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Whole-Meal Bread

This bread is composed of wheat ground into meal, and used without any portion--even the bran--being taken from it; and it is highly recommended by some of the first scientific men of the present day as containing a larger amount of nourishment, and being more easy of digestion than that which is made with fine flour only, because it is now ascertained that the bran (which was formerly considered as altogether unfit for, food) contains in reality more gluten, or nutriment of the best kind, than any other part of the corn; and it is stated by a very superior writer that it possesses also a peculiar kind of ferment which has the property of dissolving the bread or flour with which it is mixed, and rendering it more easily digestible in the stomach. To this quality of bran, as well as to the nourishment it yields, are to be ascribed some of the wholesome qualities which many persons have recognised in whole-meal bread. It has been suggested that much less wheat would be consumed in the country if whole meal were used instead of flour, as the waste of the bran would be thereby avoided. The opinion thus expressed must, however, be considerably modified, for while it is true that the whole meal (bran and fine flour) contains chemically more nutritive matter than the fine flour alone, yet the gritty particles that are present in the former cause an unnatural irritation in the alimentary canal, and lead to a quicker evacuation of the partially digested and absorbed food. This explains why brown bread possesses laxative properties, and why labourers fed on it consider that they soon become hungry again; they feel that it does not last in the stomach, and consequently think there is little nourishment in it. The truth appears to lie between the two opinions, and there can be no doubt that to many persons, especially of sedentary habits, the use of whole meal instead of flour would be of considerable advantage.