The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-31
WHEAT AS FOOD.
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD VS.. WHITE FLOUR.

in a recent Sunday issue of your paper, taken
from the Boston Journal of CHEMISTRY upon
+" Wheat and the Deficiencies of White Flour
as q Nerve Food" has recently been most
ably supplemented by an important lecture
by the author, DR.. Cutter, of NJ Massachusetts,.
upon the general subject, with special view
to answering the question, "Is -four (white)
onr proper food p Dr. Gutter has for long
time been engaged in extended researches
upon the I" effects Of four-eating upon the hu
man race" and will ere long emboiy the re-
suits of his investigations in an exhaustive
work upon the subject. His lecture is brist-
ling with facts and statements Of great value,
which should be generally known, as they
will likely set people to thinking upon mat
ter to which they ordinarily give far too little
thought The following are among the many
points he makes and questions he asks
!. Flour is the only impoverished food used
by mankind by the withdrawal
of the documentary portion Of the wheat,
leaving the internal starchy, or white portion.
See the facts: In Johnson's Chow Crops
Grow" you find that in 1000 parts of sub
stance, wheat has an ash of ~ parts; -four
has an ash of 4 partisan impoverishment
of over three-fourths. Wheat has 80 parts
phosphoric acid; flour has 2. parts phospho-
rlc acid-an impoverishment OF about three
fourths. Wheat has 0.6 lime and O.6 soda;
-four has 0. lime and OIL soda-an impover-
ishment OF fvs-sixth each. Wheat has 8
sulphur; -four has no sulphur. Wheat has
sulphuric acid 0.5; flour has no sulphuric
acid. Wheat has silica O. 3; -four has no silica.
IL Flour is mostly starch-687 per cent.
Its formula, chemical composition, is c 10. Fl
| IL, o 12-three elements: carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen. The human body contains at least
twelve elements, besides those OF starch. How.
then, can -four be nutritious with about three
elements, when it should contain fifteen ele-
ments in order to properly nouriBh and sus-
tain the human body?
III. Flour has less gluten than wheat.
Gluten is the albuminoid principle CORE
spending to the albumen, fbrn and gelatine,
in the human body.
~. Dogs fed by Magendie wide kirke d
Paget's "Physiology") on -four bread died
in forty days; other dogs, ted on bread from
whole-wheat meal or flour, fourished and
th1ove. The three-fourths Impoverished
of the mineral ingredients proved fatal to the
first Why should not mankind suffer in
some manner from living on impoverished
food?
V. The history of the Roman Empire in the
time of julius Ce sar shows that wheat, as an
article of food, combined with fresh outdoor
air life, is capable Of producing and susta n
ing the highest type of physical m anhood the
world ever saw. The Empire was built up
and maintained by soldiers whose main artl-
Gle of food was wheat
VI There is every probability that the
present prevalence OF late erupting and easily
decaying teeth is due for one cause to the use
of flour as food Ia 800 of the school chill
dren in Woburn, Lexington and Bedford,
Mass, in 1874, under IL years of age, two
thirds had decayed teeth. See Report State
Health Board of Mas iachusetts, 1876"
VII There is every probability that the
prevalence of premature grayness or bald
ness is partly put to the present exclusive and
universal use of white fl ,ur. Hair contains
10 per cent OF sulphamid On. HI S.)-Mut-
der. But there is no sulphur or sulphuric
acid in -four. A food, to be food, must con-
tain in proper quantities all ingredients found
in the tissues, hair, teeth, etc. If it does
not, then impairment of vigor, decay and fall
ing off must be expected as q natural conse-
quence.
Will Flour, for half century, has been
regarded as one cause of onstipation. 1t has
been proved that whole wheat meal Tor hour)
regulates the bowels by giving the system
nerve food to "run," so to speak. the d.
gestive functions and promote healthy per.
istaltic motions. Nearly all our functions are
sustained by nerve force; hence the i'm
portance of having the nerves receive their
great pabulum of the nerve tissue.
X 1t is probable that the use of flour may
be the cause of the change of the type of dis
ease from strong (sthenic) to weak (asthenic).
| Note-The mineral ingredients of food for
plants, contained in fertile srs, il withdrawn
rs per cent, would entail vegetable growths
of very feeble vitality and resistance to the
causes of disease. No farmer would think OF
manuring his vegetables with one-fourth the
fertilizers ordinarily deemed necessary; or, if
he did, he would get q miserable and weak
crop, if he got any at all. Now, it is asked,
may it not be possible that the present type
of asthenic disease is partly due to the use of
an impoverished food like -four? The an
swering of this must be made by the organ
lied Medical Societies, although there is every
probability that the reply will be in the
affirmative.
10. Why should mankind, then, use -four,
and render themselves liable to disease, be-
cause -four is impoverished food? Remember
Magendie's dog that died from eating white
flour bread exclusively How can parents
expect their children to grow up with strong
teeth nerves, eyes, hair, etc., on flour? In
children, every tissue and organ is growing,
increasing in size, and developing. Every
element which belongs to those tissues and
organs should be contained in the food OF
alimentary substances, and in normal proper
tons, as provided by the Creator in the ma
tural substances designed and proved by his
tory to be perfect food. Wheat is such an
article. But white -four, made from it, is a
substance weakened, deteriorated, and i'm
poverished; and history shows that people
eating it are more subject to tissue. wasting
disease Consumption, etc.) than ever before
Why, then, not use the whole OF the original
wheat, ground or reduced to a uniform con-
dition, without loss or injury to the food
elements with its native normal balance and
quantity of mineral Ingredients in soluble
and assimilable form, as Siebig and others ad.
vocate; and such as it is demonstrated unde-
niably and incontrovertibly by facts of his
tory to be capable of producing the highest
type of physical manhood the world ever
saw? Why raise pale, feeble, nervous and
smail-sized race of people upon -four, because
flour bread looks white and light, and, there
fore, is considered nice? What principle Of
esthetics is it that confers such pre-eminent
place upon the color of white? Why not
brown, or bronze? What is more grateful to
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