Whole Wheat and White Flour.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 5 June 1914, Page 8

Whole Wheat and White Flour.

A CONVINCING EXPERIMENT

A desire to know the effect of i whole wheat ami white flour as j foods led Dr. Harold Swanberg to I experiment on mice, and the results of his labours are .given in the following paper: Almost every one knows the. difference between whole wheat and white flour. About 20 per cent, of our food is wheat in some form ; 80 per cent, of this is in the form of flour, making flour 16 per cent. of our diet, and other wheat products 4 per cent. Each person, it has been found, consumes about 196 | pounds of flour in a year. The experiment was conducted to prove the relative value of whole wheat and w<hite flour on two white mice. It ' was thought mice would be best, because Hour and grain is natural food for then. For two ~f*»ks they were placed on a mixed •.l'«t, being carefully watched and i^f-ir respective weights recorded :"aily in order to make sure the animals were fit for accurate experiment. At the end of two weeks each mouse was placed in a large glass jar. To one whole wheat and water were given ; to the other, white flour and water. Both were given all they would eat. They were watched, weighed daily, character of the excreta noted, each jar washed daily, and every precaution taken for careful and accurate observation. NO STRENGTH TO EAT OR DRINK. The wfcole wheat flour was the genuine kind, being ground'.from the entire grain by a leading health-food store. It might be well to call it entire whole wheat flour, for many so-called whole wheat flours do not contain all the elements from the wheat grain. The white flour used was' the kind which can be obtained in the ordinary way, being a popular brand, supposed to be the best and costing the most. The result speaks for itself. On the 34th day the white flour mouse was almost dead. Flour and water were' placed before it, but it apparently had not the strength to eat or drink. The mouse was so weak that it could not walk ; breathing was shallow,, slow, and irregular. The whole wheat flour mouse, at the end of the same time, was run- ! I ning around and jumping in his jar, and when flour and water were given him he partook of them eagerly and apparently felt but little the worse /or the experience. The loss of weight by the white flour mouse throughout the experiment was gradual and constant till the 12th day. It no doubt felt the effect of the diet immediately, for it never once reached the same weight as at the beginning of the experiment. After the 12th day it lost weight rapidly, gaining on only two days of the 24 previous to death. The total weight lost was over ten grams. THIS HELPS YOU TO PUT ON FLESH. The whole wheat flour mouse gained weight instead of losing, as the other did. It almost seems unbelievable that an animal, after 64 dayß of living on the food, would show a gain in weight. Yet this is what really resulted ; and this proves better than chemical analyses what a perfect food entire whole wheat flour is. Never once did this mouse show a loss of weight equal to one gram from what he weighed at the beginning of the experiment. On two occasions it showed marked loss of weight, but the reason for this was fasting, and in one or two days in each instance it regained former weight. By far the greater part of the time it weighed more than its weight at the beginning. On the 56th day its weight was the heaviest, being over 1£ grams heavier than the beginning weight. The net gain in weight on the 64th day was about 1£ grams. The white flour mouse was somewhat constipated all the time, and did not give off one-sixth the amount of excreta that the whole wheat flour mouse did. The excreta of the white flour mouse was firm in nature and dark in colour. The excreta of the whole wheat flour mouse was abundant at all times. It was softer and of a lighter colour than that of the white flour mouse. From this there seems no doubt about the constipating effect of white flour and the laxative effect of whole wheat flour. During the normalising period the intestinal excreta of both animals was about the same, so the change could only be due to the flour. Tf the experiment proved the same when applied to man it would read as follows : —Man eating, white flour —Weight at beginning, of experiment, 103-i pounds ; weight at end of experiment, 102 pounds (dead at end of 34 days) ; loss in weight, 61 ipounrls. Man eating whole wheat flour— Beginning, I'll pounds ; end, 150 pounds (alive and well as ever at end of 64 days); i) pounds gain. The man eating white flour, in all probability, would be dead at the er\(\ of 3 1 flays. Nothing could be more convincing of the difference beLween white flour and whole wheat flour. The people have been ignorant of this difference. Six weeks after the conclusion of the above experiment, the whole wheat flour mouse is alive arid is in as healthy a condition as ever.—" Popular Science Siftings." i