No. 10. Thatcher's Germade. Thatcher Milling and Elevator Co., Logan, Utah. "From Cache Valley White Wheat.” "It contains more nutriment than any other article of food known." "Cooks in a few minutes." Package 4x4x8 inches. 25 cents. Weight of contents 54.2 ounces. No. 11. Cormack's Patent Process Nudavene Flakes. American Cereal Co., Chicago. "Made from pure northern white oats, superior to any other oat product." "Cook in twenty minutes." Package 4x4x8 inches. 10 cents. Weight of contents 31.8 ounces. No. 12. Buckeye Rolled Oats. American Cereal Co., Chicago. "It is rich in nutritious' quantities. Cooks in twenty minutes." Package 4x4x8 inches. 10 cents. Weight of contents 32 ounces. No. 13. Wheatlets. Lindell Flour Mills, Ft. Collins, Colo. "Five-pound sack." 20 cents. Weight of contents 74.4 ounces. No. 14. Sioux Wheat Flakes. Sioux Milling Co., Sioux City, Ia. "Made from California White Wheat." "Cook fifteen to 20 minutes.". Package 8x5x4 inches. 15 cents. Weight of contents 31 ounces. No. 15. Oatmeal sold in bulk, Laramie. American Cereal Co. Ten pounds for 25 cents. No. 16. Ralston Health Club Breakfast Food. Purina Millls, St. Louis, Mo. "The Ralston Health Club in analyzing the various breakfast foods on the market found one that proved to be the only perfect and by far the most healthful breakfast food in the country." "Cooks in five minutes." Package 5x24x7. 20 cents. Weight of contents, 31.6 ounces. No. 17. Durkee's Glutena Food. E. R. Durkee & Co., N. Y. "Of the various elements composing wheat, the nitrates, viz.,gluten and fiber,form about 15 per cent, the phosphates 2 per cent, the remainder consists of about 70 per cent of carbonate of starch and about 13 per cent of water." "Glutena consists entirely of the gluten and phosphates of wheat." "Boil ten minutes." Package 3x2x6. 15 cents. Weight of contents 18 ounces. No. 18. Fould's Wheat Germ Meal. Daverio Process. Fould's Milling Co., Cincinnati. "It contains the best and most nutritious parts of the wheat." Package 4x24x7. 15 cents. Weight of contents 30.1 ounces. No. 19. Golden Sheaf Wheat Flakes. Sprague Warner & Co., Chicago. "A healthy stimulant to nerve and brain forces as indigestible properties in the wheat are entirely removed." Package 8x44x4. 15 cents. Weight of contents 28.9 ounces. No. 20. Douglas and Stuart's Rolled Oats. American Flaked Oat Groats. American Cereal Co., Chicago. "Superior to any farinaceous goods in this line." "Partly cooked." Package 5x3x8, 10 cents. Weight of contents 32. 4 ounces. No. 21. Velvet Meal, Quail Brand. Nebraska City Cereal Mills, Nebraska City Neb. "One pound of properly prepared corn meal is more than equivalent to two pounds of fat meat." Package 4x31x7, 10 cents. Weight of contents 38.8 ounces. Discussion of Results. The chemical analyses and examination of the starch grains with the microscope showed no evidence of the presence of foreign cereals, so adulteration may be regarded as absent in foods of this class. The packages are generally short weight but only in a few cases was there such a discrepancy between the actual weight of contents and that marked on the wrapper as to indicate an intentional fraud. Leaving aside the customary claims of each food to be the best in the market and considering only the more specific statements of composition, food value, etc., it may be said that these are in many instances entirely unreliable and misleading as to the real character of the food. When the general public becomes better educated on the subject of foods we may expect advertising to take the form it already has taken in many other industries, that of an attractive and intelligent presentation of the real merits of the article. If purchasers of goods in packages and cans would always note the brand and afterwards buy according to the quality, it would be a good encouragement to honest manufacturers and the grade of such foods would no doubt be raised. The chief advantages of package goods is that the manufacturer is made directly responsible to the consumer. It will be seen that there is more variation in price than in composition, and that there is no discoverable relation between quality and price. Some articles are four or five times the cost of others of the same class and apparently of the same merit. It is quite evident who pays for the beautiful advertisements that form the bulk of our magazines. At the same time it is not the most extensively advertised foods that are the dearest. The oatmeal sold in bulk is practically the same in composition and, so far as can be judged by personal taste, in quality and flavor as that sold in packages for several times the price. Of course in buying bulk articles one is not so sure of getting the same grade or that the quality has not been injured by long keeping and exposure. The claims made for quick cooking are generally fallacious. Almost all such preparations should be cooked for at least half an hour and usually longer to insure the complete digestibility of the starch. Except in the case of corn the addition of milk or cream is not needed to supply any deficiency in the foods. Sugar should be used only as a condiment. Most people in the United States eat so much sugar as to quite unbalance a ration already excessive in carbohydrates. The question that will probably be asked by most people who read this bulletin "Which is the best food?" is one that cannot be answered. There is no "best food." The three grains used have each distinctive and useful qualities. Oatmeal contains more of the valuable ingredients, protein and fat, than the other two and approaches closely in composition to a correctly balanced food. These facts do not, however, exclude the use of wheat and corn preparations which are to many preferable. All that such a bulletin as this can do is to give the data on which the judgment of the reader can form his own estimates of the relative merits of the foods analyized. Human food is generally selected on account of flavor and this as a question of taste is outside the bounds of discussion. The important question of digestibility and wholesomeness is also one which every man must settle with his own stomach. The older investigations on this subject are quite misleading. Not every man has a stomach like Alexis St. Martin's or Brown-Sequard's, still less like a test tube in a water bath. Recent experiments are giving more reliable results but individual differences are so important that the choice of food cannot be ultimately decided by the application of general principles. About 85 per cent of the protein, 90 per cent of the fat and 98 per cent of the carbohydrates in cereals are digestible.* Composition cannot be taken as a perfect guide to the real value of a food. One series of experiments on the digestibility of whole wheat flour and fine flour showed that a less amount of the valuable constituents was digested from the whole wheat than from the fine flour although the former was superior in composition. The popular articles in the newspapers on dietics are for the most part misleading, either because they are premature judgments based on insufficient data or because they are written in favor of some food fad. Those interested in the subject may get reliable information from the bulletins of the Department of Agriculture atWashington and reports of experiment stations and kitchens. [Farmer's Bulletin No. 23 on "Foods, Nutritive Value and Cost," Farmer's Bulletin No. 34 on "Meats; Composition and Cooking." Bulletin No. 24, Office of Experiment Stations on "Chemistry of Food." Also magazine articles by Prof. Atwater and others as in the Century for June, 1897.] *Report of Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, 1896, p. 188. †Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, Koenig, Vol. I. p. 43. |
