772 OLEOMARG ARINE. 



testimony beibre the Senate committee. They asked me if I thought 

 oleomargarine was as digestible as butter. I do not think it is. I do 

 not think it digests so well as butter, because it contains more of the 

 higher series of acids, and practically Done of the lower series, which 

 are more easily decomposed under the influence of ferments. All diges- 

 tion is fermentation. 



Some one has spoken about the bacteria. We have, unfortunately, 

 a prejudice against bacteria in this country. As a matter of fact if it 

 were not for bacteria we would all speedily die; we would have no 

 agriculture, no manufactures, and no human beings. The bacteria are 

 essential to all kinds of life, and hence the fact that a food contains or 

 does not contain bacteria is not a measure of its wholesomeness. The 

 most wholesome foods, such as milk and butter, often contain the 

 largest number of bacteria. 



Now, butter is perfectly full of bacteria, teeming with bacteria, while 

 oleomargarine, properly made, has practically only the bacteria which 

 come from the milk or cream used in its manufacture. It is, therefore, 

 a substance which naturally keeps much longer than butter, because of 

 the absence of the ferments which decompose the latter, so that is 

 rather against its digestibility, because the ferments are essential to 

 all digestion. 



Now, in oleomargarine you have practically tristearin, triolein, and 

 tripalmitin. Those are the three chief constituents of oleomargarine, 

 because all the elements which enter into the composition of oleomar- 

 garine are rich in those three bodies. The oleo oil, the neutral lard, 

 and the cotton-seed oil all contain almost exclusively these high glycer- 

 ides, and very little, a mere trace, of the lower glycerides. I have never 

 conducted any digestion experiments I have digested oleomargarine 

 myself often, I am sure, in the ordinary way, but without giving it any 

 scientific control 



Representative ALLEN. What is the result of your experiments as 

 to digestion? 



Dr. WILEY. My impression in regard to the digestibility of butter as 

 compared to oleomargarine is formed from a purely theoretical stand- 

 point, without having tried experiments on human beings and noted 

 the time of digestion, because I do not know that that has been accom- 

 plished, and more than that the actual time of digestion is a matter of 

 very little consequence, provided the food is digested. In fact it is a 

 very good thing that we do not digest all our food instantaneously, 

 because otherwise we would be hungry after one meal before we would 

 get the next. The fact that a food is slow of digestion, like fruit, for 

 instance, is no reason that it is unwholesome. No one would say that 

 meat is necessarily more wholesome than fruit because it is more easily 

 digested. You can digest meat in much less time than you can digest 

 fruit, and yet nobody claims that fruits are unwholesome. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. You would say, then, that butter is more 

 quickly digested than oleomargarine! 



Dr. WILEY. I believe it is more easily digested; that it requires less 

 effort. 



The CHAIRMAN. You think that is the reasonable inference? 



Dr. WILEY. From a chemical study of the composition of butter, it 

 is reasonable to infer that it requires less effort on the part of the vital 

 organs to ferment the butter, and that is the reason why I say that I 

 believe butter is a more digestible substance, more easily digested, 

 more quickly digested than oleomargarine. 



Now, the value of a food is measured solely by two standards. First, 



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