Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-05-09

NV SIC WIN OuI TUUus
Phosphate Baking Powder Theory
that is Dangerous If not Ridiculous.
That is rather dangerous proposition,
put forth by the manufacturers of some of
the patented or proprietary articles of
food, that their products possess superior
wholesomeness because they contain
drug of some particular medicinal proper
ty. Phosphates, alum, lime, arsenic, cal
omel, etc, have their places AS specifics
for different diseases, and are invaluable
medical remedies, each in its place But
they are not cure-als. The physician
who should prescribe either calemel or
strychnine or rhubarb three times a day
to man, woman and child, sick or we'll be-
cause either of those drugs is well known
remedy for some certain disease, would
receive but little honor from the fratern-
ity and less practice from the community
No one will cootrovert this statement;
yetwe find manufacturers of baking pow
ders claiming superior hygienic virtue for
their productions and urging their~con
tinuous use because they are alleged to
carry the phosphate used in making them
Ia cheap substitute for cream of tartar,
procured from the bones OF dead animals)
into the food, although we'll aware, as
they must be, of the fact that with the
constant use of such article this drug
inust pass into our systems daily, no mat
ter what may be our physical conditions
or requirements, or whether or not we may
be suffering from some ailment wherein
the use of such drug would be positively
detrimental. Both alum and phosphates
are useful medicaments in certain dis
eases; but they should no more be taken
Unfortunately day after day and with
out the prescri ption of physician, than
arsenic, aconite or calomel; indeed, there
are conditions of the system, particularly
with women, when the prudent physician
would be loath to permit the use of lime
pbosphates even as a medicine.
The fallacv of this claim of the manu-
facturers of phosphate baking powders
will be apparent to all when the fact, we'll
known TO physicians, is stated, that in
average health and with ordinary food
the body gets more phosphates than are
required or can be assimilated, as is evil
denced by the fact that they are constantly
being expelled in the excretions, both
solid and liquid; likewise the statement
that it is necessary to add phosphates to
the baking powder to restore to the flour
those which have been lost in the milling,
for it is true that fine -four as at present
made actually contains larger percent
age of phosphates than the grain of wheat
itself
The object of baking powders is not to
provide the body with a medicine, but
simply to vesiculate or make light the
mixture of -four, SO as to render it when
baked easy of mastication and perfectly
digestible. The most celebrated experts
in the business have worked for the per-
fection of an article that should do this
mechanically, adding to or taking from
the -four nothing, nor in any way effecting
change in its properties or constituents.
When this has been done the perfect
leavening agent has been discovered. The
manufacturers of the Royal Baking Pow
der have succeeded ia this so far as to
make leavening agent that vesiculates
and raises the loaf most perfectly, and
without changing the properties of the
heur, while the residuum from it has been
reduced 20 a minimum The acid en-
rloyed, however, to produce this result is
not phosphate. but the acid of highly re-
fined cream of tartar, which, the health
authorities agree, renders that powder
perfectly pure and more reliable and
healthful than any other. The recent of
fetal tests show, on the other hand, that
the best the phosphate baking powder
makers can do is to produce an article
that is one-third or more residuum or inn
purity.
We want our food pure; especially do
we not wish to take alum, lime and phos-
pilates with it at the dictum of manu-
facturers who may find it cheaper to claim
a virtue for the impurities than to remove
them.