Evening star., 1942-10-08
Of Sturs, Men J..
And Atoms ssstt
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
new war -four, differing markedly
from either whole wheat or the vitamin-
enriched products now on the market,
has been proposed by nutrition experts
Of the Department Of Agriculture after
feeding experiments with rats which have
revealed remarkable growth gains over
several months.
In this new flour, as described by Drs.
D. Breese Jones and J. P. Divine. De-
partment of Agriculture chemists, ap-
preciable amounts of soybean. peanut or
cottonseed meal are added to the wheat,
together with whatever vitamins and
minerals are considered necessary.
In their rat experiments, they believe,
they are getting at deficiencies in wheat
flour not hitherto recognized, and which
are lost sight of because they are made
up by other foods.
"The results of our experiments" they
have reported, show that, even after
enrichment with eight vitamins and IL
minerals, the growth promoting value OF
white -four can be increased twofold
with the addition of 10 parts in hun
dred Of peanut or cottonseed fiours and
fourfold with the same mixture of soy
bean -four
NnyrrR 1vy% %l,A
Government, they point out, has added
to it only two vitamins and one mineral.
Still 1t is regarded as one of the greatest
nutritional advances of the age. 1t is at
least as good as whole wheat flour which
the general public, experience in the last
war showed, are loath to accept except as
an occasional part of the diet. White flour,
they explain, generally has been attacked
on the grounds that much of the mineral
and vitamin content of the wheat grain
is removed in the milling process, but
these can be put back. Equally essen
tial, the Department of Agriculture
chemists say, are proteins, essential to
life, which are not contained in the
wheat grain. These are split by the
digestive processes into chemical sub
stances known as amino acids-10 of
which are absolutely essential in both
human and rat nutrition. Their chief
overt manifestation is as promoters of
growth. Most people get them In meat,
eggs, ETC., but with war conditions abun-
dant supplies of these may be lacking.
Perhaps the most important amino
acid OF all Is lacking in wheat. This is
lysine. Few food products, however con-
tain so much of 1t as soybean flour, and
it is abundant in both peanuts and cot
tonseed. On the other hand, the rat
feeding experiments showed, there prob
ably is something in wheat flour which
is lacking in the others-so that the
best growths were obtained with mix
lures 1t is possible, they say, that
mixture of the three oil-seed fiours would
enhance the protein value of wheat flour
more than the use of any one of them
alone.
The results indicate, the chemists be-
lieve, that the use of Soybean, peanut
and cottonseed flours offers, one of the
most effective, economical and practical
ways OF meeting world shortage of pro-
tein foods that seems imminent, and
this may best be accomplished by their
use in conjunction with wheat -four.
This country has an abundance of wheat
and wheat flour is one of the most ex-
tensively used foods. It is economical
and can be used in an almost unlimited
variety OF ways. Bread made with a
mixture of.white wheat -four and from
10 to Is parts of soYpean or peanut nours
is scarcely distinguishable in taste or
appearance from bread made of white
flour alone. No matter how many vita
minis or minerals may be supplied in the
diet, satisfactory growth will not result
II any one of the 10 essential amino acids
Is lacking"