The Washington times., 1917-02-26
POPULAR MEDICINE .
BYDR. HIRSHDERG
Intelligent Observation of Rules
of Hygiene Will De-
crease Illness.
By DIR. LEONARD X. HIRsHBERG.

The staff of life may be made Of
other cereals than wheat, notably rye
flour, oatmeal, and even rice as the
Japanese make it. Wheat, however,
will always remain the Jove-like lead
er of the bakers.
Brown bread, graham bread, gin
gerbread, and rye bread, as far as the
perfection of nutriment Is concerned,
are all much inferior to wheat flour.
There are many different proteins in
wheat flour. nay, many more In the
whole wheat kernel, with its bran
and husk thrown in.
Bread rich in bran, flour that has
not been too thoroughly machined,
too refined or too completely polished,
has many virtues superior to so-called
pure wheat -four" 1t is not so much
that wheat bread made from refined
flour constipates, while coarse flour,
which also contains the husks, mas
sages the intestines and incites them
to gentle action, but rather Is 1t the
fact that certain vitality necessary
constituents of the bran lend power
to the human fabric to ward off lame
ness, sickness, and many maladies.
Bran bread or bran introduced into
-four may augment the amount of nj
trogen and the proteins present, but
that is a mere incident as compared
with the addition which the vita
mines present in the husks give to
living animals. 1t is these strange
vitamines in the coarse parts of the
flour which do more than keep a man
alive.
Bread To Avoid.
They are very great aids in keeping
the living person in health, happi-
ness and efficiency. The moro such
vitamines are decreased in q loaf Of
bread, the less capable and compe-
tent becomes the man who eats 1t.
He may suffer pangs in limb or joint,
carlessIy called "neuritis," "rheuma-
tism" or lameness, which . few slices
of coarse wheat bread daily might
alleviate.
Some physiologists, particularly the
distinguished Italian, DIR. L. Bertarel-
lie, professor OF hygiene in the uni
versity of Parma, blame an excess
of bran bread as the source OF a mild
diarrhoea, which, IL eaten for too
long a period or too often, sets up a
the lining membranes of the intes-
tines.
This warning is especially directed
toward a whole wheat flour made
into a meal and prepared by soften
ing the granules of wheat for too
short a time and then Immediately
afterward grinding them in a ma
chine. Such a machine lacerates them
and by the addition of water, converts
them into a smooth, homogeneous
dough. II " all your bread is dough"
81 ho n Ia mt RaaiIV
raised, even with yeast, for IL Is
but slightly changed and is full OF
water as well as the coarse particles
of hard bran.
What is commercially sold under
the name of whole wheat bread Is
prepared in the same way as ordinary
white or brown bread. Flour Is used
which contains about 90 per cent OF
the entire wheat.
The Newest Recipe.
Physiological chemists have no diff
ficulty in proving that the table use
of the whole wheat grain effects an
economy and a gain of more than Is
per cent in comparison with refined
white flour. This important saving
does not begin to take into account
the mama in the wildness OF the bran
and husks thus mixed up with 1.-THE
vitamines.
Prof Bertarelli draws attention to
a good way to make natural bread"
as he calls it:
Take the entire wheat grains. bran,
husks, all, soak them a good long
time in water until they undergo
changes comparable to those which
take place when barley is matted or
as a hit of cracker turns to sugar in
the saliva of your mouth. In this
way every part of the grain through
the outer layers to the starch itself is
made digestible.
Then there is little probability that
there will be left in the bread frag-
ments of hard bran similar to what Is
found in a bread baked from whole
wheat flour in the usual way.
(Copyr't 1917, by Newspaper Feature Service.)