HEALTH NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1931, Page 7

HEALTH NOTES

MILK. FOOD VALUE AND PASTEURISATION. v < (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. Certain writers claim that the races and nations of men which have done most in the development of the .world, and have shown the greatest physical strength and vigour are those which, bav© depended to the largest extent on milk and dairy products for their food. Therefore, the importance ol a plentiful and wholesome supply oi this article of diet cannot be over-es-timated. 5 The Safe Plan. Speaking generally, 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 vitamines promote health. If a child gets sufficient milk a clay with fresh vegetables, fruits, and has some meat, eggs, and cereals, he will have the necessary variety to give all the nourishment and vitamines 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.

Care of Milk in the Home. It is obvious that a food so valuable as milk deserves all the car© that can be bestowed upon it, especially gs 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 home-made dust-prooi 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 lias 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 ns “mosquito netting” cut large enough to cover the mouths of the different receptacles. To the edge of thoso circular pieces glass should be sewn, the weight of which will tighten the net over the edge. These net covers should be kept scrupulously clean.

Pasteurisation.. 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 to deseasy, cheap and reliable way to destroy these germs, discovered the process now known as pasteurisation. Milk is heated to a temperature of 142 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and is held there for 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 cold. Pasteurisation 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 ti*c amount of anti-iscurvy vitamin and destroys injurious germs. Except for the slight reduction of anti-scurvy vitamin there is no more objection to pasteurising milk than there is to broiling beefsteak. The milk remains just as digestible and just as nutritious as raw milk. It still retains also many of tbe harmless and hardy forms of bacteria which continue to grow and multiply so that the milk sours anc! curdles just as raw milk does although more slowly.

Pasteurisation can be effected in 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.