THE STAFF OF LIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 285, 8 December 1944, Page 23

THE STAFF OF LIFE

(Written tor "The Listener’ by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the

Health Department)

UCH has been recently learnt about "the staff of life." Bread is such an important item among’ our daily foods that we should look into the qualities that it possesses. Most important is its calorie value, by which we mean that it is a concentrated source of heat units, or more simply put, it provides the fuel for our muscles and for keeping up the body temperature, For the nations of the western world it goes a greater distance towards satisfying hunger than any other food» Each ounce of bread supplies abqut 75 calories-rather less for wholemeal than for white bread, because the former contains slightly more water and less starch, Bread and cereals make up something like 30 per cent of the total calories in the New Zealand diet, according to studies made by the Department of Home Science and the Nutrition Research Department. What is perhaps more surprising to us is the quantity of proteif that it con-tributes-one-third of the total protein intake has been found in these studies to come from bread and cereals, We do, not regard cereal protein as being a. front-rank type of protein, however. It is not so good for body building as that, of milk, meat, fish, cheese, or eggs. Now, although cereals provide such a large amount of food value, they take only about 15 per cent of the «money spent on food. This puts into quantitative terms what we all know-that bread is a cheap, staple article of diet. There are other nutritional points to be considered also — the iron, and the vitamin B factors. But as these will take too much space, they will be reserved for a later article.

Some of its general properties are well described in a book by Sherman and Pearson on Modern Bread. "Most people like it, and find that it contributes to the comfort of the digestive processes . . . Good texture in bread is important in its appeal to the eye and the palate; and also has further significance for the utility of bread as a food. A texture which ensures thorough chewing thereby contributes to a favourable ‘initiation of the digestive processes with

benefit. to the comfort and satisfaction of the consumer and the good utilisation of the food as a whole. "Also, it is probably of more impartance than is generally recognised that the taking of bread with each meal tends fo give a desirable texture to the food mass, a texture which is favourable to the mechanics of digestion througheut the entire alimentary tract. "Bread renders an important service to the nutritive value of the dietary ‘as a whole by absorbing the fluid portions of a wide variety of foods. It is now commonly taught that the juices and cooking waters of vegetables should be saved and worked into soups."