SKIM-MILK AS FOOD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 80, 16 January 1936, Page 8

SKIM-MILK AS FOOD.

LOSS OF MINERAL MATTER. CONSTITUENT FOR BREAD. "The attitude of the people of New Zealand to the use of milk is certainly anomalous. The consumption of whole milk is very low, but that of butter reaches the high figure of 391 b per head per annum, equivalent to 40 grammes of butter-fat per day. This amount of butter-fat would be derived from about pints of milk. This means that the average New Zealander consumes the fat from l'i pints of milk a day, and discards the skim-milk, or, in other words, for each ounce of fat consumed, 2|oz. of food, consisting of protein, sugar and mineral matter, is rejected. Tllo rejection of this skim-milk is probably as gross a dietetic error as to consume only the skim-milk and discard the fat." .... , ~ ..

Thus Mr R. L. Andrew, of the Dominion Laboratory, writing in the "Journal of Science and Technology," introduces a discussion on the increased use of skim milk as a food.

Without doubt, he says, the average diet in New Zealand is deficient Both qualitatively and quantitatively in mineral matter. In If pints of milk there are about 7.5 grammes of mineral water of which 2.2 grammes are phosphoric acid and 1.5 grammes lime.: Hutchcson gives the average as from 3to 4 grammes and from 1 to B grammes a day respectively.; It 5s therefore, very probable that !J pints of milk a day would supply a considerable proportion of the phosphoric acid'and the whole of the lime required. It has also to be remembered that milk is rich in other minerals (required in nutrition. It is, therefore, evident that tho mineral deficiency of our diet could bo almost entirely corrected if each person consumed the skim-milk produced in making his butter. In what form could this skim-milk be used? Except in special circumstances, skim-milk could not be sold as liquid, for it would be too bulky and difficult to supply fresh. Sweetened condensed milk would not be suitable owing to the excess of sugar: The most satisfactory form is that of skim-milk powder. It >is convenient to use and store and keeps indefinitely. The question now arises, how is this skim-milk to be used? An obvious and increasing use for skim-milk is as a constituent of white bread. The principal objection to white bread is that it is deficient in mineral matter. Apart from added salt, ordinary white bread contains about 0.3 per cent of mineral matter, of which half is phosphoric acid and one-twentieth lime, so that it is deficient in total mineral matter and proportionally very deficient in . lime. Milk, on tho other hand, contains 0.75 per cent of minerals, of which onequarter is phosphoric acid and onefifth lime. Recent 'work has shown that wheat and other cereals are unsuitable as sole sources of protein, but that this can be corrected by the protein of milk.