The Digestibility
of Breads

By Professor Harry Snyder

The Third in a Series of Articles by the
Russel Miller Milling Co.'s Chief Chemist

Some years ago the United States De-
partment of Agriculture made extend-
ed tests to determine the digestibilty
of different kinds of breads, made
from white, whole wheat and graham
flours, when these flours were all
milled from the same grade of wheat.
The details of the experiments and
the records of the individual tests cover more than 500
pages of government reports. The results are recorded
in United States Department of Agriculture Bulletins
Nos. 67, 85, 101, 126, 143, 156, and also in other bulletins and reports.
The writer of this article is familiar with these
tests, as one of the two series was conducted by him
at the University of Minnesota, and the other, using
the same flours, with different men for the digestion
of cereals , was made at the University of Maine under the
supervision oF Dr. C.D. Woods. This investigation
covered a period of 10 years under the supervision of
the office of experiment stations, United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture. A brief resume of the work is
herewith given.
As a result of this investigation it was found that
the protein and carbohydrates of the bread made from
standard white flour were more completely digested
and absorbed by the body than those of the bread
made from either the whole wheat or the graham flour.
Because of the greater digestibility of these nutrients
in the white bread than in the others, the white bread
supplied the body with a larger amount of available
energy, measured as calories, than either the whole
wheat bread or the graham bread.