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Oatmeal

Oats, in the form of oatmeal, are rich in flesh-formers and heat-givers, and serve as a nutritious and excellent diet when the occupation is not sedentary. The outer husk of oats, unlike wheat, is poor in albumenoid matters, so that oatmeal is better than the whole oat as food. In making oatmeal, one quarter of oats (328 pounds) yields 188 pounds of meal and 74 pounds of husks, the rest being water. Oatmeal is remarkable for its large amount of fat. 100 parts contain:-- Water . . . . . 13.6 Albumenoid Matters . . . . . 17.0 Starch . . . . . 39.7 Sugar . . . . . 5.4 Gum . . . . . 3.0 Fat . . . . . 5.7 Fibre . . . . . 12.6 Mineral Matter . . . . . 3.0 Or, Water . . . . . 13.6 Flesh and Force Producers . . . . . 17.0 Force Producers . . . . . 66.4 Mineral Matters . . . . . 3.0 "One pound of oatmeal, when digested and oxidised in the body, is capable of producing a force equal to 2,439 tons raised one foot high. The maximum of work which it will enable a man to perform is 488 tons raised one foot high. One pound of oatmeal can produce at the maximum 2 3/4 ounces of dry muscle or flesh." "Oatmeal," Pereira remarks, "is an important and valuable article of food. With the exception of maize or Indian corn, it is richer in oily or fatty matter than any other of the cultivated cereal grains; and its proportion of protein compounds exceeds that of the finest English wheaten flour; so that, both in respect to its heat and fat making and its flesh and blood making principles, it holds a high rank." Oatmeal is frequently adulterated with barley-meal, the difference in price between the two being a great inducement to dishonest traders. In consequence of a peculiar quality of the gluten which the oat contains, oatmeal does not admit of being baked into a light fermented bread. It has been alleged against oatmeal, that when it is employed as the sole food, without milk or animal diet, it causes heat and irritability of the skin, aggravates skin diseases, and sometimes gives rise to boils. Dr. Pereira, however, states that this charge has been made without sufficient grounds. At all events, it is very rarely that circumstances render necessary for any length of time such an exclusive consumption of oatmeal.