Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-03-12
WHITE BREAD.
Arbitrary Sway Over the stan
of Life.

bakers pander to them. These fashions
do not take the form of additional nu.
triment or hygienis regulation. On the
contrary, their existence weakens the
wholesome principles of bread and sac
riticcs everything sanitary to outward
appearance. Bread must be white. A
~housckecper declines to look at a loa-
until it be what she calls milky" A
brown tint, she has been taught to be-
licve, implies defective bread, and, be-
sides. its aspect is not pleasing. This
religion is carefully instilled into girls,
and ut the present time there is Il de-
mand for nothing but white bread.
Bakers may have secret ideas on the
subject; in their inner consciousness
they may recognize the fact that il
white bread be used largely its effects
NAV not be as healthful as those OF
browncr bread, but they pander to the
fashion, and as long as that fashion
supplies them with loavcs and fishes
they are content to be unscicntific and
leave the hygienic side of the question
alone. as irrelevant and immatcrial.
An agitation on this subject, how
ever. is taking place. and there is no
doubt that in ashort time it will assume
formidable proportions. Several en-
thusiasts whose ideas u in other
grooves than those of dollars and cents
have been giving the point very mature
consideration. Physicians have been
consultedand their sympathies enlisted,
and a movement started. Mrs. II. 5.
C. Jones is an energetic worker in the
cause of bread. She has thoroughly
studied the question and talks with
Guency and interest upon it. ''The
present generation" she said, "bclicve
as firmly as they believe the earth to be
round that the best flour is the whitest.
1t is Il dcep-seated prejudice, which has
been catered to for years, and. it is a
harmful and wholly unwarranted idea.
"Apart from the fact that white flour
can be so readily adultcrated with alum
and other pernicious substances, its
very whitencss is a sign that all its
wholesome properties have been alb
stracted from it, which in itself n
might almost call adulteration. Very
white flour is deprived of the gluten OF
the wheat. which is what may be COM
pared to the lean part of meat, while
only the starch, which corresponds
with the fat part of the meat, remains.
BY using the fine flour of the entire
wheat, which causes the bread to be
brown, which the sentimental people of
the present day do not like, all the min
eral properties of the wheat are re-
tanned and bread becomes wholesome
and a reliable article of food
In the white bread which the makers
of to-day supply, adultcrated with alum
in the German portions of the city, or
with any thing else which will satisfy
the eyes and not the digestive organs
of the people, there is an excess Of
starch, which gives rise to diseases de-
pendent upon fatty degeneration. Ma
jendie, the celebrated scientist, took
two dogs, one of which he fed on white
flour, while to the other he gave flour
made of the entire wheat. In forty
days the dog who had received the
white tlourdied of starvation; the other
remained in perfect health, and could
have lived Indefinitely with no other
food.
It is possible to walk from San Fran
cisco to New York with no other food
but sound wheat. The health, in the
opinion of doctors familiar with the
subject, would be in no wise impaired
and the vigor as satisfactory as ever.
This feat, however, would be impossi-
BILE with nothing but the white bread
supplied at the present time. DR.. Ham
mond, Of this city, on one occasion tried
to live on starch. At the end of ten
days he was forced to give up his at
tempt. An excess of starch will cause
Bright's disease of the kidneys and
paralysis. The reports and statistics
of the Massachusetts Board of Education
show that two-thirds of the children
under ten years of age in every civilized
community are found with diseased
teeth.
This is not the case with the Indian
children in the Indian territories, and
this fact is accounted for by the circum-
stance that the Indians live upon wheat,
which supplies foodfor the teeth. With
the wealthy of the metropolis bread
does not form Il very large constituent
of the daily food. But with the poorer
people it is a sine qua non of existence,
| and in manymiserable districts nothing
else is eaten. The smaller bakers ape
the peculiarities of their more thriving
fraternity. They see that white bread
is the fashion in the upper part of the
city and they are determined not to be
outdone. Did they not adulterate their
bread to make it white, while using the
entire wheat, instead of merely the ker-
mel, their bread would be wholesome and
health-giving, and its brown color, to
which people;would become speedily ac.
| customed, would need no adulteration.
''The outside part of the wheat is
most nutritious said DR.. Carleton,
''but its use is entirely discouraged,
owing to the fact that housekecpers
will use nothing but white bread. The
very best part of the wheat is utterly
rejected, and bread is no longer capa.
BILE of sustaining life alone"
The white flour used in ordinary
bread contains no sulphur, while the
flour made from the entire wheat has
LIS parts in 1000. One of the late
Commissioners of Indian Affairs, Hon
G. P. Smith, declared that he never
saw a ~bald-headed Indian, and the ply
sicians account for this by the fact tina
the Indians eat wheat. Hair contain.
from 3.5 to rs per cent. of sulphur