Part 20

=Corn= (maize) is a native of America and has been one of the most extensively used cereals. Corn bread and corn meal mush were important foods with the early settlers, partly because they are nutritious and partly because the corn meal was easily prepared at the mill and was cheap. The germ of the corn is larger in proportion than the germs of other grains, and it contains much fat; therefore it is heating. For this reason, it is strange that corn bread is so largely used by inhabitants of the southern states. It is a more appropriate food for winter in cold climates.

Because of the fat in the germ, cornmeal readily turns rancid, and, on this account, the germ is separated and omitted from many cornmeal preparations.

Hulled corn, sometimes called lye hominy, is one of the old-fashioned ways of using corn. In its preparation, the skin is loosened by steeping the corn in a weak solution of lye, which gives it a peculiar flavor, pleasing to many.

Cornmeal mush is a valuable breakfast food.

Pop corn. The bursting of the shell in popping corn is due to the expansion of the moisture in the starch, occasioned by the heat.

Green sweet corn does not contain the same proportion of starch as cornmeal, it being, in its tender state, mostly water. It is laxative, because it is eaten with the coarse hull, which causes more rapid peristalsis of the intestines.

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The claims made for various advertised breakfast foods would be amusing if they were not intended to mislead. Nearly all of them have sufficient merit to sell them, if the advertiser confines himself strictly to the truth, but the ever pertinent desire to excel, which is one great incentive to progress, leads to exaggeration. For example: Claim is sometimes made that they contain more nutriment than the same quantity of beef. Reference to above table does not bear out such statement; they contain more starch but less protein. It is also claimed by some advertisers that breakfast foods are brain and nerve foods. The idea that certain foods are brain and nerve foods is erroneous, excepting that any tissue building food (protein) builds nerve and brain tissue as it builds any other tissue. There is a prevalent idea that fish and celery are brain food, but there is no scientific basis for the theory.

The grains commonly used for breakfast foods are corn, oats, rice, and wheat. Barley, and wild rice, millet and buckwheat are used in some sections but not enough to warrant discussion here. Barley is used chiefly for making malt and pearled barley for soups.

The following table, from one of the bulletins published by the United States Department of Agriculture, is interesting from an economical standpoint.

Table VI.

Comparative cost of digestible nutrients and available energy in different cereal breakfast foods.

————————————————————+—————+———————+———————+—————————————————————————————— | |Cost of|Cost of| Amount for 10 cents |Price| one |1,000 +———————+————+————+——————+————— Food Materials | per | pound |calo- | Total |Pro-| |Carbo-|En- |pound| of |ries |wgt. of|tein|Fat | hy- |ergy | |protein| of | mate- | | |drates| | | |energy | rial | | | | ————————————————————+—————+———————+———————+———————+————+————+——————+————— Oat preparations: | | | | | | | | Oatmeal, raw | 3 | 0.24 | 1.7 | 3.33 |0.42|0.22|2.18 |5,884 Do | 4 | .32 | 2.3 | 2.50 | .31| .16|1.64 |4,418 Rolled oats, | | | | | | | | steam cooked | 6 | .48 | 3.4 | 1.67 | .21| .11|1.08 |2,938 Wheat preparations: | | | | | | | | Flour, Graham | 4 | .40 | 2.6 | 2.50 | .25| .01|1.61 |3,790 Flour, | | | | | | | | entire-wheat | 5 | .46 | 3.1 | 2.00 | .22| .03|1.36 |3,188 Flour, patent | 3.5| .35 | 2.1 | 2.86 | .29| .03|2.10 |4,700 Farina | 10 | 1.12 | 6.2 | 1.00 | .09| .01| .73 |1,609 Flaked | 15 | 1.69 | 9.3 | .67 | .06| .01| .46 |1,005 Shredded | 12.5| 1.62 | 8.2 | .80 | .06| .01| .57 |1,217 Parched and | | | | | | | | ground | 7.5| .88 | 4.9 | 1.33 | .11| .02| .94 |2,050 Malted, cooked | | | | | | | | and crushed | 13 | 1.43 | 8.5 | .77 | .07| .01| .53 |1,175 Flaked and | | | | | | | | malted | 11 | 1.21 | 7.2 | .91 | .08| .01| .62 |1,389 Barley preparations | | | | | | | | Pearled barley | 7 | 1.06 | 4.6 | 1.43 | .09| .01|1.04 |2,165 Flaked, steam | | | | | | | | cooked | 15 | 1.83 | 9.6 | .67 | .05| | .50 |1,051 Corn preparations: | | | | | | | | Corn meal, | | | | | | | | granular | 3 | .44 | 1.8 | 3.33 | .23| .06|2.48 |5,534 Hominy | 4 | .62 | 2.4 | 2.50 | .16| .01|1.97 |4,178 Samp | 5 | .78 | 3.0 | 2.00 | .13| .01|1.57 |3,342 Flaked and | | | | | | | | parched | 13 | 1.73 | 7.5 | .77 | .06| .01| .60 |1,335 Rice preparations: | | | | | | | | Rice, polished | 8 | 1.48 | 4.7 | 1.25 | .07| | .94 |1,855 Flaked, steam | | | | | | | | cooked | 15 | 2.31 | 9.8 | .67 | .04| | .51 |1,026 Miscellaneous foods | | | | | | | | for comparison: | | | | | | | | Bread, white | 6 | .74 | 5.0 | 1.67 | .14| .02| .87 |2,009 Do | 5 | .62 | 4.2 | 2.00 | .16| .02|1.04 |2,406 Crackers | 10 | 1.10 | 5.3 | 1.00 | .09| .08| .71 |1,905 Macaroni | 12.5| 1.08 | 7.5 | .80 | .09| .01| .58 |1,328 Beans, dried | 5 | .28 | 3.5 | 2.00 | .35| .03|1.16 |2,868 Peas, dried | 5 | .26 | 3.4 | 2.00 | .38| .02|1.20 |2,974 Milk | 3 | .94 | 9.7 | 3.33 | .11| .13| .17 |1,030 Do | 3.5| 1.09 | 11.3 | 2.86 | .09| .11| .14 | 885 Sugar | 5 | | 2.8 | 2.00 | | |2.00 |3,515 Do | 6 | | 3.4 | 1.67 | | |1.67 |2,940 ————————————————————+—————+———————+———————+———————+————+————+——————+—————

The less expensive breakfast foods, such as oatmeal and cornmeal, are as economical as flour, and, as they supply heat and energy in abundance, as shown by above table, they should be supplied in the diet in proportion to the energy required. They are easily prepared for porridge, requiring simply to be boiled in water, with a little salt.

For invalids, children and old people, breakfast foods prepared in gruels and porridges are valuable as they are easily digested. All should be thoroughly cooked so as to break the cells enclosing the starch granules.

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=Predigested Foods.= Some foods are claimed to be partly digested and thus valuable for those with weak stomachs, but breakfast foods are largely starch and the gastric juices are not active in the digestion of starch. It is digested by saliva and the ferment diastase in the intestines. (Diastase is a ferment of saliva and pancreatic juice, which changes starch into dextrin and maltose, in which form it is more easily acted upon by the intestinal juices.)

Experiments with “predigested” foods do not show a larger proportion of dextrin, however, than would naturally be produced by the heating of the starch, as these foods are being cooked at home. The natural cooking at home makes starch more or less soluble, or at least gelatinized. As a result of these experiments, therefore the “predigested” argument is not given much weight.

Predigested foods, excepting in cases so weak as to be under the direction of a physician, are not desirable. Nature requires every organ to do the work intended for it, in order to keep up its strength, just as she requires exercise for the arms or legs to keep them strong. If an organ is weak, the cause must be found and corrected,—perhaps the stomach or intestines need more blood which should be supplied through exercise; or perhaps the nerves need relaxation; or the stomach less food; or food at more regular intervals.

Another argument against predigested foods lies in the fact that dentists hold that the chewing of coarse food is necessary to keep the teeth strong. For this strengthening of the teeth, children are given dry crackers and dry toast each day.

In the so-called “predigested” or “malted” preparations, malt is added while they are being cooked. Malt is a ferment made from some grain, usually from barley, the grain being allowed to germinate until the ferment diastase is developed.

There is no doubt that a number of foods, containing malt are valuable in the hands of physicians to assist in converting starch into dextrin or sugar, where diastase is not formed in sufficient quantity, just as pepsin is an aid in the digestion of protein,—but eaten indiscriminately, there can be no question that it is more important for the stomach and intestines to perform their natural work and thus keep their strength through normal exercise.

While they are not “predigested,” as claimed, they are, as a rule, wholesome and nutritious. They are cleanly, and made from good, sound grain and they contain no harmful ingredients. Some contain “middlings,” molasses, glucose and similar materials, but these are in no way injurious and have value as foods. The dry, crisp, ready-to-eat foods are especially advantageous because of the mastication they require,—this mastication insuring plenty of saliva being mixed with them to aid in digestion. A dish of such dry breakfast food, well masticated, together with an egg, to furnish a larger proportion of protein, makes a wholesome breakfast.

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=Cracked Wheat.= In America wheat is seldom used whole. In England the whole grain, with the bran left on, is slightly crushed and served as cracked wheat or wheat grits.

Wheat is also rolled, or flaked, or shredded. The majority of wheat breakfast foods contain a part of the middlings and many of them bran. Farina and gluten preparations do not contain these, however.

The preparations of the various breakfast foods are a secret of the proprietors. The ready-to-eat brands are cooked, then they are either rolled or shredded, the shredding requiring special machinery to tear the steamed kernels; later they are dried, and, finally packed, sometimes in small biscuits. Many preparations are baked after being steamed, which turns them darker and makes them more crisp. Some preparations are steamed, then run through rollers, while still wet, and pressed into flakes or crackers.

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