It has no better mineral salts and in no larger
amounts. It has no more fuel or better fuel. It is just _one_ of the
cereals, and there is not the slightest evidence that it is the best
one. It has merely become one of our habits.
Corn and wheat and the other cereals are just as well digested if
equally well prepared. A soggy piece of wheat bread may, of course,
be less readily digestible than a well-made piece of corn-bread, but
that is a question of skill in cooking, not of difference in cereals.
Complaints have been heard in England about the war bread. It is true
that it may be hard on those of frail digestive powers to change their
food habits in any way, but Hutchison, an eminent London physician, in
tracing down complaints, found that frequently people laid to the new
bread ailments from which they had suffered before the war. "When in
doubt, blame the war bread," seemed to be the motto.
THE SOCIAL IMPORTANCE OF CEREALS, ESPECIALLY WHEAT
The world eats more cereals than any other kind of food. They are
so widely available, so cheap and nutritious, that they are a main
reliance of the human race. A shortage is always extremely serious.
Not only is an abundance important, but an abundance of the accustomed
kind. In parts of India, the inhabitants use rice as almost the only
cereal. When the rice-crop failed some years ago, thousands of people
died of starvation with a supply of wheat available.
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