Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/150

 into living tissue, and the details of this change are sufficiently familiar to preclude description here. However, the act of digestion is an effort at once nervous and muscular, which will be followed by troubles innumerable if continued beyond the real need of the system; for, when the body is overloaded with sustenance, energy that might well be utilized for other important purposes is employed in the disposal of that in excess of what is needed for the repair of used tissue. Surplus is thus accumulated in circulation, in tissue, and in the organs of elimination; and of this the portion which the liver is able to separate and cast out, together with undigested matter in the intestinal tract, decomposes and is absorbed to be re-deposited with detrimental effect. The natural avenues of energic force are, as a consequence, clogged, imperfect functioning occurs, and disease results.

Normally only that portion of digested food that is assimilated can be used by the blood for the repair of cell structure; the remainder is refuse, and, in cases of overfeeding, it takes its place, as described, with undigested material to ferment and decompose in the intestinal tract. Absorption of toxins