STILL MORE ABOUT BREAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 120, 10 October 1941, Page 15

STILL MORE ABOUT BREAD

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist

to the Department of Health)

OES it surprise you to know that the colour of wholemeal bread differs according to the kind of wheat used? Apparently the wheats used in New Zealand for the most part give rather a light-coloured wholemeal loaf. The erroneous impression that wholemeal bread is dark in colour has led the bakers to cater for this popular belief by sometimes adding an artificial colour to their wholemeal bread. They add " black-jack" sugar that has been heated to make it intg caramel, While this does no harm, it would be an improvement if there was no necessity to add it. For so long as it is customary to use artificial colouring so long will there continue to be a certain lack of confidence in the baker. People often look at brown bread and say "It is merely white flour colourednot wholemeal." From the baker’s point of view it would be to his advantage to leave out the black-jack-it would cost him less, and perhaps also his sales would go up; for maybe the reduced consumption of bread per head of the population over the past few years has been due in part to this lack of confidence in the baker. Yeast vy. Baking Powder In defence of the baker, let it be said that there is no doubt that yeast cookery 4s of greater nutritional value than baking powder cookery. This arises from the fact that baking powder, producing as it does an alkaline reaction during the baking process, destroys part of the vitamin B present in wholemeal flour. We need this

vitamin B as well as the roughage in wholemeal to keep the intestines in good working order. The roughage stimulates their movements, while the vitamin B is important for keeping them in good tone, able to contract and push their contents on instead of letting them‘ stagnate. Constipation can often be cured by taking whole cereals like oatmeal porridge and wholemeal bread. But vitamin B is valuable also for its effect upon the appetite, Supposing a mother is having difficulty because of her child’s lack of appetite, she will often find that, if she gives it a tablespoonful of wheat germ (rich in vitamin B) the child’s appetite will improve and she will put on weight. A heaped tablespoonful of wheat germ is worth as an addition to your diet if you are feeling out of sorts-sprinkle it on fruit or over your porridge, : Germ bread is valuable, particularly for those who are unable to take wholemeal bread. It is nutritionally much superior to white bread. Some of the symptoms of vitamin B deficiency are lack of appetite, constipation, mental depression, lack of vigour. Though they are of minor degree they are very widespread, apparently because of this change that has occurred during the last century in our dietary habitsthe use of refined white flour. . "National Wheatmeal" Bread The people of England have lately taken keenly to " National Wheatmeal }’ bread, which is made from a slightly coloured flour consisting of 85 per cent. of the wheat grain. (White flour is only 70 per cent. of the grain.) This National’

Wheatmeal. bread is a great improvement on white bread as it contains many of the advantages of wholemeal, without some of its disadvantages. The popularity of the national wheatmeal loaf in England has exceeded all expectations, It is predicted in England that white flour as we know it will cease to exist as a commercial commodity. It has already gone out of existence in South Africa. Perhaps we shall follow suit here in New Zealand. The authorities in England have thought it advisable as a war"time measure to keep up the morale of the population by giving them a bread containing more vitamin B. They have gone the length of subsidising the bakers 44d per 4lb. loaf in order that the new loaf (full weight) may be sold at the price of the white loaf.