BREAD AND BANANAS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 24

BREAD AND BANANAS

SOME of you may have wondered why wholemeal bread has not been advocated in my talks. Many years ago it was taught that wholemeal bread was better for you than white, and it still holds higher nutritional value, Butand it is quite a comforting but to the majority-there was less need to put wholemeal bread on a_ pedestal when, in 1946, our extraction rate for flour was raised from 73 per cent to 80 per cent, In 1949 this was reduced to 78 per cent, and there it has stayed since. This 78 per cent extraction flour of ours contains twice as much vitamin B as the white bread up to 1946, until when at least half of your bread should have been wholemeal. This 78 per cent extraction flour contains a higher proportion of other vitamins as well, plus more protein and minerals. The white loaf of New Zealand is good value nutritionally, and you may go on making it the staff of life. If we ever reverted to the old 73 per cent extraction rate it would be a different story, and you should let your voices be heard should this ever be proposed again. We have a reasonably valuable white loaf, holding a great percentage of the minerals and vitamins. of the wheat, a loaf far more valuable than its counterpart in England and other lands where they have to fortify it artificially to make it worthwhile. If we in New Zealand are following the balanced diet in our eating, we will come to no harm eating white bread. If you are uncertain of a balanced diet, then some of your bread should be wholemeal, We could go further, It would be good counsel for all to have the nutritionally superior wholemeal as a change bread in all our households from time to time. Grandma was right when she said stale bread is more digestible. In the mouth the starch in bread is changed to sugars. The better the chewing the more the saliva mixes and the more the starch is converted to sugars. These sugars are soluble, hence readily digestible. Now new bread.is moist and not so easily broken up by the teeth, It often reaches the stomach as doughy lumps. Stale bread, being drier, separates more finely and absorbs more saliva, so does toast and crusts, and hence all these are tipped. further to sugats and are more digestible than new bread,

On the other hand, most of us like new bread, and like to keep it as fresh as possible, Yet we seem to do the wrong thing about keeping it fresh, putting it in lidded bread tins or bins. A _ loaf must have air. Both the bread tin or bread bin should have vent holes, and in both cases the lid should be prevented from shutting tightly. Probably the best way to keep bread fresh as long as — is to wrap t in a clean dry cloth, and store it in a well-ventilated

cupboard. If you use a tin or a bin for bread storage remember to wash it once a week and dry and air thereafter. Having cleared up a couple of points about bread, I want to do the same for the banana. Are bananas good food, and suitable for all ages? The reason for doubts about them stems from ignorance of a few important points. Bananas are always best picked green, which is the way they mostly land in New Zealand. There are three stages in ripening. The peel is your guide. When the peel is yellow and slightly greenish with a green tip, the pulp is firm. and starchy, and the banana indigestible to many unless cooked. When the peel is all yellow, the greater part of the starch has become sugar, flavour has developed and the banana is digest-ible-it is now just ripe. When the skin is yellow with brown flecks, the banana is fully ripe, the pulp is mellow, all the starch has turned to sugar, the flavour is best and the banana most digestible. Bananas in the fully ripe stage are easily digested by old folk and by invalids. Ripe bananas beaten with milk make a good invalid dish, for therein you have protein, fat, lime, vitamins, minerals and energy. Ripe bananas are

good for young children. Baby may have them mashed, but start, say, at five months with very little, half a teaspoon, at first, ‘gradually increasing as he gets used to it. Remember _ that using bananas before they are fully ripe is the cause of indigestion in old people and upsets in little children, The starch of the green banana is almost entirely indigestible. Be patient. Wait for the yellow, flecked with brown spots, and let the whole family enjoy bananas.