PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 



"What a Man Eats He Is." 



WHITE FLOUR VERSUS WHOLE WHEAT AND 

 GRAHAM. 



ROLLIN E. SMITH, 



In November Recreation an article 

 touching on the gluten in white flour has 

 attracted my attention. I take exception 

 to the following statement: 



"The gluten of cereal foods is their nitrogenized element, 

 the element on which depends their life-sustaining value, 

 and this element is in the white and foolishly fashionable 

 flour almost entirely removed, while the starch, the in- 

 ferior element, is left behind and constitutes the entire bulk 

 and inferior nutriment of such flour. To use flour -from 

 which the gluten (hi the bran) has been removed is almost 

 criminal." 



Anyone who could write thus is entirely 

 ignorant of the facts, and probably does 

 not pause to consider that he is giving one 

 of America's greatest manufacturing in- 

 dustries a direct and unjustified slap. I 

 refer, of course, to flour milling. It has 

 been the fashion of late years, among the 

 unthinking and uninformed, to lay all ill 

 feelings to white flour, and to credit gra- 

 ham and whole wheat flours with the power 

 to almost work miracles. Such claims have 

 been made so long and loudly that many 

 people take it for granted they are good 

 claims; but during the last few years in- 

 vestigations have been made, so that now 

 any assertion regarding the food value of 

 flour can be proved or disproved without 

 argument. 



In talking in favor of whole wheat flour 

 as compared with white, or patent, flour, 

 2 points are lost sight of, namely, the 

 quality of the gluten and the digestibility 

 of bread made from the 2 flours. 



Much of the whole wheat flour on the 

 market is a third grade flour mixed with a 

 little bran. When, however, it is honestly 

 made it does contain a trifle more gluten 

 than patent flour does. Theorists stop 

 there. They should go farther. Bread 

 made from whole wheat flour does not di- 

 gest so readily as white flour bread. 

 Therefore, one gets more nourishment 

 from white bread, if properly made. 



Again, the lower grades of flour contain 

 more gluten than patent flour; but the 

 quality is also of a low grade. 



One of the best authorities in the coun- 

 try in the matter of flours is Prof. Harry 

 Snyder, chemist at the agricultural experi- 

 ment station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 

 The results of his experiments are accepted 

 by the Agricultural Department at Wash- 

 ington without question. I will quote 

 from an article prepared by Prof. Snyder, 

 which has not yet been published. He 

 says: 



"Graham and entire wheat flours have a 

 useful place in our dietary, as they are 

 laxative foods, and valuable in cases of 

 chronic constipation caused by sedentary 



habits. But to boldly state that graham 

 and entire wheat flours contain more 

 nourishment than standard white bread is 

 assuming too much, as there are no figures 

 that ca verify the statement. 



"It is argued by many that since wheat 

 bran and the offal product contain more 

 protein than wheat flour, the bran should 

 be retained in the flour. When the com- 

 position of bran and flour are compared, it 

 will be observed that while flour contains 

 2 per cent, less protein, bran contains 

 about 8 per cent, more fibre or woody ma- 

 terial. To recover this small amount of 

 protein would necessitate the addition of 

 the 8 per cent, of fibre to the flour. 

 Standard patent and graham flour made 

 from the same wheat contain, respectively, 

 12.50 and 13.15 per cent, of protein, while 

 the fibre percentages are, respectively, .05 

 and 2.16. The offal products amount, to 

 about 25 per cent, of the weight of the 

 wheat, and since bran contains 8 per cent, 

 of fibre, and only 2 per cent, more protein 

 than flour, it necessarily follows that the 

 large losses of food value through the 

 bran, as claimed by many, cannot take 

 place, because there is nothing to lose. 



"The addition of the bran to the flour 

 prevents fine granulation, which makes 

 whole wheat and graham flours less di- 

 gestible than standard, white flour. The 

 comparative digestibility of whole wheat, 

 graham and standard patent flours has not 

 yet been definitely established, but the ex- 

 periments that have been made show that 

 the grinding of the wheat favorably in- 

 fluences the digestibility of the food to the 

 extent of 10 per cent. 



"Does it pay to make the human ma- 

 chinery sort over a large amount of in- 

 digestible fibre which can be removed by 

 the modern processes of milling? Should 

 the human body be made to do the grind- 

 ing that can just as well be done between 

 steel rolls? Would it not pay better to 

 save the wear and tear on the human ma- 

 chinery and have the same work done by 

 a mill?" 



Experiments were recently concluded in 

 Germany to determine the best bread for 

 soldiers. The conclusions arrived at are 

 given in a report by Prof. K. Pannwitz, as 

 follows: 



"The experiments, which were made on 

 soldiers, were as to the digestibility of va- 

 rious kinds of bread, both wheat and rye. 

 In all some 24 distinct kinds of bread were 

 tested, the grouping being according to 

 the fineness or coarseness of the grinding 

 of the grain from which the bread was 

 made, and the completeness or otherwise 

 of the removal of the outer skin of the 



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