"THE WONDER BEAN"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24737, 14 October 1941, Page 4

"THE WONDER BEAN"

STAPLE OF GERMAN SOLDIERSDIET Analysing the incredibly swift march of the German soldiery, United States army observers discovered to their amazement that the lowly soya bean accounted, as much as any other single factor, for the Nazi's advance. Dive bombers might paralyse transport and disrupt communications, but, as in Napoleon's Day, an army still moves on its stomach. With the compact motorised units of the German Army there could be no thought of living off the countryside. A blitzkrieg food to match blitzkrieg armaments and tactics was indicated. Soya beans; of which Germany imported as many as 40.000.000 bushels annually were the answer. Since 1872. when Professor Haberlandt. of Vienna, pointed out to the western world bow intensive a food the soya bean is, the Germans have been experimenting with it. In Manchuria, and in fact throughout China, it is known as the wonder bean. The

soya bean is a natural, not artificial or ersatz, food. It contains its full complement of vitamins and minerals, including the " morale " vitamin, which aids in the assimilation and digestion of starches. Instead, therefore, of carrying beef. milk, and eggs the Nazi kitchens carry soya bean flour. Most important, where beef, milk and eggs contain 65 to 80 per cent, moisture, the soya bean contains only 8 per cent. As a result the panzer divisions are not hampered by extra tons of heavy moisture-laden foods. The German soya bean supplies, moisture eliminated, move almost as fast as the troops themselves. To save weight and space, an American publication says, German kitchens add soya flour to mincemeat with a saving of 25 per cent, in meat. Eggs are wholly replaced by the flour. A milk substitute consists of one part of the flour mixed with ten parts of water. In addition the soya bean is added to such foods as cheese, cocoa, and biscuits with an actual saving in fat of approximately 40 per cent. The use of the soya bean was planned with great care before the launching of the blitzkrieg. Beans were planted throughout Germany and Austria and even those parts of Rumania later annexed by Soviet Russia.

Introducing a new food to a country is a difficult task, as may be recalled from world war days. At that time it Droved almost impossible to induce the hungry peasants to eat corn. They also discarded heavily-cured American bacon, which was good but slightly mouldy. Hence the successful introduction of the soya bean is of particular interest. It has quickly become an accepted food in the United States as well as in Germany. Only ten years ago it was first taken seriously, and since that time it has become a household word in America. So wide is its range of uses that it is used as a special food for infants and as a substitute for steel automobile -bodies. Between these extremes it is efficiently utilised in numerous food products, paints, insulation, and lubricants. It is even treated chemically to produce a sort of synthetic rubber, both hard and soft. In addition, a recent development has been the use of a large percentage of soya bean derivative in the castings of the fuselage and. wings of planes by the new "one piece" method.

Two and a-half pounds of soya bean flour equals five and a-half pounds of beef, eight quarts of milk, or 54. eggs.