BRITAIN'S BREAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 162, 31 July 1942, Page 14

BRITAIN'S BREAD

/ ‘Written for "The Listener" by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist

to the Department of Health)

ce EASON has prevailed, and the R nation’s staple food is to be a good nutritious loaf." So runs an editorial in The Lancet for March of this year, as a commentary on the decision of the Minister of Food to make it impossible, except under licence, to sell any white bread. In speaking on the new policy, Lord Horder looked at it from the doctor’s point of view; he spoke of the new loaf as a natural food, and therefore superior to bread made from white flour. He commended it from the point of view of digestibility, saying that its digestibility was not significantly less than that of white flour. He was enabled to make this statement in view of an experiment that had recently been made on a group of human beings to test the digestibility of "national wheatmeal" bread. Actually, it has been found that national wheatmeal flour can be used by all sick persons who are able to take white flour. You will be aware that there are a few people whose digestive systems are unable to cope with the roughage of wholemeal flour or bread. National wheatmeal bread, on the other hand, is acceptable to their digestive systems. There are a few (very few) persons who are unable to take wheat products at all. These would be the only persons who would need to avoid national wheatmeal flour. Look at the Diagram An explanation as to what is meant by "national wheatmeal" is necessary, in view of the fact that an erroneous statement appeared in our press to the effect that wholemeal bread is now compulsory in Britain. To explain it, we need to know something about the way in which the wheat grain is constituted. I’m afraid we shall need a diagram to make it clear. The centre of the wheat grain contains what becomes white flour during the milling process. The greater part of the valuable vitamins of the so-called B-complex group reside in the aleurone layer, just under the outside fibrous branny layer, and in the embryo or wheat germ. The latter contributes about 15 to 20.per cent of the vitamin value, because being light, it forms only about two per cent of the weight of the grain; thus the amount

present in the aleurone layer is by far the most important. White flour accounts for only 70 per cent of the weight of the grain, but by adding a little more from the pollard section of the milled

products, flours of higher extraction, as they are called, can. be made. The flour that is now used in Britain is 85 per cent extraction flour, and the definition of properly made "national wheatmeal" flour is that it contains 85 per cent by weight of the clean wheat, in which is included (a), the maximum amount of the germ and of its aletirone layer and (b) the minimum of the pericarp, ot outer bran layer, as shown by its low fibre content. As an indication of its high vitamin value, the amount of Vitamin B1 found in an analysis in England was 1.4 for wholemeal, 1.2 for the 85 per cent. extraction, and only 0.35 for 73 per cent extraction flour. These figures are in International Units per gram. Apologies for being so arithmetical, but the figures seemed necessary in order to prove that 85 per cent extraction flour falls very little short of wholemeal flour in its vitamin value, It is stated furthermore that it resembles white bread closely in flavour and texture, the colour is pale brown and is not unattractive, while, on technical and aesthetic grounds, the loaf baked from it is considered excellent. (Next week: "Milk for the Worker," by DR. BELL).