77 



possibility it aii'ords of making satisfactoiy combi nations with other 

 food materials. 



As reo-ards the use of durum wheat for making breakfast foods, the 

 experiments reported herewith show that it is possible to produce 

 goods which in composition and digestibility compare favorably with 

 whole-wheat flour. The superior digestibility of the macaroni and 

 bread is probably due to the fact that the ground grain from' which 

 these products are made offers a better opportunity for the action of 

 the digestive juices than the flaked kernels of the breakfast food. 



THE RESULTS OF AMERICAN AND OTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH 



MACARONI. 



As noted on another page (p. 5.5), Rubner, Jacoangeli and Bonanni, 

 and Cappelletti have studied the digestibility of macaroni and similar 

 products, and it is interesting to compare the results of their experi- 

 ments with those obtained in the investigations carried on at the Min- 

 nesota Experiment Station. . The earliest of these experiments are those 

 made by Rubner wath a healthy man who lived exclusively on the mate- 

 rials studied. In the macaroni tests these were macaroni noodles made 

 with and without the addition of wheat gluten. In one of tlie tests 

 "Spaetzels,'- a sort of flour paste poured through a sieve into boiling 

 water and quickly cooked, constituted the entire ration. When cooked 

 this material seems comparable with macaroni or similar foods, though 

 of course it is unlike them as regards method of preparation. 



In connection with an investigation of the value of Indian corn, alone 

 or with wheat, for making alimentary pastes, Jacoangeli and Bonanni 

 studied the digestibility of macaroni made from wheat, as well as that 

 of pastes from corn and corn and wheat, and also of corn-meal nuish, 

 such as is commonly eaten in Italy, i. e., polenta. The subject of the 

 experiments was a healthy man. In the test with macaroni and other 

 pastes these foods constituted the entire diet, being eaten in the 

 form of soup.' In all the tests two meals were taken each day, one at 

 10 o'clock in the morning and the other at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 

 So far as can be learned, the studies of the value of Indian corn for 

 use in the manufacture of alimentary pastes, though undertaken upon 

 a comparatively large scale, never passed the experimental stage. 



Using three men as subjects, Cappelletti studied the digestibility of 

 macaroni or a similar Italian paste, rice and '' sitos," ij sort of l)reak- 

 fast food made from a Sardinian variety of durum w heat by splitting 

 the grain lengthwise and removing the outer layer. The foods were 

 eaten in the form of thick soup. 



The following table summarizes the results obtained by these inves- 

 tigators as well as the average results obtained at the Minnesota 

 Experiment Station. In the case of the experiments cited for com- 



