WHITE v. BROWN BREAD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 13

WHITE v. BROWN BREAD

TO TBt EDITOR.

Sir, —The importance of the recent Health Week campaign can hardly be over-estimated. In one or two isolated cases, however, proceedings were characterised, if hot by lack of plain thinking, then at lea.st by some loose talking; nowhere was this more noticeable than in connection with the subject of the relative food values of white and wholemeal bread. Here is another aspect of the case, and it gives one furiously to think.

It has been demonstrated over and over again, and this is not mere hearsay evidence, but actual experimental fact, that the digestibility of the proteins of white bread decreases as more of , the outer bran coating is included in the flour. This has been confirmed not only in England but also in America. The greater part of the wheat, however, consists of starch, and, after all, it is because of its Btarch content probably that flour holds its present place in modern dietaries; to this starch is due the production of the heat and the energy so necessary to the every-day functions of our bodies. But when we come to examine the actual heat-pro-ducing and energy-producing ratios of wholemeal and white bread wo.find that white bread has a heat value of 125, say, per pound, while wholemeal has a value of 115. The above factors may not be conclusive, but they do not show the inferiority of white bread. There has been a certain amount of talk about the inorganic constituents of flour. No one doubts for a-moment that these, compounds in some form or another are most essential to the development and maintenance in health of the body. But what are' the facts as far as wheat products avo concerned? Flour containing more than usual of the outer coat of the grain is undoubtedly richer in/ these inorganic compounds. But can the. body use, or does it need, this surplus? After exhaustive trials it is now known that for every 100 parts of phosphoric acid (constituting about half of' the inorganic substances present) in white bread only 52 are digested—the body cannot use the remaining 48; in wholemeal bread only 41 are digested. There is a moral somewhere in this. Even whew one admits that the decrease in availability of phosphoric acid (and its salte) is counter balanced by the larger proportion present, in wholemeal bread, the question is, does the body want it? In other, words, what is the amount of phosphate that an ordinary healthy man requires each day? The question is -rather a ltnotty one, but some* years ago tile Board of Trade (England) went to no end of trouble to obtain an answer to .this very question; and it decided, after collecting many.pages of statistics, that although the amount is variable it is approximately two and a half grams per day. ■ The average diet of white bread of an average man reaches just the very amourtt. And, anyway, man does not live by. bread alone. ; As to the mysterious "germ"; as a matter of. fact 1 it is doubtful if this>part of the wheat is wholly excluded from present-day floure; and at best it constitutes only 1^ per cent, of the total flour, an amount which can hardly affect the nutritive value of the whole, except as it affects the vitamine question. There is. no'doubt that .the germ is rich ,in the different vitamines. : There is a doubt, however, as to the ultimate value of the vitamines when included with,the whole meal, or when partially excluded from white flour, and included with the bran or pollard. Within the last few months .it-has been stated, and the evidence upon which the statements are based has been also forthcoming, that economically it is a better proposition to feed these vitamine-containing, branny fractions to our dairy herds, poultry, etc.; the simple reason being that, by the process, the vitamine content of the^ original bran fraction is doubled, and is returned to the consumer twofold in the form of milk, eggs., etc.; ultimately the bread, e ßg. milk, etc., consuming public are that much better off in these desirable constituents. It is almost a case of having one's cake and eating it too. These results may be wrong, but they do not look wrong, and corroborative evidence is every day forthcoming. ' Lastly, is it not a fact that wholemeal bread usually contains approximately 40 per cent, of moisture, and white, bread more nearly 30 per cent.? Which gives the greater food value, weight for weight, in this aspect of the case? One fact remains: it is said that the branny particles in wholemeal bread have a salutary mechanical effect in the alimentary system. Here is one case where it appears that wholemeal bread dbes appear to distinct advantage. But do not nineteen people out of twenty get along quite nicely without the necessity of resorting to this, or any, meanis of maintaining an equilibrium? until a better case has been made out the bulk of the evidence at present available at least does not disfavour white bread. I hold no brief for either —I am, co., •

W.B.

12th October.