Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-12-25
0be
Home Maker
The Food Value of FIour.
EDITED BY
ALICE f. TALCOTT.


You generally have gluten in your
flour, as | said, and the right pro-
portion depends on the miller and
his chemists. This gluten goes to
build muscle and nerve, and it is sur
prlsing that Americans do not real
ize the food value of flour-of which
one cents worth will furnish more
energy to the body than ten cents
worth of the finest beef. This is not
guess, by any means; theinstru-
ment called the salormeter, or heat
meter, which is one of the most ac-
curate and delicate of scientific de-
vices, tells the comparative heat
values of different foodstuffs most
reliably This energy value, of
course, is entirely distinct from the
repair substance, gluten, which the
body is in constant need of. Food
must not only give the heat to the
body, but it must serve to repair
waste tissues and weary muscles:
and in order to do these two things,
food should be as easily digested as
possible. That is the reason why
white flour is best because there is
no fibrous material TO prevent its
rapid digestion and absorption by
the body. But, though American
/
flour is the best in the world, why
is America half way down the list
of nations in the per capita consump-
ton? Canada stands first-can it
be that you American mothers and
housewives don't know the value of
your greatest product?
Bread will give you more nourish-
ment than anything else-so give the
children all the bread they want, and
put jam on thickly to make them eat
it the more. 1t will give them as
much energy as will the same amount
of money expended in eggs. Then
look at the cost of living. 1t has
sent meat, fruit. milk, eggs and veg
etables soaring in price, but at pres
ent flour is lower than for five years
past.
Don't you think you could adjust
yourself to using more flour, more
of the cheaper and nutritious white
flour and less of the expensive food
stuffs which cost so much and give
so little in comparison? The people
of Europe have found that they had
to do this, even though their flour
was inferior; they have made their
bread the staff of life i'll good earn
est, and you American mothers ought
to wake up to what you're missing.
You depend on the baker for the
quality of your bread, perhaps-and
you should not do it. The housewife
is realizing more and more every
month that the markets of the coun-
try will give what she demands-if
she demands it. Just remember that.
| HSdlly, IL MOulu Dt JUDI dS easy lOl
you to find out what kind of bread
you are getting, and to get only good
bread, as it is for you to take any
thing the grocer hands out. And
think of the value to your family
why more than anything else it is the
plain, simple duty of the mother of
today to know what she is putting
into her children's mouths!
You ought to bake your own
bread-your mother did it and you
can do it If you would, Mrs. House
wife. The flour is better, and the
process of bread-making is better un-
derstood, and your home appliances
are inestimably finer; don't you think
you might try it, for your own and
your children's sakes, if for nothing
else?-From an article by II. Bed
ford Jones in Mothers Magazine.