New Britain herald., 1916-11-29
THE GREAT WAR AND FLOUR.
Highly Milled Flour Loses Nutritive
 Quality, Experiments Show.
(New York Sun. )

On several occasions The Sun has pointed out certain probable benefi . cent results of the war now raging in Europe as evidence of the fact that famine disease and war are among the evolutionary forces that have de- termined the rise of mankind from the primOrdial cell to it's present high development.
 It is reported that Walter Runci- man, president of the Board of Trade of London, will present to parliam ent a measure providing for the compul- sory replacement of white flour and forbidding fancy cakes and pastry in Great Britain.
 If such a law becomes effective tho resulting benefit of the English people and by their example to all other peoples will be incalculable.
 MT. Runciman's proposal has a sound basis in physiological facts. The mechanical devices supplied In the modern milling processes are ex- tremely efficient in separating the va rious parts of the wheat kernel which consist of the germ, the bran and the endosperm, the starchy part. Of the latter alone consists the white flour which is now in common use by rea- son of the erroneous assumption that it's whiteness testifies to it's purity. The miller suffers no loss by separat- ing these parts of the wheat. Indeed, he gains materially through the bet ter preserving quality of the flour, and he sells the carefully separated outer part of the wheat kernel as food for animals. The consumer. on the contrary, being influenced by aSth nrofQrnnoaS loss in nutritive quality of bread made from fine flour.
 Recent researches by Teller in the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have shown that the discard ed portion of the grain contains sev- en-eighths of the phosphoric and elcven-fourteenths of the potash and lime contents of the grain, and thus robs the latter of some valuable food constituents, especially in the enido- sperm, which is rich in starch cells. Moreover, as The Sun has hitherto pointed out, there exists in highly n-i1led flour a deficiency of certain es- sential food elements which have been designated as vitamines.
 These vitamines also are constitu- ents of the outer layers of the wheat kernel, as has ben verified in the iIygienic Laboratory at Washington, where it was shown that wheat flour made by the old fashioned process still used to some extent in the south contained 1.012 per cent. of phos- phorus, an important index of food value, while the highly m1lled flour contained only 0.114 per cent. of phos- phorus. Moreover, pigeons fed ex- clusively on bread made from the whole wheat flour remained healthy, while others fed witf breaw from the highly milled four sickened, became paralyzed and some of them died.
 This simple experiment alone must demonstrate to the lay reader the certain loss of nUtritive quality in the hjchly milled four Disregard of the aesthetic requirements for white flour will furnish bread of better quality, less expensive and more nutritious psysiologiats have long been insisting unon this fact, but custom has coun- teracted their teachings.
 It is to be hoped that MT Runcl- mans war regulator for bread mak- ing will overcome et custom Whlch IS based only on aesthetic cons1d eratlons and from which arises great JOSS to the public.