VALUE OF MILK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1940, Page 10

VALUE OF MILK

SCHOOL CHILDREN BENEFIT. RESULTS OF RECENT RESEARCH IN BRITAIN. Recent experiments on 8000 school children in Great Britain show that a daily ration of milk not only improves the physique and stamina of children and adolescents but also raises their standard of intelligence. They also show that the larger the ration, the greater the improvement. These features of research undertaken by the Milk Nutrition Committee are emphasised in the final report just issued. They have a special significance in view of the stress of wartime conditions. The committee, of which the Viscount Astor is chairman, is representative of the Government, the medical profession, the teaching profession and the Milk Marketing Board. The experiments extended over a period of some twelve months and the amounts of milk fed in school as supplement to the ordinary diet of the children were the same as those in the milk-in-schools scheme —one-third of a pint and, in some eases, two-thirds of a pint per head per school day. At intervals they were measured and examined by specially trained doctors and the teachers took special steps to assess the scholastic ability of the children. About a quarter of the children received only biscuits, of negligible nutritive value. This group served as the “control" in order to act as a base-line for the assessment of the physical and mental development of the milk-fed children.