Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
WHOLE WHEAT VS. ENRICHED WHITE FLOUR AND BREAD A comparison of the nutritive value of whole wheat flour with that of enriched flour is of interest but somewhat academic in relation to the enrichment program. Al- though whole wheat flour is sold side by side with white flour, the American public buys over 90 per cent of the total as white in preference to the brown. The same is true for white and brown bread. Moreover, most of the brown bread is made with white flour with a modest admixture of whole wheat. Actually, 97 per cent of the wheat milled for both family and bakery use goes on the market in the form of white flour. Obviously, improvement of the major prod- uct consumed is of greater importance to public health. A study involving protein and vitamin utilization when various types of bread made from whole wheat, 70 per cent white flour, 85 per cent meal, and 70 per cent white flour enriched were employed was recently reported by Widdowson and Mc- Cance24. Bread supplied 70 to 75 per cent of total calories. The subjects were 100 underfed German children in Wuppertal and 150 in Duisberg, 5 to 15 years of age, living in orphanages. At the outset they weighed 9 per cent less than American children of similar age and were 5 per cent shorter in stature. The children were sep- arated into groups at meal time and each group given a different type of bread. The children had about 80 milliliters of milk and 8 grams of animal protein per day. The children in all groups began to im- prove at an equal rate. Their heights and weights went up faster than those of Amer- ican children of comparable age. Previous undernourishment was responsible for the rapid gains when adequate food was sup- plied. At the end of a year there was still no difference among the groups, but the growth and increase in weight had slowed slightly. No difference had been demon- strated among the nutritional values of the various breads. During the progress of the experiments, chemical analyses were made of the diets for thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, and iron. These showed that, owing to the large amount of vegetables present in the diet, the children, even those eating the unenriched flour, were getting as much of the B vitamins as they required. This flour, incidental- ly, carried almost 0.5 milligram thiamine per 1,000 calories, i.e. much more than was in American 70 per cent extraction flour. Thus it was clear that no nutritional de- ficiencies would be likely to occur among the different groups. The consumption of 8 to 11 grams of animal protein and the vegetable proteins supplied sufficient sup- plementation to the wheat protein to make it very effective. These experiments show that bread requires only modest supple- mentation with other foods to produce good nutrition. CORN PRODUCTS ENRICHMENT In the southern part of the United States, corn meal and corn grits are staple foods for large segments of the population. In Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Caro- lina, and South Carolina, all degerminated corn meal and grits sold are required by law to be enriched to the same levels as flour. In South Carolina and Alabama, the enrichment of both degerminated and whole corn meal is mandatory. Some cus- tom grinding is exempt from this require- ment, but the amount becomes less and less with the passage of time as the small mills give way to larger ones. In other southern states, voluntary enrichment of whole com meal is practiced to varying degrees, depending on the effectiveness of the educational programs of state agencies. 1R. A. McCance and E. M. Widdowson. Studies on the nutritive value of bread and on the effect of variations in the extraction rate of flour on the growth of under-nourished children. Med. Res. Counc. London, Spec. Rept. Ser. No. 287 (1954).
The corn meal and grits brought into the South from the midwestern corn belt is all of the degerminated variety and is al- most entirely enriched. The proportion of corn products for human consumption in the South which originates in the Midwest to that which is produced and milled in the South varies considerably from year to year according to the yield from southern fields as influenced by rainfall and other climatic conditions. The tendency is for the southern crops to be used as long as they last and for the import from the Mid- west to supply the balance. In an average year the corn of western origin used for human feeding in the South approximately equals that grown in the southern states. Hence, roughly half the corn for human use enters the market in an enriched state from the Midwest. An additional amount, not readily ascertainable with precision, is enriched at southern mills. A survey of the extent of corn meal enrichment was made in the summer of 1957 through the cooperation of the Agri- cultural Extension Services or State Health Departments of 12 southern states. Spot checks were made in retail stores in differ- ent areas of each state as to the kind of corn meal sold and the extent to which each was enriched. The results showed that the percentages of corn meal sold which was enriched were: Alabama Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Per Cent 95 31 87 60 64 78 North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia Per Cent 74 100 81 97 26 55 A report was not obtained from Arkan- sas; otherwise the entire South where corn is an important human food was covered. Obviously the intensiveriess of the survey varied from state to state and the figures are probably not strictly comparable with one another. Nevertheless, the results are most encouraging in that they indicate that a high percentage of enrichment has been achieved in areas where corn consumption is highest. Recurrence of endemic pellagra is difficult to imagine if these practices are maintained at present levels. It is important that an educational program on the merits of corn meal enrichment be continued. Corn grits were not included in the sur- vey, but nearly all of this product is made by larger mills and nearly all is enriched. During the past decade the smaller mills have discontinued producing corn grits because more labor and equipment are required to produce grits than corn meal. The larger mills usually enrich and market good-appearing, clean grits in consumer- size packages which the homemaker pre- fers because washing before cooking is unnecessary. Quick-cooking grits, a rather recent innovation of the larger mills, has hastened the trend to eliminate washing. In 1946 many small mills produced a qual- ity of grits that homemakers washed before cooking. For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration promulgated a stand- ard for grits enrichment which included rinse resistance to protect those consumers who washed grits before cooking. In Au- gust 1957, a spot survey among 11 southern states revealed that 92 per cent of the homemakers no longer wash grits. The need for rinse resistance has therefore been eliminated by changes in milling and mer- chandising. The time may be appropriate for a change in the Federal standards for enriched grits by elimination of the require- ment for rinse resistance. This would cut the cost of enrichment approximately in half. Further information on the program for the enrichment of corn meal and grits may be found in an article by Lease25. 'E. J. Lease. Com meal enrichment. J. Am. Dietet. Assoc. 29: 866 (1953).
