Daily National Intelligencer

The great art, therefore, of preparing food, is to blend the nutritive part of the aliment with a sufficient quantity of some light farinaceous substance, in order to fill up the canals, without overcharging it with more nutritious particles than are necessary for the support of the animal. This may be done either by bread, or other farinaceous substances, of which there is great variety, as will appear from the sequel.

People imagine, as the finest flour contains the greatest quantity of nourishment, that it must therefore be the most proper for making into bread, but this by no means follows. The finest flour comes the nearest to starch, which, although it may occasionally prove a good medicine, makes bad bread, (or certainly not the most healthful bread. Family bread, which is made by grinding down the whole grain, and only separating the coarser bran, is without doubt, the most wholesome.

The best bread I ever remember to have eaten, was called Meslin Bread, and consisted of wheat and rye, ground or mixed together, of about equal parts. This bread when well raised, and well baked, eats light, is of a pleasant taste, and easy of digestion. After using it for some years, I found that bread, made entirely of wheat flour, was neither so agreeable to the palate, nor so conducive to health.

All the different kinds of grain are occasionally made into bread, some giving preference to one, and some to another, according to early customs and prejudice. Some prefer bread made of the finest wheat flour, while others prefer a mixture. I have been credibly informed, that a great proportion of the bread used in the New England States, is a mixture of equal parts of wheat, rye and Indian corn, & it is thought by the physicians and inhabitants of those states, that a more strengthening and substantial loaf cannot be formed, and I heartily agree with them.

I believe there is no person who has made the human system his study, but will readily agree, that bread made of different kinds of grain is much more wholesome than when made of one only, as their qualities serve to correct one another. For example, wheat flour, being of a starchy nature, is apt to occasion constipation. Bread made altogether of rye meal, on the other hand, often proves too slippery for the bowels—and Indian also too hard and cold. Yet a due proportion of each makes the best bread. Bread made of barley, mixed with peas or beans, is very nourishing.

When potatoes, or boiled grain, are used, bread ceases to be a necessary article of diet. For a considerable length of time, I made it a rule not to eat above half the quantity of bread I used to do, and I found no inconvenience whatever from the change. Nay, I have known instances of persons relinquishing the use of bread altogether, without experiencing any change for the worse, in the state of their health.

A great part of the bread consumed is by children, and when the child calls for food, a piece of bread, being always ready, is put into his hand. Of many children this is the principal food, but it is far from being the most proper. Children are often troubled with acidities of the stomach and bowels, great quantities of worms, &c. all of which a too free use of bread helps to produce. In countries where children live almost altogether on potatoes, and other vegetables, cooked in various ways, they are much more robust and healthy, and freer from diseases. Rice, barley, oats, peas, beans, buckwheat, Indian and oat meal mush, all make very nourishing and excellent diet.

Such a continual and free use of bread is by no means living upon a saving and economical plan. Many excellent and wholesome articles of diet are much cheaper than bread. One bushel of potatoes, which costs forty cents, or the same amount laid out in good rice, would go further, and produce much more nourishment than a dollar's worth of baker's bread. Above one half the expense of living might be saved by a judicious selection of the articles of diet.

MEDICUS.