The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1909-02-06
WHAT MAKES
GOOD BREAD

Bread is the oldest of prepared
FOODS. Long before fire was dis
covered it was quite natural TO
pulvefize the hard grains between
stones, TO moisten the meal thus made.
presG it into cakes and dry ii IN, the
sun. This was the original unleavened
bread. Only the application OF fire
to cakes accidentally fermentei by
moisture and temperature was psces-
sary to produce the modern stat of
life.
Good bread will, alone, support life
indefinitely. Thousands of our sturdy
foreign laborers maintain good health
and strength chiefly on coarse bread.
l had an opportunity lately to examine
a Dutch laborer, about 20 years old.
who said he had lived all his life on
rye bread and coffee. and he was in
perfect health-in spite of the coffee.
Thomas Parr. an English farmer,
lived more than $50 year on coarse
bread. cheese, small beer and whey"
The bread was probably rye, wheat
being then used only by the wealthy.
Bread has one advantage over nuts
as the chief staple food-bulk. The
stomach is not absolutely necessary
to the digestive process; 1t is merely
a receptacle for the mass of food
taken at meal, but has added the
capacity for reducing the mass to a
fine liquid before passing it on to the
intestine or second stomach, where
the work of digestion is completed.
A German experimenter some years
ago removed the stomach of a dog,
after which il lived for several years,
regaining most of its lost weight.
The stomach has also developed the
capacity for converting proteid. of
which flesh. nuts and grains largely
consist, into soluble peptone, thexBnb-
stans.e from which all the tissues are
built. The same process Is continued
in the intestine, II all the proteid 10
not broken up and made soluble In
starch into sugar oy the action of the
saliva. begun in the mouth, continues
in The stomach till the mass becomes
saturated with the hydrochloric acid
of the gastric fluid, secreted by the
stomach. after -,hich any starch re-
naming must run the risk of fermen-
ta.ion before its digestion is COM
pl.sted in the intestine.
Experimenters who have lived on
mt. and fruit diet for short times
report a craving" for other foods;
ana this is the invariable experience,
scientific" diet. Now man of ma
tu,s years and on whose word can
rely, who has been living on the SIM
pie diet for seven months, working as
merchant, full hours, informs me
that this craving has entirely disap-
peared. Another, a manufacturer,
says that he now. after about three
months, enjoys a meal of whole
wheat bread and peanuts or of prunes
as we'll as he formerly enjoyed, while
eating, a mixed meal, and OF course
never regrets 1t afterwards, as he for
merely regretted overeating. The
Italian laborer, working hard phys
ically on rye bread, macaroni, garlic
and beer, has no craving for oysters
or pie or pork.
The merchant above referred to
commonly had craving, formerly. on
coming home from church or opera
late, and would eat a second supper
and suffer.
IL all the elements necessary for the
body's nutrition are supplied, there
will be no desire for some unnatural
food. We know that one who is eat
ing few slices of whole wheat. rye
or corn bread and fruit at separate
meal. can not suffer for lack Of any
nutritive element. even If he eats no
nuts or does not drink the glass of
buttermilk before retiring.
Oats is the richest of the cereals.
1t contains more fat and more min
eral salts than wheat. but its starch
cells are encased in coarse cellulose
fibers. so that 1t must be very thor
oughly cooked to make its starch d.
gestible. The rolled oats are pref
cradle to the steel cut.
Rye contains less mineral matter
than wheat but its starch is equal
TO that of rice. Artificial digestive
tests showed it to be IL times more
digestible than wheat starch. 1t fol-
lows that the objections urged against
fine wheat starch bread do not apply
20 rye bread. The starch OF rye bread
is practically digested beyond the dan
ger of fermentation. No doubt this
explains the superior health of those
who live on rye bread The Roman
gladiators were fed on rye, wheat and
corn.
Now, considering the peculiar fea-
lures of corn, rye and wheat, it is ev-
idanf that a much better bread could