HEALTH NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 20617, 16 October 1928, Page 3

HEALTH NOTES

MILK. AN ESSENTIAL FOOD. (Contributed by the Department of Health.) Milk is our best all-round food because it contains in itself all the components of a complete dietary, and is produced in nature solely for the purpose of serving as a food. It has in substantial amounts representatives of the three essential types of foodstuffs, viz., proteins, carbo-hydrates, and fats. In addition, it is particularly rich in mineral matter, and is by no means lacking in vitamins or “accessory food factors.” Certain writers claim that the races and nations or men which have done most in the development of the world, and have shown the greatest physical strength and vigour are those which have depended to the largest extent on milk and dairy products for their food. Therefore the importance of a plentiful and wholesome supply of this article of diet cannot be over-estim-ated. Also milk is one of the most popular foods. The housewife finds it indispensable in the preparation of food for the family. The dairy farmer makes it into butter, cheese, and other nutritious milk products, essential for the support of life. Another important merit of milk is its readiness for use. There are many foods that can be put on the table with little or no preparation, each of them useful for one purpose. But milk is the only all-purpose food that comes to us ready for use and requires no preparation. Milk is suitable for grown people as well as for children, and helps to secure an efficient and well-balanced ration. The daily amount best suited to any individual naturally varies with the amount and kind of other food he takes. The Safe Plan, Speaking generally, however, the safe plan is to drink plenty of milk and use it freely in cooking. While it is a great help to men and women who want to keep strong and vigorous and youthful, it is especially valuable for the sick and aged. For growing children it is an absolute necessity. Its proteins and its rich supply of certain vitamins promote health. If a child gets sufficient milk a day with fresh vegetables, fruits, and some meat, eggs, and cereals, he will have the necessary variety to give all the nourishment and vitamins he needs. However, it should not be used as an exclusive diet, except in early infancy. Unfortunately some families give their children tea and coffee instead of milk. Tea and coffee are nothing more than stimulants. They are not foods in a true sense. They do not nourish. As stimulants they are sometimes useful to adults, but children are better without them. Though milk may cost a little more than it used to, so do many other things, some of which affect its price, such as cattle feed, farm labour, and transportation. But even so milk is cheap in comparison with other foods of much less nutritious value, and therefore cutting down the milk bill is poor economy. Care of The Milk In The Home. It is obvious that a food so valuable as milk deserves all the care that can be bestowed upon it, especially as from the very nature of its composition it is particularly fitted to be a breeding ground for organisms. In view of this, therefore, milk should be carefully handled in the home. It should be kept in the coolest place available preferably in some simple form of homemade dust-proof cooler. Access of dust should be avoided, chiefly by ensuring that the house is as free from dust as cleanliness can make it. The milk should always be put in clean vessels; a jug which has held milk should be rinsed out, first in cold water and then washed in hot water and soda, and for babies’ milk it should certainly be finally scalded with boiling water and placed upside down without drying on a rack to drain. A good method of protecting milk in jugs or bottles is to make net covers of white material known as “mosquito netting” cut large enough to cover the mouths of the different receptacles. To the edge of those circular pieces glass beads should be sewn, the weight of which will tighten the net over the edge. These net covers should be kept scrupulously clean. Pasteurization The germs of disease get into milk so easily that some reliable way to purify the milk is essential. The scientist, Pasteur, who saw the need of an easy, cheap and reliable way to destroy these germs, discovered the process now known as pasteurization. Milk is heated to a temperature of 142 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and is held there 30 minutes, a higher temperature or a longer time is not necessary; a lower temperature or a shorter time may not kill the harmful bacteria. Then, after the milk has been heated in this manner it must be chilled immediately and kept chilled immediately and kept cold. Pasteurization does not make poor milk rich or dirty milk clean, its only object is to destroy injurious germs. It neither harms nor improves the milk itself, except that it lessens the amount of anti-scurvy vitamin and destroys injurious germs. Except for the slight reduction of anti-scurvy vitamin there is na more objection to pasteurizing milk than there is to broiling beef-steak. The milk remains just as digestible and just as nutritious as raw milk. It still retains also many of the harmless and hardy forms of bacteria which continue to grow and multiply so that the milk sours and curdles just as raw milk does although more lyPasteurization can be effected m the home by heating the milk in a doubleboiler keeping it between 142 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit for three-quarters of an hour. If you have no thermometer bring the milk just to the boiling point to make sure the harmful germs are killed, then chill it quickly and keep it cold and covered.