MILK THE PERFECT FOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22612, 2 July 1935, Page 5

MILK THE PERFECT FOOD

Speaking on human nutrition to members of the Royal Society, of Arts, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, professor of bio-chemistry at Cambridge University, and this year president of the Royal Society, had a good deal to say on the special value of milk. Apart from its necessary and obvious functions in infant feeding, he says, there is abundant evidence; not of the vaguer sort, but based upon sound experiment and observation, that milk is an exceptionally valuable food during the whole period of growth. It would seem, indeed, that, apart'from merits which would be expected from its known constituents: its high quality proteins, its richness in lime and phosphorus, and its (less abundant) vitamins, milk must possess some subtle qualities—perhaps due to some special association among the constituents —as a food supporting growth. It is well to know, adds Sir Frederick, that British educational authorities have fully recognised the value of giving extra milk to school children. Four years ago the practice was extended, and recently, owing to Government action, still more is reaching the schools. It is to be hoped, amid the great attention now being given to milk production, milk prices, and milk purity, that inquiries should extend to the question as to whether the existing methods of its distribution to the general public are the best possible. The composition and qualities of milk, representing as they do Nature’s own effort to provide a food complete in itself, support the modern claims concerning the complexity of nutritional needs. Of the many factors that recent research has revealed as essential, all, or nearly all, are contained in it. Its qualities are doubtless specially adjusted to the period of growth, but growth does not cease with infancy. In later periods milk can only constitute a portion of the diet, but it adds something of quite special value. ’