The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1909-01-08
contains md some. veurty =, >:valuab,v &c

ments not In the white -four.
It is time that the elements of food
of which the largest percentages are
needed lin the daily ration are carbon
and. nitrogen, and that white bread
contains thesef in larger percentage,s
because excluding some valuable ele-
ments of nutrition found in the whole
wheat. But the exclusion Of these
elements breaks the staff Of life. A
man might have perfect stomach.
perfect lungs, perfect kidneys, with
abundance of food, and yet his death
within 60 days from starvation might
be necessary conclusion from a con-
sideration of all the facts. -
Prof. ,Magendie, distinguished
French physician, fed two dogs, APP
parently in equal health, one on
white bread and the other on entire
wheat bread, allowing both plenty of
water and keeping the conditions
otherwise as nearly equal as possible.
The dog fed on fresh white bread was
dead in about 80 days, while the other
remained in his usual health. s..
The highest authority on health in
the world, the British Medical asso-
citation, has declared itself in favor OF
the coarser breads made from the full
grains. The London Lancet the great
est medical journal in the world, re-
Gently expressed the opinion that the
great increase in appendicitis in
Britain is due to the Increased use of
fine white bread.
Appendicitis results from the pu-
trefaction in the large intestine of
masses of incompletely digested food.
No one can doubt the tendency of
white bread to mass and putrefy. !
have said that peanuts should not
be roasted because albumen, of which
the peanut largely consists, coagulates
| at 100 degrees, and is then assimilated
with difficulty. The same applies to
| wheat gluten. A large percentage Of
the gluten with the indigestible mat
ter in whole wheat bread is excreted.
Starch is one element of food that is
improved by cooking; when thorough
ly cooked it is more fully assimilated
| than any other food element, except
sugar. 1t is natural to suppose, then,
that a larger percentage of waste
should be excreted from whole wheat
than from white bread. But it does
not follow that the white bread is bet
| ter than the brown.
A certain amount of waste matter
| in the food is beneficial, stimulating
naturally the action of the intestines.
No one familiar with the physiology of
digestion advocates predigested or
| highly concentrated FOODS.
Well cooked starch is more COM
pletely assimilated than any other
cooked food, if there is demand in
the system for a supply of carbon at
| the time the food is taken, and no alb
normal conditions exist to prevent its
| assimilation. Therefore, We should ex-
pect a more complete use of the
cooked starch bread. A vigorous
man on long tramp would utilize
practically all of half pound of sugar
daily, with other food, especially if his
were below normal weight; but sugar
is not a good staple diet; half pound
a day would soon cause serious trou-
BILE for bookkeeper. Let a book
keeper eat q pound day of coarse
bread and no serious trouble may
follow for months or years: yet if he
eat a pound day of white bread,
trouble will certainly follow in a short
time. serious trouble, ultimately.
Of all the indirect causes of disease
the most prolific is constipation; and
there is no more general contributing
cause of constipation than fine white
bread.
Fear God and keep your bowels
open" was the whole gospel preached
by Quaker who believed in speaking
the simple truth in simple way Per-
haps he had taken his cue from an
other member of that society who
said: II shall pass this way but once,
therefore if there is any good thing
l can do while l am in the way, let me
not fail to do it," The young physi-
clan, full of strange notions about
"pathogenic bacteria" and indications
of the opsonic index" may forget in
his inquiry into the causes of our COM
mon ailments to ask whether we are
living according to the gospel Of tho
old Quaker; but our good old family
doctor, who learns and forgets most
| of the brilliant theories of the profess
sion, never forgets to ascertain the
condition of elimination. Many OF
our able thinkers in the healing pro-
fession say there is but one cause Of
disease-the retention of waste mat
ter in the system.
| Our grandmothers knew of several
kinds of physic, some of them not
very agreeable, but there was one that
was intended to serve as a cure-all in
all cases in which it was not deemed
necessary to send for the doctor; it
was called by way of pre-eminence,
"a physic." Now there are people who
seem to think that God made every
thing that might possibly be eaten
without causing severe distress to
be used for food, and for hundreds of
years doctors have been proving
specific remedies good for real and
imaginary ills. am glad to have
this opportunity to say to large num-
Der Of our American people that am
satisfied that Nature did make one
good physic which man has learned
to improve (?} by making it into
coarse bread; but l shall deal with the
curative values of foods in forthcom-
ing chapters on 1.-The Diet Cure
| Laws in Direct Conflict.
| The club women of Chicago are pus.
zled over the question of lawful cos
tune for working women. They point
out that only little while ago wom-