the comfort of it,
almost perfect digestion of every particle. We have been brought up on it
and it is a hardship to change our food habits. It takes courage and
resolution. It takes visions of our soldiers crossing the seas to defend
us from the greedy eye of militarism and thereby deprived of so many
things which we still enjoy. Shall we hold back from them the "staff of
life" which they need so much more than we?

Can we live without wheat? Certainly, and live well. We must recognize the
scientific fact that no one food (with the exception of milk) is
indispensable. There are four letters in the food alphabet: _A_, fuel for
the body machine; _B_, protein for the upkeep of the machinery; _C_,
mineral salts, partly for upkeep and partly for lubrication--to make all
parts work smoothly together; _D_, vitamines, subtle and elusive
substances upon whose presence depends the successful use by the body of
all the others. These four letters, rightly combined, spell health. They
are variously distributed in food materials. Sometimes all are found in
one food (milk for example), sometimes only one (as in sugar), sometimes
two or three. The amounts also vary in the different foods. To build up a
complete diet we have to know how many of these items are present in a
given food and also how much of each is there.

Now, cereals are much alike in what they contribute to the diet. In
comparing them we are apt to emphasize their differences, much as we do in
comparing two men. One man may be a little taller, a little heavier, have
a different tilt to his nose, but any two men are more alike than a man
and a dog. So corn has a little less protein than wheat and considerably
less lime, yet corn and wheat are, nutritionally, more alike than either
is like sugar.

None of the cereals will make a complete diet by itself. If we take white
bread as the foundation, we must add to it something containing lime, such
as milk or cheese; something containing iron, such as spinach, egg yolk,
meat, or other iron-rich food; something containing vitamines, such as
greens or other vitamine-rich food; something to reenforce the proteins,
as milk, eggs, meat, or nuts. It is not possible to make a perfect diet
with only one other kind of food besides white bread. It can be done with
three: bread, milk, and spinach, for example.

If we substitute whole wheat for white bread, we can make a complete diet
with two foods--this and milk. We get from the br