Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-11-07
FOOD AND HEALTH.


In the last few years we have come to
learn more in detail and appreciate with
deeper significance the close relationship
existing between food and health. We
know, OF course, that one must eat to
live, but we have not appreciated what
one must eat to live, and how closely the
enjoyment of perfect health is bound up
with the consumption OF appropriate
food materials.
In the case of dairy cows much great
er progress has been made than In the
case of the human diet, probably because
we have been able to control exactly
what is fed to the COW. But 1t is only
an appeal to the intelligence OF
human beings that anything may be &C
in the way of controlling the
human diet. The state has gone long
way in making possible intelligent selec.
ton of food products through the estab-
lisbment OF municipal, state, and federal
inspection bureaus. But these have
been of necessity confined in their efforts
to securing purity in foods and to secur-
ing truthfulpess in the representations
made to buyers of these food products
WE MUST NOT REMOVE THE VITALITY
FROM FOOD.
We have known for q considerable
period of time that certain manufsctur-
ing processes in vogue in this and other
countries in the manufacture and per-
lection of food products were in some
way or other prejudicial to perfect
health. We have seen the use of chem
ical preservatives in food products per-
mitted on the score largely that the
chemical being used In such minute
quantities could not be really counted
Injurious, and we have seen permitted
the use of chemical processes In the
of -four on the ground that
the processes involved did not leave any
appreciable amount OF injurious sub
stances in the -four. We have known OF
the perfection of processes for the high
milling of wheat and grain products with
he object in view of securing for a fas-
tidious consumer pure white flour free
from cellulose and bran.
Rice is prepared in very much the
same way, the effort of the manufacturer
being to remove as completely as possible
the complete exterior of the grain, to
produce a product which Is almost en-
tirely digestible and which is altogether
pleasing to the eye.
This has been encouraged instead of
being discouraged by many of our pro-
fessional men and even by the govern
N ent itself. The attention of the public
has been focused upon such points as
rather than wholesomeness.
TAKES PRECEDENCE
OVER pIGEsTIBILITY.
Some few years ago the government
went to some considerable expense In in
the completeness of digesti-
bili,y of high-grade patent -four as
against the so-called whole wheat prod
uct.
1t seems to us that one conclusion only
could be reached In such an iDvestiga-
ton. OF course, high-grade patent fiour
is more completely digestible than is
whole wheat -four. So Is sugar more
than the crude material
from which it is manufactured; 80 Is
starch more completely digestible than
the whole grain from which 1t is OBJ
There can be nothing, or essen
TALLY nothing, indigestible in food
product itself which contains no insol-
u BILE residue. But after all this has been
said, one single step looking to the ques-
tion of wholesomeness has not been
made.
We supposed at that time that the res-
son the coarser, cruder raw materials at
fected the human system more advan-
tageously than the more highly milled
and more perfectly manufactured articles
was because largely Of it's mechanical
action. We thought, for instance, that
whole wheat -four containing consider
able quantity of bran must affect the
physiogical system favorably in part, at
least. because 1t aided. the onward move
ment of the products in the alimentsry
canal and thus prevented stagnation and
removed the danger of auto-intoxication.
True. We believed that the presence OF
ceatain inorganic constituents more e1-
tensively in the outer covering OF the
grain than In the interior did assist
in the enrichment of the body in such
elements as iron, phosphorus and the
like. which we know, of course, to be
vital to the health. We now know that
it is possibly because Of the absence OF
certain So called vital constituents OF
foodstuffs such as the vitamines that
the system may actually perish for want
of vital nourishment, even In the pres.
ence of an abundance of an almost COM
pletely digestible, otherwise well-bal'
anced food supply.
1t has seemed impossible to take up q
discussion of milk and its relationship to
other animal products without In some
way going:into certain general principles
which We now know to underlie the gen.
eral principles of nutrition. We have
been in the habit, in studying the bal
auced rations for stock, to consider the
importance in the relationship existing
between the three proximate principles,
protein, carbohydrates and fats, and we
now know it is necessary to supply pro
teids to a certain definite extent, which
ia governed by the physiological require.
ments of the animals body for protein
and that the science of the balanced ra.
tion depends upon stopping the expen
awe protein food at just this point and
filling the balance Of the ration with the
more common and less expensive carbo
hydrates and fats.
ADULT DAILY REQUIREMENT OF PRO