CEREAL BREAKFAST FOODS. 147 



comfort from its use." As a matter of fact, the nitrogen-free 

 extract, which includes the starch, is the same as that of any 

 wheat products carrying an equal amount of protein (15.06 per 

 cent). Its richness in the latter constituent is more than offset 

 by its price, 10.7 cents per pound, which places it among the less 

 economical foods of this class. 



Wheatlet is apparently made from a good grade decorticated 

 wheat. The claim that it is "exceptionally rich in the nitrogenous 

 and phosphatic food elements" is true of Wheatlet only in the 

 same sense that it is true of any other of the wheat preparations. 



MALTED EOODS. 



Starch, which makes up by far the greater part of the cereal 

 grains, must be converted into soluble forms before it can be 

 absorbed and made of use to the animal body. By the action of 

 the saliva, and to a greater extent by the pancreatic juice, starch 

 is changed to dextrin and maltose, which last is, at least in part, 

 changed to dextrose or glucose, in which form it may be 

 absorbed. Just so much of the starch as escapes this solvent 

 action is lost as food. While raw starch is not easily digested 

 by man, cooked starch in reasonable quantities offers no difficulty 

 to the healthy individual. With many persons of weak diges- 

 tion the starch of the food, even when properly cooked, is not 

 well digested. Any process, therefore, which accomplishes the 

 solvent action noted above either wholly or in part, to that extent 

 relieves the digestive organs, and the food is, so far as the starch 

 is concerned, "predigested." 



In the germination of cereals the starch is rendered soluble 

 by the action of a ferment known as diastase, which nature seems 

 to have provided for that purpose. This ferment is able to con- 

 vert into maltose not only the starch of the kernel in which it is 

 formed, but a much larger amount as well. If barley be sprouted 

 and the germination arrested before the sprout has reached any 

 considerable length, a product known as malt is formed. When 

 the malt is ground and mixed with a large amount of grain, the 

 mass moistened and kept at a suitable temperature, the starch, not 

 only of the malt, but of the unsprouted grain also, is converted 

 into maltose. 



The manufacturers of malt foods claim that a considerable 

 portion of the starch of their products has thus been acted upon, 



