The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1909-01-30
WHAT MAKES
GOOD BREAD

4 pulVerlze the hard grains between
stones, to moisten the meal thus made
press it into cakes and dry it in thu
sun. This was the original unleaVenee
bread. Only the application of fire
to cakes accidentally fermented b.
moisture and temperature was neces
sary to produce the modern staff o.
life.
Good bread will alone, support life
indefinitely. Thousands of our sturdJ
foreign laborers maintain good health
and strength chiefly on coarse bread
had an opportunity lately to examine
| a Dutch 1aborer, about 70 years old
Who said he had lived all his life on
rye bread and coffee, and he was in
perfect heatth-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; it is merely
a receptacle for the mass of food
taken at a meal, but has added the
capacity for reducing the mass to q
| flne 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 It lived for several years,
regaining most of It's lost weight.
The stomach has also developed the
capacity for converting proteid, of
which flesh, nuts and grains largely
consist, into soluble peptone, the sub
stance from which all the tissues are
built, The same process is continued
in the intestine, If all the proteid is.
not broken up and made soluble in
the stomach The conversion of
starch into sugar by the action of the
saliva, begun in the mouth, continues
in the stomach till the mass becomes
saturated with the hydrochlorfc acid
Of the gastric fluid, secreted by the
stomach, after which any starch re-
naming must run the risk of fermen-
tat1on before its digestion is com
Dleted in the intestine.
Experfmenters who have lived on a
nut and fruit diet for short times
report craving for other foods;
and this is the inVarfabIe experience.
for time. of those who adopt the
scientific" diet. Now a man of ma
ture years and on whose word I can I
rely, who has been living on the sim
pie diet for seven months. working as
a merchant. full hours, informs me
that this craving has entirely disap-
peared. Another, manufacturer,
says that he now, after about three
months, enjoys a meal of whole
wheat bread and peanuts or of prnnes
as well as he formerly enjoyed, while
eating, a mixed meal. and of course
never regrets it afterwards, as he for
merely regretted overeating. The
italian 1aborer, working hard phys
ica1ly 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.
It all the elements necessary for the
body's nutrition are supplied, there
will be no desire for some unnatural
fcod. We know that one who is eat
ng few slices of whole wheat, rye
n corn bread and fruit at a separate
neal, can not suffer for lack of any
lutritiye element, even If he eats no
1uts or does not drink the glass of
outtermilk before retiring.
To contribute toward comfortably
illing the stomach till it contracts to
reasonable proportions, which it does
for it is an elastic muscle,
he best food to supplement nuts is
VhoIe-wheat bread or an ideal com
,ination of the cereals to be indicated
Each of the cereals has distinguish
ng qualities, making it in one or more
aspects superior to all the others
Rice is about 80 per cent. starch.
t is more easily digested than any
f the other cereals, but it (Inil1ed
ice1 Is deficient in a1bumen and the
mineral elements of nutrition It IS
uperior to potatoes as an energy and
Ieat producer and costs little more,
ince the former contains so much
water.
Corn contains more oil that wheat
;orn meal is light and has tbene-
Icial effect upon elimination It is
nore heating than wheat :
Oats is the richest of the cereals.
t contains more fat and more min !
raj salts than wheat, but its starch 4
els are encasee in coarse ceilulose
beers, SO that it must be very thor
ughly cooked to make its starch di-
estihIe. The rolled oats are pref .
rabIe to the steel cut.
Rye contains less mineral matter
IAN wheat. but its starch is equal I
) that of rice. Artificial digestive /
asts showed it to be u times more /
igestible than wheat starch. It fol- j
Tvs that the objections urged against /
ne wheat starch bread do not apply j;
J rye bread. The starch of rye bread {
practically digested beyond the dan /
er Of fermentation. No doubt this {
Splains the superior health of those +
no live on rye bread The Roman 8
ladiators were fed on rye. wheat and i
orn. !