View report page

19
is often "sad" as the technical expression goes. In the sample of
whole-meal bread analysed for this District Board the water
amounted to 45 per cent., which is considerably above the average
of wheaten bread. To make it tasty, it required a considerable
addition of butter, so that much of the so-called economy was
neutralized. Added to this, although the gluten amounted to
per cent., the tendency of so much bran is to create a looseness,
which removes it from the system before anything like the whole
of its nutriment has been exhausted. Speaking, then, of bread
made of whole-meal wheaten flour, it would seem to me that there
is no waste whatever in removing the husk, as the latter amounts
only to two per cent, of the grain, and is more suited to the
stomachs of animals. Such brown bread is now made and sold
under the name of decorticated bread. As to the bran, the large
amount of nitrogen is admitted, but it does not follow that it is
digested. If not digested, unless it is required as an aperient,
brown bread is not so "staying;" in other words, does not so
satisfy as white bread. The so-called granulated and decorticated
brown bread is undoubtedly the best of the kind, as it is likely to
be more digestible than whole-meal bread. As to the necessity
which exists for cooking our food, and of employing the stomachs
of animals to digest for us what we ourselves cannot do, nothing
more striking can be mentioned than the weights of the stomachs,
respectively, of man, pig, sheep, and ox, viz., 6 oz., 14 oz., 39 oz.,
and 51 oz. There is, therefore, no necessary waste if the coarser
particles are removed and eaten by animals, and no unreason in
separating the bran if it is found that such bread is too satisfying,
in that it prevents our eating sufficient for our wants. It must be
altogether a matter of experience. To many the brown bread is
suitable, to others it is not. There is no use in dogmatizing.
The bran, so rich in nitrogen, may be as little nutritious as the
gristle and the skin which I remove from my meat, although the
gristle and the skin are so rich in nitrogen. The well-to-do require
no additional nitrogen; they already eat too much. With the
poorer classes it is different. If brown bread is found agreeable,
as well as digestible, it is more economical if sold at the same price
as the white. The removal of the bran is perhaps more serious