Abstract
THE public has been led to feel some anxiety concerning the effects of the present war bread upon national health and efficiency. Suggestion plays an inevitable part in such a connection. Certain untoward symptoms in individuals, for which some other tangible ciuse is not immediately evident, are liable just now to be ascribed on the slenderest evidence to the bread eaten. Once the belief in a deleterious influence has arisen, it is easy to understand how widely it may spread by suggestion. In the opinion of those best qualified to know, there would seem to be little basis for any such condemnation of the bread. It rests, nevertheless, with the Food Controller to obtain the best possible evidence concerning the facts, and we are glad to know that Lord Rhondda and the Wheat Commissioners have empowered a committee of the Royal Society to make a full and thorough investigation. This committee comprises some eminent medical consultants, as well as the physiologists who have been serving on the main Food Committee of the society. Its task is to decide whether the higher extraction of the grain can in itself be held responsible for any disturbance of health, and whether the admixture of other cereals with the wheat has produced a less digestible loaf, owing, for instance, to the associated difficulties in milling and baking.
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War Bread . Nature 99, 427 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/099427a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/099427a0