OATMEAL by John Harvey Kellogg

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 7, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 26.

OATMEAL.

By John Harvey Kellogg

THE oat is one of the most nutritious of grains, and one of the most easily digested of foods. The baseless prejudice which has been so great an obstacle to its introduction is wholly unaccountable. The querulous Dr. Johnson, in the first edition of his dictionary, gave, as a definition of oat, "A grain used in England to feed horses; in Scotland, men," and from that time until the present the idea that the oat is fit only for "horse diet," has prevented thousands from using this excellent grain. All sorts of ridiculous arguments have been brought against its use. One charges it with being the cause of the prevalence of water brash among the Scotch, who make "brose" a staple article of diet; whereas the real cause of the water brash is the use of coarse oatmeal in an uncooked state, the brose consisting of coarse oatmeal stirred up with hot water and eaten at once.

Another attributes to the Scotchman's oaten cakes that state of cuticle which led a benevolent nobleman to set up scratching-posts in the streets of Edinburgh for the benefit of his countrymen, each user of which pronounced the benediction, "God bless the Duke of Argyle." It is quite possible that the same practice of consuming the oat in a raw state, which occasioned chronic dyspepsia, may, through disturbance of the general nutritive processes, have produced some form of skin disease, but this must be attributed not to the oatmeal per se, but to the unhealthful method of taking it.

For the summer months, oatmeal and the various preparations of wheat constitute the very best articles of food for general use. Persons who are accustomed to use flesh meats freely at other seasons of the year should, during hot weather at least, substitute oatmeal for beef and mutton, for a healthful change, if for no humane or æsthetic reason.—Dr. J. H. Kellogg.