Wheat is considered one of the most valuable food elements which is now used. It is admitted by hygienists everywhere to contain in almost perfect proportion the exact elements needed to nourish the body under ordinary circumstances. In a previous chapter I (Appetite) have called attention to the deficiency of white flour as a food, but the whole grain, no matter how prepared, is a food that can be highly commended. The outer cover, which is nothing more than waste product, is a valuable stimulant to the bowels, and if the food elements into which wheat enters are always allowed to include this outer covering, the suffering from digestive troubles would materially lessen in a short time. Hot bread made from white flour is about the most indigestible and non-nutritious substance one can possibly eat. It is composed largely of starch, and even those elements which are essential to the nourish-ment of the body cannot be properly liquefied, because of the tendency of this starchy sub-stance to form into a ball and thus resist the influence of the digestive juices. The habit of eating hot biscuit, and other hot breads made from white flour, has unquestionably caused thousands to fill premature graves.

They continue such a diet until a diseased condition has been produced, and then proceed to take poisonous drugs to cure the disease. It is really remarkable how so many people succeed in existing so long as they do under the abnormal influences of such an unnatural diet. Food into which white flour enters can be made far more palatable by substituting a high grade of whole-wheat flour, and under these circumstances it would become a most nourishing food, and if the reader is desirous of building health, the very first steps that should be taken for the accomplishment of this object should be the use of flour made of the whole grain of wheat in all foods in which white flour is needed. The influence of a change of this character will produce upon health and strength will be noticed almost immediately. Not only will the body be more thoroughly nourished, but the work of digestion will be carried on more perfectly, and there will be but little liability of suffering from that common complaint, constipation.