Class 7 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Chapter 4 of McGuire – Finish Carbohydrates

Joseph Dixon ♦ February 12, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

There is class today, but attendance will not be taken and the lecture will be gone over very slowly and repeated on Friday for the most part. So if you have a long commute, don’t worry about attending. If you are near campus, come to lecture if you feel up to it. LOOK OVER THE LECTURE ON SAKAI AND READ THE TEXT. Exam 1 next Tuesday will only cover up to Chapter 4.

For most of Early Agriculture, grains were hand cleaned and ground using a mortar and pestle.  Below is a photo from Mensel & DAluisio 2005 “Hungry Planet;” Chapter on Ecuador, page 107

However, starting in about 1880, grains in the United States were ground using the steel roller milling machines.  This is from my book, “The Obesity Explosion.”

“The mechanical roller milling machine was invented in Hungary
in the 1860s and later improved in several countries in Europe.4
The new method, the “Hungarian method,” included finely
spaced steel rollers, that could be adjusted to grind wheat into
different flour grades. The steel rollers lasted longer than the
grinding stones and could be adjusted to produce the desired
product. Also, they produced less heat than the large grinding
stones, and therefore the flour was not damaged or discolored
as much. The steel rollers were still driven by water power, but
they were far more easier to operate. An exhibition of milling
machines was held in Vienna in 1875 and companies from the
United States attended the meeting and realized that they needed
to quickly adopt the new method. The mill owners even sent spies
over to Hungary to get information on their technology. German
and Hungarian engineers were brought to the U.S. to establish
the technology here. Minneapolis had become the main grain
milling center in the U.S.; with over 20 stone grinding mills using
water power from the Mississippi River. But the new machines
were so efficient that by about 1880 almost all the mills had been
converted from stone grinding to roller milling.”

If you wish to read about the development of milling, read: