They also have the pleasant flavor
and texture which we have grown to like.

Wheat is no better than any of the other cereals. It possesses
absolutely no nutritional advantage for man or beast over oats, corn,
and rye. It has no more protein, and no better protein. It has no more
fat and no better fat. 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. They did not know
the use of wheat as food.

Countries like France, which use their cereals chiefly for bread, are
the most dependent on wheat, since wheat is the most easily made into
bread.

In the United States cereals make up almost one-third of our food.
Although wheat in most parts of the country has been the main
dependence, we have used a much greater variety of cereals than most
people, so that it is comparatively simple for the majority to make
increased use of them.

The very poor must depend largely upon cereals because they can get
more for their money from them than from other foods. Cereals, to most
of them, mean bread. It is such a large part of their diet that doing
without it means a far more