EVILS OF WHITE FLOUR by John Ellis, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 20, 1896

EVILS OF WHITE FLOUR.

By John Ellis, M.D.

Careful experiments made by Magendie and others have demonstrated that animals can only live for a few weeks if fed only on superfine white flour, whereas, they can live and thrive on unbolted flour or meal without any trouble. The Lord intended the grain as a whole for human food, and he manifestly knew what he was doing when he created our cereals. The food required to nourish the teeth, bones, muscles, stomach, to enable it to properly digest our food, and the brain, is found in excess in the dark portion of the kernel which lies immediately beneath the hull, and the miller, in bolting, separates this portion as far as he can, and most of it is fed to cattle, horses, hogs, etc., and they have good teeth, muscles, stomachs, and bones when thus fed.

The white portion of the kernel, from which white flour is made, contains an excess of starch, principally a heat and fat producing material when taken as food, so that the whiter the flour the poorer it is. One simple fact ought to satisfy every intelligent man and woman that superfine white flour is not fit for human use, and that starvation must inevitably follow to a greater or less extent its use as food, viz., there is very little difficulty in keeping superfine white flour free from insects, must or mold, whereas it requires care and watchfulness to preserve unbolted flour and meal free from insects, must, etc. Do we want to feed our children upon a flour which will not sustain for any considerable length of time animal, insect, or even vegetable life?

Dyspepsia is more prevalent in our country than, I think I can say, in any other. Superfine flour does not contain the nourishment required by the stomach to enable it to digest food. The prevalence of dyspepsia in our country and England has led a number of medical writers in England and in this country of late to condemn the use of all cereals—wheat, rye, oats, etc.—as food, claiming that the starch overtakes the stomach, and that we should use as food nothing but nuts and fruits, and if we find them not sufficient, we should use a little meal or animal food, they think. But if we use the dark or coarse portion of the grain as well as the white, the stomach will be nourished, and the whole grain will be digested, and it will not cause dyspepsia.—John Ellis, M.D.