Evening star., 1942-01-29
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress!
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

1
| the shipping space necessary for trans
porting flour across the Atlantic has been
devised by Department Of Agriculture
chemists.
It is subjected, according to report
OF DR.. Henry G. knight, chief OF the
Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and
Engineering, to pressures as high as
| 10000 pounds per square inch. This
squeezes out all the empty space between
the flour particles.
When the compressed -four Is made
into bread after several months, the
chemists found, the same amount made
| loaf from Is to 20 per cent smaller,
but 1t tasted about the same as ordinary
bread. The only essential difference was
that there was more of it in slice.
The possibility that there might be
| some unfavorable reaction against the
| heavier bread, both in the United States
and England, has led to further expert
ments on means of putting the empty
| space back into the flour by some process
| in the bakery so that it will make loaves
of about the same volume as those sold
at present.
| The reduction in the size of ton Of
| flour, DR.. Knight points out, should
have considerable importance In military
rations where economy Of transporta-
ton space is about as essential as In
shipments overseas.
At the same time, DR.. knight reports,
experiments by Department Of Agricul-
ture chemists have led to the possibility
of new kind of bread which will meet
most of the requirements Of the present
national nutrition program without re-
sort to artifcially enriched -four.
The current practice is to replace in
white -four the vitamins and minerals
contained in the original wheat grain
but lost in the milling process. One Of
the first steps in milling wheat is to
| get rid of the so-called wheat germ,
tiny portion whose inclusion would
cause the product to spoil after a short
| period of storage. But, DR.. Knight says.
this germ contains large part Of the
essential vitamins and minerals. 1t used
| to be included when most flour was
milled in local mills for use within
short time in the neighborhood.
| There never has been any question but
that whole wheat bread would be as
good, or better, than the present en-
riched bread sold both in the United
States and England. However, the
American people never have had
| very favorable reaction to 1t. Efforts to
have it used on large scale during
| 10 CT i,l fl1ye cf, II
in spite of lot Of expensive propaganda.
There has been demand for whittier and
| whittier flour.
When this reaction Is coupled with the
poorer keeping, the whole wheat solu-
ton of the nutrition problem is hardly
practical, the National Nutrition Confer
ence last spring was convinced. 1t was
more effective and practical to add
iron, calcium, thiamin, NICOTINE acid
and ribof1avin.
In the new bread proposed by the
Department Of Agriculture chemists the
white flour would be milled in the same
way as at present but the wheat germs
would be saved and made into separate
-four Then the two would be mixed in
a ratio Of Is per cent germ flour to IS
per cent ordinary flour in the bakery
The result says DR. Knight is bread
containing nearly all the vitamins and
between rs and 80 per cent of the min
erals in whole-wheat bread.
Precise analyses of the thiamin and
vitamin A values of 1923 common foods
have just been completed by chemists
Of the United States Department Of
Agriculture.
Thiamin is the well-known nerve
vitamin," deemed essential for keeping
up American morale. Vitamin A is
necessary for vision in dim light and
probably as general preventative of
| infections.
1t is possible to obtain these vitamins
in the form of drug store tablets but
physicians are unanimous that they
should be obtained so far as possible
from the ordinary diet. Information on
the richness of common foods, however,
has been vague and confusing to the
average housewife.
The vitamin value of the foods was
determined by the growth response
shown by young rats after their devel-
opment had been brought to a standstill
by feeding them diets adequate in every
thing except the substance under test
Among the purposes of the research
was to furnish data for the Red Cross
on the best types of food to be sent to
Great Britain. Another was to secure
data for Army diets.
1t has long been known that vitamins
may be destroyed by cooking, or even
by storage. The Department of Agri-
culture studies show that the losses in
some cases are so great that the vitamin
value of the food is almost completely
lost. Different styles of cooking also
have pronouncedly different effects.
Fresh peanuts are one of the richest
of all foods in thiamin. But the Depart
ment of Agriculture workers found that
they lose from 10 to 80 per cent OF
this vitamin when they are processed
in hot oil or roasted for use as salted
nuts or in peanut butter.
Both commercial and household meth
odS of canning lean pork, which also
has very high thiamin content, caused
a loss of about 80 per cent Frying
slices of lean ham brought about less
than 10 per cent loss.
Dried beans lost practically no thia-
min when cooked in boiling water, but
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