The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-05-18
BEANS BETTER THAN WHEAT.
Tbe Former said to BE More EspesiaiIy
the Food OF Civilization.

Am1 20 So ~ f.r. ef.,ss
Tbe Former said to BE More EspesiaiIy
- the Hood OF Civilization.
The bean is a better food than wheat,
and is more especially the food of civil
ration. Phe average graham bread has
bot 8:5 per cent of protefa, while beans
have -23.2 per cent, or two and a half
tinaesas much. The function Of protein
as food is principally toiform the basis of
blood, muscle, connective tissue, etc.
Herein is the nitrogen that furnishes
nerve and brain nourishment. Graham
bread has IA per cent. of fat, while
beans have 81 per cent. OF ycarbolly-
drates, beans have 53.T per cent. and
graham Dread 53.3 per cent, including
woody fiber for the latter The service
OF carbohydrates is to be transformed into
fat and to be burned as fuel, as in the
case of the fats themselves. The chief
useof the carbohydrates of wheat bread
seems to beto serve for fuel, though they
are also transformed into fats. In power
to keep the body warm and 60 furnish
muscular energy mot musclel, graham
bread hardly equals beans, and if we
take into account the animal fats which
men lave always instinctively combined
with beans, no doubt the cooked bean is
much richer than wheat as a heat and
force food. The mineral matters In
graham bread, which are reduced to I
per cent. ia wheat bread, amount to only
1.6 per cent, while beans have SO per
cent. of them. These help largely to
form bone and blood. s-.--
In no respect, then. are cooked beans
inferior to graham bread as food, and i'm
most respects they are more than twice
as nutritious, particularly in those sub
stances that go to brain and nerve nour-
ashment and to the building up Of the
muscles and bones of the body. 1t is
fair to presume that beans would have
made q more vigorous man than wheat
has done, with its large amount of starch
to be converted into fat and heat. In
case of famine and small supply of
food, the advantage Of beans over wheat
would have been considerable, and the
same may be said of them for long
marches and military campaigns. It Is
matter of common experience that people
are made corpulent by eating starchy
foods, and these unwieldy bodies are not
30 healthy and workable as the leaner
bodies of other people. A good diet for
persons who want to reduce flesh is made
up Of leguminouS foods, and these have
been eaten In such cases with successful
result. 1t is not easy to over eat the
leguminous foods, for they soon satisfy
the cravings of hunger. Professor At
water maintains that the bodily ills re-
sulting from over eating are greater and
more common than those resulting from
the Incorporate use Of alcoholic drinks.
Whether this is fully true or not, the ills
from over eating are incalculable, and
they would have been and would be
greatly reduced il beans had been SUBJ
stituted for wheat.
Other things equal, the bean eater will
prevail over the wheat eater and over the
potato and the rice eater. The Arabian
bean eaters came within one battle of
spreading Mohammedan civilization all
over Europe. The superiority of the
bean over wheat would have made Eu-
ropeans stronger and better nourished
people than they have been as wheat
eaters, and equally as energetic, and they
would have had the food that would
have made possible, not to say probable,
a higher degree of intelligence. 4
ts
the effect on the agriculture of the world
would have been incalculable. In Massa-
chusetts, in 1880, 963 acres produced
is, 768 bushels of wheat, or 16 1-3 bush
els'per acre. The average product in the
United States in that year was but IS
bushels. The product of beans in Massa-
chusetts in 1876 was Al 1910 bushels from
1854 acres, or 81 bushels per acre.
Therefore, since beans are about two and
a half times as nutritious as wheat 1.-THE
animal fat mixed with cooked beans re-
duces the exception in the matter Of
fuel, and since an acre produces twice
as much beans as wheat then it follows
that five times more nutriment is got
from am acre Of beans than from an aero
of wheat. -. - 49,
The.western farmer might till but one
acre in five of his wheat area if he could
raise beans, and people would eat them
instead of wheat. The savings of land |
tillage in the United States would amount |
to four-fifths of the wheat area, or to !
44,2S0 square miles, according to the
census of 1880, and tho same amount of |
nutriment would still be got for the
nation and the world-that is to say, an
area larger than the state Of Pennsyl-
vania, and larger than the state of Ohio,
would be freed from the necessity Of pro- |
ducing .sustenance for the human race,
taking account of the land in the United |
States alone. When the time comes,
which is generally expected when the |
pressure Of population will try thoability |
of the. soil to sustain it, the substitution |
of beans for wheat will DO a live ques-
tion.-Good Housekeeping.
nrawbacI,s tn Hvpienic Living.