BROWN BREAD CONTROVERSY

Shannon News, 29 November 1927, Page 4

BROWN BREAD CONTROVERSY

A definite denial of the assertion that brown bread is better than whit© is made by Sir George Newman, the Chief'Officer of th e Ministry of Health says the London Daily Express.

Sir George, in his annual report, holds the scales fairly between the advocates of brown bread and the defenders of white, but he makes it clear that the extravagant claims put forward on behalf of brown bread are entirely unconvincing and of trifling

importance. The leading health • authority in Great Britain thus agrees with the declaration made'not long ago by Sir Thomas Horder, the famous physician that there is no case made out for brown bread as- against white. The apostles of brown bread assert that broAvn bread contains more vitamins; than white bread, and therefore more nutritious, but Sir George Newman points out that the important * point about diet is not what amount of vitamins any one article! of food contains, but (Whether the whole diet contains enough vitamins.

■“Those'who'urge the superiority of bi’OAvn bread,” he observes, "state that it contains (with its yeast) someAvhat more vitamin B than does white bread.

“It is, however, -generally held that the ordinary diet in this country contains sufficient vitamin B to meet the individual requirements and that therefore, any differences that may exist in vitamin B content between brown bread and white bread are of' little or no significance.” i Sir George NeAvman pays a tribute to the prominent attention now paid by the newspapei-s to health questions. ■ ■ ,

“At the present time,’ ’he says, “much is said, and well and rightly said, in the public Press and elsewhere in the form of advice as to the acquisition or maintenance of personal health. I have no doubt that the very wid e dissemination of health information in England and is doing immeasurable good. '' Referring to the public health; services, Sir George declares: —"I avow my belief that they have changed the face of England, Even more than that, with all their limitations and imperfections, they have, though so often criticised at home, been copied all th e world over.”