Doctor, You Say Water In Some Form Or Other Is The Most Indispensable Of All Foods, I Suppose That Meat Is Next In Importance?

"No doubt the Esquimeaux would say so, while those who style themselves vegetarians say that it is not only the least important but the most injurious of all foods, but the truth of the matter is, all races have lived off of what they could get the easiest and liked the best; but for the European and their American descendants, it can be truly said that bread is the staff of life, or more strictly speaking, the staff of life is wheat."

I Have Often Heard Bread Called The Staff Of Life, But Never Knew Why. I Suppose It Must Be More Wholesome Or More Nutritious Than Other Foods?

"That might be true in theory, but as a matter of fact it is often much more unwholesome than other foods. Aside from the fact that bread is both cheap and palatable it furnishes nearly all the essential ingredients to support life."

Doctor, What Are We To Understand By Essential Ingredients?

"First, heat or force producers - the starch and fat furnish these. Second, flesh formers or proteid food. This is furnished by the gluten of the flour. Third, mineral matter necessary to form bones and tissues. Fourth, waste material. Of course, bread is more or less deficient according to the material of which it is made."

"Some people think wheat the best, some rye and some Indian corn."

"Yes, the Russians and the Germans prefer rye or at least use rye, while most of the English speaking people prefer wheat bread, although in the Southern states corn bread is extensively used and preferred by many."

The Chemist Out To Be Able To Say Which Is The Best, What Food Elements Does Each Kind Of Bread Contain?

It will be seen from this table that bread contains ordinarily about 7 or 8 times as much force producing food as that of tissue forming elements, a proportion considerably above what is usually estimated to properly nourish the human system."

"But, doctor, haven't you already said that rice was mainly all starch, and are there not more people who practically live on rice than an other article of food? if that be true, it doesn't seem reasonable to say that wheat bread really has too high a proportion of starch. "

"It is true that more people live on rice than any other food, but an American laborer with his mixed diet can do twice the amount of labor in a given time than a laborer of rice eating nations."

How About Mexico?

"The people of Mexico eat meat and the Mexican laborer is in no way superior to the laborer of India or China, so that it is very difficult to draw conclusions by analogy, but this fact remains. The climate of Mexico makes a laborer lazy, sluggish and slow, and also has that tendency in India or China."

Then On What Does Your Statement Rest When You Say That Ordinarily Wheat Bread Has Too High A Proportion Of Starch?

"It rests on a century of actual experience and it has been settled beyond dispute that a man requires a larger per cent of tissue forming food ordinarily called proteid or nitrogenous food than is contained in fine wheat flour, if health and physical development are desired, although the exact proportion depends upon climatic conditions, amount of exercise and the peculiarities of the individual. In Europe, the proportion of tissue forming food to that of heat or force producing food is estimated at a ratio of about I to 3. Some place the ratio as high as I to 4½."

How About Our Own Country?

"Well, Americans are the most active people in the world, and for the most part have rather a bracing climate, so that we can stand a diet as low in tissue formers as I to 6. Of course, this is speaking in a general way, extreme cold weather and active exercise might require even a higher ratio of heat producing food, while growing children in moderate or warm weather would require a proportion more nearly in accord with the estimates for the Europeans."

What Has Climate And Activity To Do With Heat Or Force Producing Food?

"It has a great deal. It was at one time supposed that great activity destroyed a great deal of tissue, but that has been found to be a mistake. Hard labor or exercise increases circulation, and very naturally more heat producing food is oxidized, or burned up. The same reason holds good in cold weather. The need for heat increases respiration and circulation, and that burns up more fuel, which the heat producing food really is."

"Ah I see, this furnishes quite a guide to living. The sedentary and fat require less fat and starch than the active. In cold weather it requires more than in hot weather."

"Yes, that is the idea. The old soldier prefers a piece of fat bacon when he has a forced march, while to the aged and infirm it might be nauseous."

I Suppose We Have About Reached Perfection In Bread Making, Have We Not?

"I hardly think so; at least the masses are a long, long way from it, and there is probably no one article of food more responsible for indigestion, with its train of ills, than poorly made bread."

"I have heard some say that the best part of flour was bolted out - that our flour was too refined."

"There is a good deal of truth in that, for there are three important elements taken out - the bran, phosphates, mineral matter, and a considerable portion of the gluten and nearly all of the cellulose."