specific relationships of systems. A greater understanding of the various organ systems of the body inevitably leads the individual back to the concept of oneness: everything depends upon everything else.
The body is so complex in each individual system that modern medicine has developed specific disciplines to keep track of each area. A person sees a specialist for heart conditions, another for brain and nervous conditions, another for glandular disease, and yet another to work with the mind. Some contend that in this expanding field of separate medical specialties, the right medical hand may not know what the left medical hand is doing.
This is significant and comes to the public’s attention when, for example, one physician prescribes medication for a person’s ailment and another specialist, without the knowledge of the first physician’s prescription, recommends the patient take another pill for a different (although perhaps related) ailment. The interaction of these two chemicals, known as an iatrogenic reaction, causes difficulties and even considerable fatalities in some cases.5 There is no way for the chemical companies that produce these drugs to account for all the possible biochemical interactions, although software has recently been developed for pharmacists to warn them if a patient is taking multiple medications with possible dangerous interactive effects. Confucius says: The wise one does not completely put his fate in the hands of a computer program.6
The last area of investigation in understanding the fleshy machine is the digestive system, which starts with the three pairs of salivary glands in the mouth and terminates at the rectum, the final aspect of the large intestine.
When one eats carbohydrates, especially starches, there is a substantial amount of saliva required to properly digest that nutrient. What is very common with many people is washing down starches with liquids after a few chews. This is a highly inefficient way to digest starches. Starches require enzymes produced in the parotid glands to start turning the polysaccharide (multi-chained sugar, another name for a starch) into smaller saccharides, tri-, di-, and eventually monosaccharides (single unit sugars, also called simple sugars). The digestive system does this with all nutrients—transforms them from their complex form to their simplest form. Proteins become amino acids, and fats become fatty acids in the same manner. The foremost difference between the three major nutrients is that starches need lots of saliva for efficient digestion, especially if you are a person who already gets an upset stomach easily or excess stomach acidity, heartburn, etc. If this is you, then chew, chew, and chew.
For the average person, drinking small sips of liquid during a meal should not pose a problem; just be aware of not washing down food with liquids. The old-fashioned advice on this subject is still valid, although it should not be thought of as a gospel rule: drink liquids 20–30 minutes prior to a meal and 20 minutes after a meal. A variety of people who have applied this rule have reported very favorable results.
Besides the glands in the mouth breaking down starches, there are glands in the stomach that secrete acids to break down proteins and some fats. You would likely discover that if you ate one nutrient at a time this would facilitate optimal digestion—eating meat without anything else, for example—but this is unrealistic for most people. What is reasonable for most is to be aware of what nutrient is dominant in any given meal. Knowing your metabolic dominance plays a significant part in paying attention to what nutrient you are having the most of. If you are a protein-dominant type, you want to minimize (although not necessarily eliminate) your starches and, equally advisable, not eat sugars at the same time as meats. If you are a carbohydrate-dominant type, you want to maximize the fat-starch combinations and keep the protein portions smaller.
For a healthy person, especially for most under thirty-five, many nutrients in small portions can be combined at a meal without noticeable ill effects. For people who may have health concerns or who are enduring disease, being mindful of food combinations would be a very prudent course to take. (Refer to chapters 7 and 8.)
Your stomach is an expansive receptacle that mixes acids and other complex chemicals with your food. It works to break down organic constituents into a stomach smoothie, called chyme, which your small intestine can receive. You have seen this stomach smoothie before: with yourself, the last time you had the stomach flu, and with your neighbor, weak-stomached Willy, the last time you got on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival with him.
When the food you eat gets chemically reduced into chyme, a signal is sent through the autonomic nervous system to move food along and open the pyloric sphincter at the end of your stomach. This is a smooth muscle “door” that allows approximately 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of food at a time to pass into your small intestine.
In the small intestine most of the assimilation occurs. This is where food becomes energy or building material. If the body does not require energy or building material, it will (a) get rid of it or (b) store it. Since the body is so intelligent, (“Get ready, here comes another plate full!”) it will likely opt for the latter. It assumes that a person is eating six meals a day for a reason: perhaps pregnancy or storing up for a long, hard winter. If a person is overweight because of careless portion control, the body cannot be in blame but just may be, in time, embalmed. Confucius says: “Don’t let the spoon dig your own grave.”
After the crucial functioning of the small intestine, which in some people can reach thirty to thirty-three feet in length (or more), food then passes to the large intestine, also known
