590 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



The breads from the different flours, made in such ways as to 

 afford comparison, bear the same relation to one another as the flours 

 in respect to the proportions of nutrients. Thus, in the breads made 

 from different grades of patent flour, that from the high-grade flour, 

 which had the lowest protein content, had the least protein, while 

 that from low-grade flour, which is the richest in protein, had the 

 most. Judged by their composition, all breads are nutritious foods, 

 and too great stress should not be laid on the variations in composi- 

 tion between the different kinds. 



Digestibility of Different Kinds of Bread. A knowledge of the 

 digestibility of any food material is of prime importance. The next 

 question then is, What kind of bread furnishes the greatest amount 

 of digestible nutrients? About 100 digestion experiments have been 

 made with healthy young men with bread from all grades of flour 

 ground from hard and soft wheats. The larger number of these ex- 

 periments were made with Graham, entire wheat, and standard pat- 

 ent flours from wheats from different sections of the country. The 

 averages of the results with these three grades of flour give the fol- 

 lowing as the proportions of nutrients that were digested from the 

 different flours, these factors being commonly termed coefficients of 

 digestibility: Standard patent flour, protein 88.6 per cent and car- 

 bohydrates 97.7 per cent; entire wheat flour, protein 82 per cent 

 and carbohydrates 93.5 per cent; Graham flour, protein \74.9 per 

 cent and carbohydrates 89.2 per cent. 



It will be seen that there is a considerable difference in the di- 

 gestibility of the nutrients in the three kinds of bread, the variations 

 in the protein being larger than those in the carbohydrates. For 

 both nutrients the digestibility of the standard patent flour was the 

 greatest, of entire wheat the next, and that of the Graham flour was 

 least. This is true not only for the average of the tests with the dif- 

 ferent flours, but also for the individual tests. 



Experiments were made with first, second, and standard patent 

 flours to learn how these compare with one another, the digestibility 

 of the nutrients as determined in these tests being as follows : First 

 patent, protein 90.5 per cent and carbohydrates 98 per cent; second 

 patent, protein 91.4 per cent and carbohydrates 98.7 per cent; stand- 

 ard patent, protein 90.3 per cent and carbohydrates 97.4 per cent. 

 Practically, there was no difference in these three grades of patent 

 flour with respect to the proportions digested ; and since the propor- 

 tion of protein is much the same in all of them, they are about equal 

 in actual nutritive value. 



The Nutritive Value of Bread. Bread contains from 35 to 40 

 per cent of water. Since the remainder, about 60 per cent at least, is 

 nutritive material, bread ie really one of the most nutritious of the 

 common foods, but few others equaling it in this respect. It supplies 

 a large amount of carbohydrates, a moderate amount of protein, a 

 small amount of mineral matters, and almost no fat. Since there is 

 relatively an excess of carbohydrates and a deficiency of protein in 

 wheat, bread could not serve alone for proper nutrition of the body, 

 because an amount of bread sufficient to supply the requisite protein 



