Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-03-15
NO PHYSIC WITH OUR FOOD.
\ POSPHATIC BAKING POWDER THEORY
THAT Is DANGEROUS If NOT
RIDICULOUS.

THAT Is DANGEROUS If NOT
RIDICULOUS.
That is a rather dangerous proposition,
put forth by the manufacturers of some
of the patented or proprietary articles of
food that their products possess supe
rior wholeSOmeneSS because they contain
drug of some particular medical prop
erty. Phosphates, alum, lime, arsenic,
calOmel, etc, have their places as specifics
for different diseases, and are Invaluable
medical remedies each Ill Its place. But
they are not cure-alis. The physician
who should prescribe either calOmel, or
strychnine, or rhubarb three times day
to a man, woman or child sick or well,
because either of such drugs is we'll
known remedy for some certain disease,
would receive but little honor from the
fraternity and less practice from the COM
munity.
No one will controvert this statement;
vet we find manufacturers of baking
powders claiming superior hygienic virtue
for their productions and urging their
continuous use because they are alleged
to carry the phosphate used in making
them ia cheap substitute for cream of
tartar. produced from bones of dead ami
mals) into the food, although well aware,
as they must be, of the fact that with the
constant use of such article this drug
must pass into the 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 diseases; but they should no more
| be taken indiScriminately day after day,
! ~ of NH
clan, than arsenic, aconite or calOmel; i'll
deed. there are conditions of the system,
particularly with women, when the pru-
| dent physician would be lOath to permit
| the use Of lime phosphates even as a
medicine.
The fallacy of this claim of the manu-
! facturers of phosphate baking powders
will be apparent to all when the fact, well
| known to physicians, is stated, that i'll
/ average health and with ordinary focd
! tie body gets more phOsphateS than are
required or can be asSimilated, as is evil
! danced by the fact that they are constant
| Iy being expelled i'll 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,haye been lost in the milling
for it is true that the fine flour as at pres
ent made actually contains larger per
! centage of phosphates than the grain Of
wheat itself.
The object of baking powders is not to
provide the body with medicine, but
simply to vesiculate or make light the
mixture of tiour SO as to render 1t 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 OF taking from
| the flour nothing, nor in any way effect
| ing Il change in its properties or cOnstltu-
ents. When this has been done the per
! feet ieavening agent has been discovered.
! The manufacturers of the Royal Baking
| Powder have succeeded in this 50 far as
| to make leavening agent that vesicu-
lates and raises the loaf aCSt perfectly,
| and without changing the properties uf
| the -four, while the residuum frCm IL has
| been reduced to minimum. The acid
employed, however, to produce this re-
suit is not phosphate, but the acid of
! highly refined cream of tartar, which, the
! health authorities agree renders that pow
der perfectly pure and more reliable and
healthful than any other. The recent
official tests show, on the other hand, that
the best phosphate baking powder max
erS can do is to produce an article that is
Ona-third or more TeSiduum or impurity.
We want our food pure; especially do
we not wish to take alum, lime and phoS-
pilates with:t at the dictum of manufac
turers who may fine it cheaper to claim a
virtue for the impurities than to remove
them.