The Ocala evening star., 1915-03-17
WOMH'S CLUB WORK
(Mrs. l. H. Van Engelken, EditOr)
The Strange Story of White Bread

+ The Strange Story of White Bread
! Nearly one hundred years ago ar
epicurean faddist of London, Hugo
Paddington, decided to have novel
dinner. White was the fashionable
color scheme then, so everything was
to be quite different from the natural
hue. with leaning towards white. To
match the whiteness Of the table cloth
he would have the bread white. Such
a thing never had been heard of be-
fore; produced from the ground grain
Of the wheat, the -four naturally took
on the comingled colors of the grain
and therefore was dark. But Pad
dington wanted it white, snow white.
After many unsuccessful efforts, a
Hungarian miller at last produced the
desired results by selecting only the
white, lifeless, starchy portions of the
grain, discarding all others. The
bread was tremendous hit and the
dinner proved the novelty of the day.
The white bread fad spread like wild
fire, all the smart set of London took
it up and soon it was on the table of
the ultra-fashionable all over Eng
land. No one liked it so well as the
old fashioned blood and bone produc
ing bread, but people often sacrifice
very much of taste and health for
fashions sake. 1t looked so pretty.
the white slices on the white table
cloth. No other bread was permitted
at dinners in stylish London. Flour
mills had to be overhauled and re-
constructed in order to make flour
from the starch cells of the wheat
grain. Now the main element of nu-
triton in wheat is gluten and gluten
Is dark. The least nutritive part of
the wheat is starch and starch is
white, so it follows, that you pay your
money for starch in buying white
-four, and you pay for nutriment in
getting dark flour, that is, flour of a
rich creamy color. The white bread
fad proceeded to make it's way into
other lands, always the fashionable
circles taking it up first and other
people following And everywhere it
went, there trailed in its wake the
loosening of teeth, the shattering of
nerves and the devitalizing of blood.
Epicurism is a dangerous thing in
any shape, but rarely has any phase
of it brought about such widespread
disaster as the white bread fad. The
German peasantry, be it said to their
credit, are still holding to the old in
vigorating black bread made of rye,
and Germany has been making
mighty progress. Russia and France
went wild over the white bread craze.
but nowhere has that habit made
greater headway than in America.
When the American woman once set
her eye on the white loaf it was her
undoing. Never was the housewife of
any country won over to anything
more completely. At first the white
loaf in America was not so bad, and
had more of a creamy color; its crumb
was elastic and of a sweet, nutty
flavor. But soon the miller received
the command: "Grind it fine and make
it white" and when he did not obey
orders, his work was for nothing;
there was no sale for his -four. Final
ly he was forced to resort to chem
ical bleaching and by this process any
kind of wheat, mouldy and bad, which
otherwise would have to be thrown
away, may be converted into -four of
tombstone whiteness. America now
leads the world in the finest and whit
est flour; it leads in it's consumption,
but it also leads the world in dental
and nervous Affections. They used to
be very robust, hardy people, with
wonderful capacity for endurance;
they were rosy of cheek and brawny
of build and faced all obstacles fear
lessly and resolutely Then England
set them eating that snow white
bread and their cheeks turned pale,
their teeth grew soft and their nerves
became unsound. Nowhere mas the
dental business grown so rapidly as
in America; her dental colleges and
dentists lead the world in number and
skill. Almost as much might be said
of American nerve specialists and in
stitutions for treating nervous all
ments. In this day there is almost nc
sale for the old fashioned bread of ou1
hardy forefathers. House wives won't
have it, when it won't match the table
cloth, and it all started with that
eventful white bread dinner in Lon
don.-Rutledge Rutherford