WHEATMEAL BREAD.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17122, 18 April 1921, Page 8

WHEATMEAL BREAD.

ITS VALUE' AS A FOOD. AN ADDRESS TO BAKHftg The advantages possessed-by wheatmeal bread as against bread made of white flour we stressed by Dr. EV H. Wilkins, Director of the Division of School Hygiene, in an address delivered to a meeting of the Wellington Master Bakers' Association on Thursday night. Dr. Wilkins said that the problem of the health ? ,of the child was largely a matter of -the prevention of dental disease, not only because, on account of the seriousness and its prevalence, dental disease was such a widespread cause of ill-health, but also because by removing the causes of dental disease they at the same time corrected the causes of so many other cbmmon defects in health. Dental disease was the most general and most obvious index of the nutrition and health of children. This matter of bread was, of course, in reality, a deeper one, relating to nutrition and underlying the tendency to many forms of disease. Dental disease had become common in the last hundred years or sq, and, generally speaking,' only in those countries where cereill foods were highly refined and sugar wasabundantly consumed. White flour and sugar were both refined forms of carbohydrate food, and in many ways must be classed together. The most modern and reliable medical and dental opinion had condemned them. Some serious diseases were alarmingly on the increase. There was something .fundamentally wrong with the nutrition of civilised modern communities. Our staple foods have beenMncreasingly artificialised, refined, demineralised, devitalised, and denatured. Wheatmeal was rich in the A and B vitamines, white flour was wholly devoid, of them. ; Wheatmeal contained complex organic salts of phosphorus, lime, iron, and other elements. White flour contained only one-third of the quantity. Wheatmeal contained a wholesome proportion of less digestible matter, which kept the digestive organs in healthy activity and normal toneand for the want of which people consumed laxative' pills and digestive tonics. ' ' 1 The case for wheatmeal against refined white flour was incontrovertible. Despite the clap-trap -of complaints about war bread in England, it had been conclusively shown, by a number of investigators that wheatmeal bread was not indigestible. Qf course, there were dyspeptics—those deplorable pro-, ducts of modern refined food—-who ihight find it troublesome. It was shown by experience in England that proper mastication generally overcame any difficulty •on that score. Ho did iiot propose that wheatmeal bread should be made compulsory for all, not even that it should be compulsory for children; but they should make it easy for people to get if, when, they knew the facts, they wasted it for themselves and their children. Dr. Wilkins stated that he was anxious to get the bakers' point of ,view in the matter. Pure whole wheatmeal ties not easily procurable, the so-called wheatmeal generally being a mixture of white flour and bran. There was no official definition of wheatmeal. This waa a matter Vhioh concerned tho Board of Trade, He asked if there any difficulty ■, in the; baking of wheatmeal bread, and if it required "different treatment<firbm that given to white bread. People" complained that much of the brown bread baked in country districts was stogy and inedible. "It seems to me," he said, "that the baking of wheatmeal bread demands more serious attention from' bakers, and that, if necessary, a committee of enquiry Be. instituted to experiment in the matter. Bread ds the staff of life. We cannot afford to allow the staff to break. - It is a matter of +OO great importance."; ; •' . In the discussion which the bakers stated, that there was considerable -difficulty in 'baking a pure whole wheatmeal loaf;, that for practical reasons they considered it essential that a proportion of white flour should be mixed with it. They asked if the ""portions of the-grain discarded in the milling of white flour might not be included in the diet in some other way. They stated there was no difficulty in the baking of > wheatmeal biscuits! This was done on a fairly large scale by a firm in Auckland. It was suggested that the millers might be able to produce a wheatmeal which "did not cause the same difficulty in baking. Brown bread required slower baking than white. Tnere was - also a difficulty in: the amount of fermenting required. The bakers corroborated Dr. Wilkins's impression that there had been a greatly increased demand for brown Dread during the past year owing to the Department's .newspaper propaganda on. the subject. There was a fairly general agreement among the bakers that they were turning out twice as much brown bread now as they "were months ago. One practical difficulty was that customers did not order consistently, and when brown bread waß left on the bakers' hands they* were not able to dispose of it to the sausage makers, who objected that wheatmeal did not absorb so muoh winter as vyhite flour, and therefore did not go so far in sausage making. The bakers were prepared to meet the public demands for wheatmeal bread if the demand was steady and continued, but it was a matter or very great importance that the people should understand that if they expected to get wheatmeal bread they must give their baker standing, orders for definite quantities. ' In conclusion, the bakers stated that they did not wish to appear to be out of sympathy with the work of the Department for the improvement of the. health of the children, and they expressed their appreciation of 1 Dr. Wilkins's addressing" them ,<>n the subject.