276 ' BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



heat. Should we toast a sHce of bread until it became charred 

 and blackened we would have as a result charcoal, or the solid 

 carbon. Burn this charred piece of bread or reduce it to ashes 

 and we have the mineral substance found in the solid, carbon. 



Besides the elements oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and car- 

 bon there are many other important elements found in food, 

 such as phosphorus, sulphur, chloride, sodium, fluorine, silicon, 

 manganese, magnesium, copper, and iron. All of these have 

 an important part to play in the internal economy of man, and 

 if these elements are not supplied in the proper ratio to the 

 body's requirements some part of the human structure must 

 suffer. 



It is here that we are led to see man's perversion of the 

 work of nature. He separates and. divides the component 

 parts of foods, introducing in the market such a variety of sub- 

 stances that the brain grows bewildered with the effort of se- 

 lecting, and by so doing gives us as food an artificial substance, 

 devoid of the necessary elements for sustaining life. To illus- 

 trate : in the past, with the primitive methods of milling, there 

 was but one way of grinding wheat, and that was by crushing 

 it between two flat stones. The whole wheat grain or kernel 

 was crushed in this way just as nature had grown it for use, and 

 contained within its bran coats all the elements necessary to 

 sustain life. At the present time, we have countless methods 

 of milling, and countless grades and kinds of flour. The work 

 of nature is perv^erted and unless one has a knowledge of the 

 dietetic value of foods they know not how to help themselves. 



In the germ of the wheat are found the soluble phosphates 

 which nourish the brain and nerves ; in the bran coats, which 

 includes the gluten of the wheat, are found the elements which 

 build the bones and teeth and those which build up the fleshy 

 structures of the body. When these bran coats are removed, 

 as in the milling of flour today, what is the result? We have 

 left only that part of the grain known as the carbohydrates or 

 starches and which are only useful in the human body as fuel. 

 That is, they yield heat and energy, but do not act as a repairer 

 of the body. The only thing possible to do under such cir- 

 cumstances is to substitute the elements taken from the wheat 

 and in this way secure a balanced food substance. It is this 

 separating of the natural food products that is detrimental to 

 health and the substituting by manufacturers in the separating. 



