Stale bread is much more digestible than hot or fresh bread, for the latter, when masticated, is made into a tenacious, dough-like mass. The former crumbles into finer particles, which are attacked by digestive fluids with comparative readiness. Toast is bread that is cooked in slices until it is brown and brittle. Toasting, if it is properly done, makes bread more digestible. Often only the surface of slices of bread is toasted and the interior is left soft. Such toasting does not increase the digestibility of bread. Zwieback is well-toasted bread. Pulled bread is the heart of a loaf that has been baked until it has become thoroughly brittle. The readiness with which cereal foods are digested depends greatly upon the ease with which they are disintegrated, and the fineness of their 8 division during mastication and during their stay in the stomach.

An average slice of bread remains in the stomach about two and one-half hours. There is little difference in the behavior of whole wheat and fine flour bread in the stomach, but a considerable difference in their absorbability from the intestines. The following table, from Hutchinson, shows the relative amount of their constituents in the stools:

The excess of cellulose in whole wheat bread interferes with the absorbability of the latter. The larger percentage of fat and protein makes it more likely to ferment in the intestines and provokes soft and numerous stools.

Bread is considered one of the most nutritious forms of food, but owing to the relatively small amount of protein it contains, it is not a perfect food. It should be looked upon as an important supplement to meat and fat. Meat powder has been added to bread to increase its nutritive properties. Milk, skim milk, and cheese have been used similarly.

Oats are chiefly used as porridge. Unless other flour is mixed with oatmeal, good bread cannot be made from it. It is particularly difficult to separate the husks of oats from the kernel. Oatmeal is especially rich in fat. In certain persons it has the peculiarity of provoking skin eruptions. Cornmeal (maize) contains less protein than most others, but relatively a large amount of fat. It is eaten as mush, as bread, aod as johnny-cakes. Hominy, cerealine, and samp are special preparations of corn that are particularly adapted for making puddings and mush. Barley meal contains little gluten, and therefore good bread can be made from it only when it is mixed with other flour. Bread made in this way is agreeable and nutritious. Barley-water, which is much used as a diluent of milk for children and in the sick-room, contains very little nutriment, for 99 per cent, of it is water. About 1/3 of 1 per cent, is starch, its next largest ingredient. Next to wheat, rye is the best bread-making flour. Rye bread is not quite so nutritious as that made from wheat. When its flour is fine it is quite as digestible, but when coarse, as is often the case, it is wasteful, for much of it remains in the feces undigested. Rice contains a small amount of protein and almost no fat. Two and one-half ounces of boiled rice are disposed of by the stomach in three and one-half hours. It is absorbed from the intestines very completely. Its starch is practically all utilized. The amount of protein it contains is so small that it leaves almost no residue in the bowel, although 20 per cent, of it is not absorbed. Rice contains no cellulose.

Granose is a partially cooked preparation made of whole wheat in the form of flakes. It is easily digested. Shredded wheat is a preparation of whole wheat in the form of flakes having the consistence of a biscuit. It is also easy to digest. Imperial granum is one of a large number of preparations prescribed for invalids and children. It contains more than 75 per cent, of starch. Like most of its class, it is not adapted for an infant's food, as starch cannot be digested during the first months of life. It is useful when children are old enough to receive a farinaceous food. To this same class belong Horlick's food, Mellin's food, malted milk, Nestle's food, farina, and wheatena.