BREAD 181 



ment accordingly, to secure a much nearer approach to pure 

 alcoholic fermentation than he used to do. But there seems to 

 be in existence a sort of person who sees in extreme whiteness 

 an evidence of adulteration, or of some nefarious practice. For 

 that state of mind there is absolutely no excuse. Laws against 

 adulteration are in active operation, and definite charges against 

 bakers of adulteration are unknown. Others again, who peel 

 their apples and oranges, are possessed with the idea that 

 nature means us to eat the husk of wheat, and that in refusing 

 to do so we are failing to use a most valuable source of real 

 nutriment. To such a one the whiteness of modern bread is 

 an evidence of misplaced ingenuity. The idea is based on the 

 supposition that the food-value of any article is indicated by 

 chemical analysis, prior to its consumption. That leaves out of 

 account the limited and variable digestive capacity of the con- 

 sumer. If, therefore, the aid of the chemist be involved, he 

 must do much more than analyse the food of the human being, 

 and must ascertain the amounts and chemical constitution of 

 the faeces and urine voided before the true food-value of an article 

 can be ascertained. This has been done in a most complete 

 manner at the University of Minnesota under the supervision of 

 Prof. Snyder, so far at least as protein, fat, and carbohydrate 

 constituents are concerned ; and the results show conclusively 

 that in the case of every type of wheat used the white flour of 

 commerce yielded more nutriment to the body than wholemeal, 

 or wholemeal less its broadest pieces of bran. Even when the 

 bran was reduced to a fine powder mechanically, its addition to 

 white flour lessened the digestibility of the whole when con- 

 verted into bread. A good deal of work has been done to 

 ascertain the digestibility of the mineral contents of wheat, but 

 no definite conclusion has been arrived at, though Snyder has 

 said that, "as far as phosphates are concerned, white flour 

 contains sufficient to meet all demands." The miners of South 

 Wales and the North demand and obtain whiter bread than the 

 Londoner, and in the light of these carefully ascertained facts 

 as to the real relative food-values of white and brown bread, 

 this preference for the whitest bread has science as well as 

 practice to back it. 



Almost all the bread consumed in Great Britain comes into 

 the category of white bread. The degree of whiteness varies 

 according to price and district, but the flour used in its manu- 



