230 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLYll. No. 1210 



that the heat can be measured, Professor Sny- 

 der has foimd that the higher extraction flours 

 are equal to or exceed the patent flours in 

 heat value. In one of his publications^ in 

 1897 Professor Suyder states "omitting de- 

 tails of the separate experiments it was found 

 that there was practically no difference in the 

 total digestibility of breads made from the 

 three kinds of flour (patent, baker's and whole- 

 wheat flours)." And in proof of his argument 

 Professor Snyder submits the following data: 



These figures would lead us to believe that 

 his conclusions are correct and we might even 

 go further and say that the digestibility of 

 protein was in favor of the whole-wheat flour. 

 The protein in the whole-wheat flour was 12.81 

 per cent, and in the patent flour 12.44 per cent. 

 This was in 1897. In 1901 Professor Snyder 

 published the results of another set of experi- 

 ments using other wheats and other men in 

 the digestion trials and concluded that " while 

 there actually may be more protein in a given 

 amount of graham or entire-wheat flour than 

 in the same weight of patent flour from the 

 same wheat, the body obtains less of the pro- 

 tein and energy from the coarse flour than 

 it did from the fine, because, although the in' 

 eluding bran and germ increases the percent- 

 age of protein, it decreases the digestibility." 

 Granting that Professor Snyder is right in 

 either of his conclusions, we can rest assured 

 that the difference in digestibility of the two 

 flours is not great. 



Professor Snyder states that 106 pounds of 

 whole-wheat flour are required to be equal in 

 nutritive value to 100 pounds of patent flour 

 and it is upon this peg that aU of the miller's 

 arguments are h\mg. 



1 Bulletin 54, Minnesota Experiment Station. 



Let us assume that 100 pounds of wheat 

 are milled, yielding 73 pounds of patent flour 

 and 100 pounds of the same wheat are milled 

 to 82 pounds of whole-wheat flour and another 

 100 pounds are milled to practically 100 pounds 

 of gTaham flour. Using Professor Snyder's 

 own digestion coefficients,^ we find that the 

 energy available in patent whole-wheat and 

 (graham breads were 90.9, 89.8 and 85.1 re- 

 spectively. If we should feed 100 pounds of 

 the same wheat in the form of patent flour 

 (73 per cent, extraction), whole-wheat (82 per- 

 cent, extraction) and graham flour, we would 

 fijid that out of 182.64 large calories of heat in 

 100 pounds of wheat, man would actually be 

 able to utilize for growth and development 

 115.64 large calories in the patent flour, 127.91 

 large calories in the whole-wheat flour, and 

 153.19 calories in the graham flour, showing 

 a loss of 25 per cent, of available energy when 

 patent flour is used. When the protein is 

 compared, we find that Professor Snyder's 

 figures show that out of 100 pounds of wheat 

 we actually receive into the blood for tissue 

 building purposes the following amounts of 

 protein : patent fiour, 8.75 pounds, whole-wheat 

 flour, 9.68 pounds, and in graham flour 11.76 

 pounds of protein, showing a loss in patent 

 flour of 25 per cent, of available protein. 



Calculation also shows that if we feed bran, 

 shorts or middlings to farm animals and then 

 eat the meat, we lose from 60 to 80 per cent, 

 of the available nutrients, which would in- 

 dicate that it is more economical to utilize 

 the greatest amount of the wheat kernel as 

 human food and manufacture animal tissue 

 on cheaper feeds. 



The argument will be advanced that whole 

 wheat flour costs nearly as much as patent 

 flour and therefore the former figures are not 

 applicable to present conditions. The present 

 conditions are merely artificial — as soon as the 

 people demand more of the whole-grain flours 

 (which are milled at a lower cost than patent 

 flour) just that soon will the price of the whole- 

 grain flours begin to drop. 



It is entirely feasible to mill higher ex- 



^ Snyder, 1903, U. S. Dept. Agr. Office Exp. Sta. 

 Bull. 126. 



