Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1906. THE STAFF OF LIFE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXX, Issue 8493, 4 July 1906, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1906. THE STAFF OF LIFE.

Fifty years ago a small handful of settlers n this neighborhood understood that bread was the stall' of life in a way that is now impossible. In (hose early days the upcountry farmer grew his own wheat, ground it with a hand-grinder and his wife made the meal into bread. At that period there was no professional miller and no professional baker to tickle the palate with superfine Hour and a milk whito emasculated loaf. All that was in the wheat went into the bread, and a loaf fifty years ago meant a good deal more than it does now.

The perfect loaf, which can only be regarded as the stall of life must be made of coarse flour. The wheat requires to be ground about tho same fineness that the molar teeth will grind it. The comparative coarseness of such meal ensures a due penetration and action by tho gastric juices. Nature has so made man that food of a certain coarseness is digestible and food of a certain fineness is indigestible. Fifty years ago the coarser food was customary, but today the preference is for the finer food and therefore the miller and the baker give the public what they ask for rather than that which is good for them. The loaf of the present day is pleasant to the taste, but it is not altogether the staff of life.

Even the action of yeast leads to a partial decomposition of the meal and a loss of its substance. The ideal bread is simply flour ancl water mixed together—the unleavened bread which was eaten by the Israelites in the days of old and which is still used on certain solemn anniversaries by their descendants. The unleavened bread is not so nice to the taste as the leavened bread, but it is purer and more wholesome and keeps sweet while the leavened bread becomes

sour,

The bread of the present day is made of flour from which the shell of the phosphates has been taken away. This shell is a valu-

able nourishment for both brain ancl bones. In feeding a racehorse, no owner would dream of removing from its food this important husk. No trainer would take tho risk of rearing a purebred colt on grain reduced to tho fineness which is considered suitable for human requirements. Hence, as a rule, a valuable horse is better fed than the average man or boy. It is a question, perhaps, whether the horso enjoys his feed as much as the man or the boy, but undoubtedly the food of the former is more strengthening, ancl more in accordance with the natural laws of health.

A man may not eat exactly as a horse does, but in many ways he can adapt wholesome foods to the natural requirements of his body. Crushed or cracked wheat, not deprived of its bran, cooked like rice and eaten with a little cream or milk, is, for example, an ideal food—cheap, wholesome, nourishing, and fairly pleasant to the palate. Indian corn meal also is very wholesome, especially during the winter season, as it contains more carbon or fatty matter than the wheaten loaf. However, we do not expect the public to forsake its old habit of eating dainty, but less wholesome, bread. Here ancl there it may be possible to suggest to some odd man who eats to live —rather than lives to eat -the idea that by a recourse to a more simple and nourishing natural food both health and money may be saved. Or it may be possible to draw the attention of some anxious parent to a natural means by which a rickety child may be made strong and vigorous.