The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-08
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Especial cerrespondenee ArEusA
Rice Dope.
Especial Correspondents

Washington, D. c., Nov. THE
greatest food in the world. accord
ing to the department OF agricul-
ture, is being neglected by the
American people.
You will probably be surprised
to learn that this food is rice. 1t
that it is the staple food of about
one-half of the human race, and
that more people depend almost
than depend on any other one
thing.
Its wide use is justified by the
fact that it contains about as much
nourishment> as any OF the other
cereals, and is one of the most
easily digestible Of all foods. In
the southern part OF this country,
rice is appreciated at it's true value,
appears on almost every dinner ia
bile, and is prepared in dozen of
appetizing ways. But in the rest
of the country it is used only spar
ingly. and too often it is prepared
in ways that are not calculated to
make it attractive.
Rice, therefore. deserves to be
boosted. and especially unpublished
or brown rice, which has made its
appearance in a few grocery stores
only recently, but would be obtain
able everywhere if there were a
demand for it.
Rice shares the fate common to
! all grains in civilized countries of
! being milled in such a way that
some of its most important food
| elements are cut away from it and
fed to cattle The things in which
| our diet are apt to be deficient are
minerals, roughage, and the recent
! ~ discovered elements known as
vitamines. These are the very
things which the milling process
takes away, not only from rice, but
! from wheat. corn and barley. Ex-
/ pertS contend that many of our
| characteristic civilized diseases are
due to the shortage of these ele-
mentS. The outer coatings and
the germs OF grain contain these
! necessary elements. They are re-
moved by the mills primarily be-
cause they impair the keeping
| quality OF the product, and so make
1 them harder to handle in trade.
| Furthermore, the people have be-
| come accustomed to these highly
miiIed cereals, so that there is lit
| tie demand for the whole-grain
products. Much has been written
about how the manufacturers and
retailers are starving US by selling
Us these highly milled foods. AS
! a matter Of fact, they are merely
giving US what We demand. If the
people could be made TO under
stand the value of whole grains,
and to like them. so that demand
could be created. they would be
supplied by the trade. This is al
ready taking place to some extent
in the case of rice, which is an in
structive example in many ways,
What Rice Is.
The whole rice grain contains
protein, fat, starch, sugar. mineral
matter, fiber and one of the most
important of the vitamines. By re
moving the bran coat and the germ
in milling. part Of the protein, fat
and mineral matter and practically
all of the vitamines are lost. What
remains is mostly starch. Expert
ments in the tropics have shown
that persons fed almost wholly on
polished rice contract the disease
known as beri-beri. The publica
ton of this fact has caused some
people to fear polished rice as
food AS a matter OF fact, polished
rice is an excellent food to furnish
the starchy element in a mixed
diet. 1t is no more dangerous to
| eat than wheat -four, as long as
| other foods are eaten with it. The
point is simply that brown rice,
| from which only the husk has been