Huntsville gazette., 1881-12-03
The Wheaton Loaf.

The various attempts which have been
made to introduce bread made of the
whole wheat into general use in Eng
land and the United States have signal
ly failed. It does not matter that we are
told that the best parts of the grain are
removed by the boiling process, and
what should 90 to build up human tissue
is fed to domestic animals. In the face
of this statement the poor man, the Ia
boring man, finds that for him there is
more food in white bread than in brown
bread, and the rich man finds the
brown bread necessity on his sumptu-
ous table because it is not concentrated
food. Both are right and both are
wrong.
When grain of wheat is placed un-
der the microscope it presents an ap-
pearapce not unlike that of cocoanut.
1t is covered with a fbrous, sillclouS
coat full of crevices where insects and
dirt can hide. This coat when removed
is found absolutely destitute of nutritive
matter. Beneath this coat are five lay
ers surrounding white central portion.
The outer layers contain substances
which are suited to repair the waste OF
bony and nervous tissues. The inner
layer is composed chiefly OF gluten,
which repairs the waste OF muscular It's
sue. The central white portion is COM
posed of starch cells, and this keeps up
the heat of the body. Now if we could
have bread made of the whole gram de-
nuded of its outer silicious coat, we
should have something to repair the
waste of every bodily tissue, provided
the fineness of the particles were such
that the digestive process could asslm-
ilate it. But, as wheat is usually
ground, the five outer layers, being
hard and horny, are broken into angu,
lar fragments instead of being ground
into fine powder, and prove q source OF
irritation to the alimentary canal, In
which for this reason they do not re-
main long enough to be digested.
In England the reduction OF the whole
grain is effected by means OF steel mills,
which have been recently introduced by
society calling itself the "Bread Re-
form League, the object of which is to
make bread as will contain all the nu-
tritious portions of the grain, and only
these, and by precept and example to
press this bread upon the acceptance OF
the poor. The children of the English
poor are singularly subject to bone dis
orders, induced by the absence from
their food, which is chiefly bread OF fine
flour, of bone-producing elements.
Where bread of this description is sup
plemented by abundance of meat, eggs
and milk, its deficiencies in gluten and
the phosphates are to degree made up.
Across the border in Scotland these bone
disorders are unknown.
"In Sicily the laboring classes work
well on vegetable diet, the staple arti-
Gle of which is bread made of we'll
ground wheat meal. The Hindoos OF
the Northwestern Province can walk
fifty or sixty miles day with no other
food than 'chapatties,' made OF the
whole meal with little 'ghee' or Galam
butter. Turkish and Arab porters, ca
pable of carrying burdens of from 400 to
600 pounds, live on bread only, with the
occasional addition of fruit and vegeta
bles. The Spartans and Romans of old
time lived their vigorous lives on bread
made of wheaton meal. In Russia,
Sweden, Scotland and elsewhere, the
poor live chiefly on bread, always made
from some whole meal-wheat, oats or
rye-and the peasantry of whatever eli
mate so fed always compare favorably
with the English poor, who live chiefly
on white bread. The yeomen of Eliza
beth's time, who drew their bowstrings
to their ears and sent cloth-yard shaft
through barn door at eighty
yards, ate meat about once q week, and
lived the rest of the time on whole-meal
bread and cheese"
So far back as the time of Pliny some
kinds of -four were prepared first by re-
moving the outer coat, and then by
crushing or grinding the grain to an inn
powder. In this country the
wheat is usually cleaned more or less
before grinding, but the silicious coat is
not removed until the boiling process
carries it away with the outer layers of
the grain. There is an improved meth
cd Of preparing flour which is slowly
making its way, and which promises to
give the masses at some future time
bread rich in all the nutritious elements
of wheat, and destitute of all irritating
particles, whether of slicious matter or
of unpulverized nutritious matter. In
the preparation of this flour, millstones,
bolts and sieves are entirely avoided,
and the reduction of the grain to an inn
palpable powder is effected by the ex-
plosive power of cold compressed air.
No bread made of the whole grain is or
can be as white as that made of only the
interior or starchy portions of the berry,
and the prejudice of the masses is so
greatly in favor Of the ''snowy Loaf that
the brown loaf makes its way slowly in
to favor; but with growing intelligence
on this subject our people will learn to
choose wisely that which is bread, that
which is really the ''staff of life," and
to regard the snowy loaf as among del
icacies pleasant to the taste, but made
quate to meet the wants of the wasting
tiSsueS.-N. Y. Tribune.
A Subtitle Sympathy.