OATMEAL | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 33.

OATMEAL.

SOME prejudice has existed against this excellent grain food, on the ground that it is productive of skin disease. The whole thing is wholly without foundation, as will be seen from the following point of James C. White, M. D., Professor of Dermatology, Diseases of the Skin, in the medical and surgical department of Harvard University:—

"Oatmeal forms an article of breakfast of a large proportion of the inhabitants of the Northern United States and Canada. For this purpose, it is raised here in vast quantities, and is also imported from Scotland. It is eaten in the form of porridge and cakes chiefly, with the addition of milk, cream, sugar, molasses, or butter.

"It is commonly believed to be 'heating,' to be the cause of eruptions, and is often abstained from under this fear, by those who have skin diseases. Is there any foundation for this belief? I know none. It is eaten by vast numbers of people from infancy, who never exhibit the slightest disturbance of the skin; and the cutaneous affections, in the causation of which it is so often regarded as a probable factor, are those of the most common occurrence among all classes and races, including those who never use it.

"I have for years sought for an explanation of this prejudice among my patients who entertain it, but I have in no instance found a reason why any individual should hold it. I have repeatedly looked for some effect, removing it from, and adding it to, the dietary of patients having affections which it is supposed to influence; but I have never seen the least ill result from its free use. It seems to be entirely harmless in itself. I have never been able to find that it has any value above other cereals in the world, but it is unnecessary to speak further of it here."