FOOD VALUE OF DIFFKKKNT II.()ri:> jn 



perfect state of fnieiu'ss. ami it were tniiinl that iliis prevent i'« I 

 the aperient aetiun, aiul that oiIut i-vils wt if not induced, <.r 

 better still, if more of the food niaicrial can he separated from 

 the bran, and in either ease without more eost than the sjivin;; 

 would be worth, there might be some advautau'f. Hut. to 

 suppose that whole wheat meal, as ordinarily prepared, is. as 

 has generally been assumed, weight for weight, more mitritiou- 

 than ordinary bread-tiour, is an utter lallaey, founded on 

 theoretical text-book dicta : not oidy entirely unsupportefj by 

 experience, Init inconsistent with it. Tn faet, it i> ju>i \\i'- 

 poorer fed and the harder working that should have the 

 ordinary flour bread rather than the whole-meal bread as 

 hitherto prepared, and it is the over-fed and the sedentary that 

 should have such whole-meal bread. Lastly, if the whole 

 grain were finely ground, it is by no means certain that the 

 percentage of really nutritive nitrogenous matters would be 

 higher than in ordinary bread-Hour, and it is quite a (iue>tion 

 whether the excess of earthy phosphates would not then be 

 injurious." 



The persistent idea that the branny portions of the gi-aiu 

 possess a higher nutritive value comes from trusting in the 

 crude chemical view of a centmy ago, that the percentage of 

 nitrogen alone measures the value of a food, without tidving 

 any account of its digestibility and the amount of these 

 nitrogenous materials which can be assimilated by the body. 

 As to the extra value of the phosphoric acid, there is no 

 evidence to show that the ordinary dietaries are in any \Nay 

 deficient in phosphates. The whole subject has, during t In- 

 last few years, been elaborately tested experimentally in the 

 com-se of the nutrition investigations of the United States 

 Department of Agricuhure, with the result that I^iwes and 

 Gilbert's opinion of the superior nutritive value of white bread 

 has been fully confirmed. 



The other question raised l)y Lawes and Gill)ert in tht- \s:>7 

 paper, that of the effect of the difierent systems of mamn-ing 

 upon the baking quality of the wheat and the differeneo in 



