HOME ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION 593 



would furnish much more carbohydrates than necessary. In a mixed 

 diet this discrepancy is of little importance, because the deficiency of 

 protein is made up by such foods as meat or cheese. Bread and milk 

 forms a much more suitable diet than bread alone. A comparison 

 of skim-milk bread with water bread made from the same flour, 

 shows that the skim milk increased the protein to the extent of about 

 2 per cent. 



Graham, Entire Wheat, and Standard Patent Flours. The nu- 

 tritive value of these three classes of flour and the breads made from 

 them has been extensively investigated by Snyder at the Minnesota 

 Agricultural Experiment Station and by Woods at the Maine 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. Graham flour, strictly speaking, 

 is simply wheat meal ; that is, the entire grain ground to a powder. 

 The term whole wheat or entire wheat v seems rather inexact and sug- 

 gests flour practically identical with the Graham. The flour thus 

 designated, however, is said to be made often by removing the branny 

 outer covering and grinding the remainder. The flour most widely 

 used is that known as straight patent, or standard patent, or family 

 grade. Although this flour contains neither the germ nor the bran 

 of the wheat, in modern exhaustive milling nearly 73 per cent of the 

 kernel is recovered in it. 



All flours are wholesome and palatable. The housekeeper may 

 therefore wisely use all the different kinds of flours to give variety 

 to the diet and please the taste of different members of her family. 

 As has been said, w T ell-made bread of any kind is a very nutritious 

 food, and the differences between the various kinds are too small to 

 be of practical importance to persons of healthy digestions and com- 

 fortable circumstances. 



As far as nutritive value is concerned the cheaper grades are 

 fully as good as the more expensive. The bread made from them is 

 as light as that from the finer flours, but not quite so white and ap- 

 petizing. Where rigid economy is necessary tne cheaper grades can 

 safely be used. 



Crackers, Macaroni, Cakes. These made from white flour have 

 also been tested at the Minnesota Experiment Station, and it has been 

 found that their digestibility was practically the same as that of white 

 bread. Nothing very definite has yet been learned about the ease and 

 quickness with which these foods are digested. Bearing these limita- 

 tions in mind, however, it may safely be said that simple, well-made 

 crackers and cakes, at least when eaten in moderate quantities, are 

 digested by persons in health with much the same thoroughness as 

 bread. 



Hot, Fresh, and Toasted Bread. Statements of a popular na- 

 ture are frequently met with regarding the unwholesomeness of hot 

 bread. The fact that bread is hofr has doubtless little to do with the 

 matter. New bread, especially that from a large loaf, may be readily 

 compressed into more or less solid masses, and it is possible that such 

 bread would be much less finely masticated than crumbly, stale bread, 

 and that, therefore, it might offer more resistance to the digestive 

 juices of the stomach. 



