LATEST VINDICATION OF THE WHITE LOAF

Shannon News, 30 September 1927, Page 4

LATEST VINDICATION OF THE WHITE LOAF

Manifesto by Leading Medical Authorities A BOMBSHELL FOE FOOD FADDISTS Tho following manifesto, signed by i number of Britain's leading medical authorities, which appeared in “The Lancet,’ late in July, lias fallen like i bornsliell in the rank of the food faddists in the old country. Diet ami Dietists. We, the undersigned, wish to place on record our belief that the current statements that cancer, appendicitis, iml many other diseases are the result of the use of white bread, are unwarranted, there being a complete absence of scientific data to justify them. Such statements are calculated to cause unjustifiable alarm in the public mind. While we readily admit that vitamin B, which is essential to health, is present in wholemeal flour and practically absent from white flour, we do not subscribe to the statement ■hat it is not contained in white bread and that the use of white bread denies the human system the necessary amount of this vitamin. Not only is it difficult for a European to omit essential quantities of vitamin B from his diet, seeing that this principle is present in many other forms of food, but it is undoubtedly, present in white bread also. Tire fact is -that any lack of vilamin B in white flour is definitely remedied when the flour is made into bread by the addition of veast, which contains plenty of it. Th e importance of vitamins in the diet must not be allowed to. obscure the necessary also for the requisite number of calories, which represent flic energy or heat value of food so ■•ssential to all, and to manual worki'3 ip particular. Bulk for bulk, white bread yields more calories than any other form of carbohydrate food "A daily use. with the possible exception of haricot beans. From conomie considerations it is therefore better and cheaper for a family •f ITnited means to continue to cat white bread rather than to change to another variety, which may or may not agree with them, and in any case would have to be consumed in larger quantities in order to give the same calorific value.

Important and frequently overlooked factors in tlm selection of a correct dietary are payability and appearance. - An article of diet which ipp'als to the eye and the palate, by ts appearance and flavour is more asily digested than one wlrch is unattractive and not so well relished, ‘ Von if it contains a more genprous proportion of vitamins. This is a syehological aspect of digestion .'hich has been recognised throughout ihe history of medicine and gastronomy, but entirely disregarded in certain recent propaganda. One of the claims advanced in support of wholemeal broad is the fact hat the bran of the wheat berry, which is excluded from white flour, provides the “ roughage ” stated to ‘>e essential breams > of its scouring 'fives on the intestinal tract. But most obtain all the “roughage” they r quire from other foodstuffs; moreover, there are many individuals for whom this “ roughage ” is definitely harmful ,and for whom it is a safeguard to eat white bread, which has no “ roughage,.” For the foregoing reasons we desire, in the public interest, to place on record that in our opinion—1. -Th,- case for wholemeal bread ha s been overstated. 2. The allegation that white bread is responsible for certain grave illnesses is not supported by scientific facts. 3. Although wholemeal bread is a good article of diet for many people, white bread of'good quality i s also a wholesome and nutritious food. 4. There are no good reasons for thinking that the substitution would make for material improvement in the national health and physique.