Enviromental Studies

GO where one will, in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland or Holland, one finds the diet of the people to-day rougher, coarser and containing more vegetables and less concentrated foodstuffs than in former time, affirms Doctor Alonzo E. Taylor, of the food administration, in his book on war bread. Under the circumstances, he says, the plea for whole wheat flour in the American diet to-day fails of justification. People should be allowed to select their roughage, whether in the form of fruits or vegetables, or in the form of whole grains. They should be allowed to select their mineral salts and vitamines in the same manner, and both are freely available. The legal distinction between food conservation and health propaganda must be kept in mind. It is argued in favor of whole wheat flour that its use might relieve or prevent constipation, rickets, scurvy, anemia and pellagra. But the function of a

food administration is to secure and conserve food, not treat preexisting diseases in a compulsory manner, applied to the majority who are not afflicted, as well as to the minority who may be diseased but still possess the right to select their treatment. In each country lately at war diet fads are being pushed at the food administration; who must confine themselves to the specific functions defined by legislative authorization.

Direct substitution offers the most obvious way of saving wheat, Doctor Taylor notes. The best mixed flour is prepared from flour of standard extraction. For practical purposes it does not make much difference what the diluting flour is. In comparing American and European extractions, the water content of flours must be kept in mind. Here the flour contains about thirteen per cent, of water. In Europe higher water content is permitted, seventeen per cent, being common. Thus our seventy-five per cent, ex

Four Essential Needs of the Body Which are Filled by Food

traction corresponds to a seventy per cent, extraction in Europe.

"The germ contains both ferments and bacteria, and is, therefore, prone to decomposition. The ferments split the fats, making them rancid. They act upon the protein also. Aided by bacteria, they produce the musty decomposition that is liable to occur in coarse flours, and does not occur in standard flours under the same circumstances. . .