MILK AS FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 17

MILK AS FOOD

OUR MINIMUM NEEDS

WHY CARE IS REQUIRED

As Josh Billings (Henry W. Shaw) once said: "The subject of my lecture is milk—plain milk. The best thing I have ever seen on milk is cream," writes Dr. Irving S. Cutter in the "Chicago Tribune." From our point of view cream is important, but it is not the most useful constituent of lacteal lluid. - Nature's ideal food is milk. In fact, it is the only article of diet that has no other purpose.' Plants produce fruits so that birds and animals may be attracted and the seeds thus disseminated widely. All of which is designed to perpetuate.the species. The new babe feeds on his mother's milk, and there is no food or combination of foods quite so palatable or so easily digested. Fov the healthy adult, however, milk is entirely unsuitable unless it is reinforced with other foods. That is, no grown man or woman can live, work, and carry on normal activities through the use of milk alone. It contains too much water in proportion to its nutri' tional elements, and too large an amoiml would be required to supply the needed energy, iron, and vitamins. Again, it leaves no indigestible residue, a certain amount of which is required for the functioning of the intestinal tract. No! Nature has provided us.with teeth, which is the best possible proof that we should eat chewable foods soon after dentition begins. MOSTLY WATEK. What is milk? Only 13 per cent, is f oor j_the balance, water. The solid material is a peculiar type of protein called casein, which contains certain minerals. Fat occurs in tiny globules —an emulsion —and constitute about 4 per cent, of the total, while the carbohydrate is milk sugar. We cannot depend upon milk for iron nor for vitamins C or D. For the former, egg yolk or some iron containing vegetable; for the latter, orange juice and cod liver oil must be given. • . ; What about its digestibility? . Many of us think of milki as a fluid, but it really is a solid. As soon, as it reaches the stomach it is coagulated by the ferments of the gastric juice. This is the reason that every one is" cautioned to drink milk slowly, so that the-curds shall be small and thus more readily mixed with the digestive fluids. Those to whom it gives distress are prob-1 ably milk bolters—to get it over with. No article of food calls for quite so much care in handling and marketing. Bacteria love it and are happy when they are able to gain access to this rather superior culture medium. This means that its purity must be safeguarded at all points—from the animal that produces it to the consumer—| with the strictest sanitary precautions, j It should come from healthy animals and milking should be done under as clean conditions as it is possible to provide. Dirt from the udder or from the hands or clothing of the milker is a ready surce of impurities. , ROLE OF PASTEURISATION. In many communities tuberculin tested cows are demanded. At any rate, pasteurisation provides a protection much must not be . disregarded. 'By this process the milk is heated to a temperature at which disease-producing organisms are destroyed, although their spores (seeds) are not killed. If the milk is cooled promptly, kept cool, and consumed within a day or two, putrefaction . organisms . will not develop. But few can tell the difference between pasteurised and unpasleuriscd milk as far as taste is concerned. Every child should consume approximately one quart of milk a day, and. every adult at least a pint. We must recall that it is our principal source of calcium and phosphorus, and it must be free from disease-producing bacteria. Even though pasteurisation is practised we must remember that it is .carried out by huhian hands and is, therefore, subject; to error. ■ Unless clean or pasteurised cow's milk is available it is far wiser to use I evaporated milk, even though the taste iis not quite so inviting. This is whole milk from which about 40 per cent, of the water has been driven off