Abstract
THE digestibility, in terms of energy, by human subjects of high-extraction meals (80-100 percent extraction) is less than that of flour of 70 percent or lower extraction. Recent work illustrating this is that of Macrae et al.1, who compared 73 percent flour with wholemeal (100 percent), and Krebs and Mellanby2, who compared 75 percent flour with a sample of National wheatmeal (85 percent). Unfortunately, there are no modern data on digestibility for meals between 85 percent and 100 percent. Older data exist3, and it is usually the practice to make the rate of extraction the basis for the comparison of the results of different investigators. In the accompanying figure, these data are plotted in this manner and the wide variation in the results is immediately apparent. In this article we wish to emphasize that in digestibility experiments or calculations on wheatmeals the practice of making the rate of extraction the basis of comparison is fundamentally unsound and may give rise to misleading results and deductions even though the experimental technique of the test meals, etc., is completely satisfactory. At a given extraction the digestibility must depend also on the composition of the wheat grist, the conditioning of the wheat and the method of milling.
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References
Macrae, T. F., Bacon, J. S. D., Hutchinson, J. C. D., and McDougall, I., Chem. and Ind., 60, No. 40, 723 (1941).
Krebs, H. A., and Mellanby, K., Lancet, p. 3 (March 14, 1942).
Newman, L. F., Robinson, G. W., Halnan, E. T., and Neville, H. A. D., J. Hyg., Camb., 12, 119 (1912). Rubner, M., quoted by Lusk, "Science of Nutrition" (Saunders & Co.). Royal Society Food (War) Committee, 1918.
Booth, R. G., Carter, R. H., Jones, C. R., and Moran, T., Chem. and Ind., 60, No. 52, 903 (1941).
Staff of Research Association of British Flour-Millers, NATURE, 149, 460 (1942).
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MORAN, T., PACE, J. DIGESTIBILITY OF HIGH-EXTRACTION WHEATMEALS. Nature 150, 224–226 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150224a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150224a0
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