MILK―OUR BEST SINGLE FOOD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 7

MILK―OUR BEST SINGLE FOOD

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the Department of Health)

of milk among our daily foods, we safeguard our diet in a way that can be done by no other single food: For children, milk has been found to be necessary in making bones and teeth. For straight, strong bones, for a well-built frame, the things required are Vitamin D (in fish liver oils), or else sunlight directly on the skin, together with salts of lime and phosphorus in the food. In cold climates it is impossible to get enough sunlight on the skin to make up for deficiencies of lime and Vitamin D in the food, particularly as the hours of sunlight are the times when children are sitting in a schoolroom. There are those who may think that a pint of milk per day is all that is necessary to make a child grow, but it has been demonstrated by several American doctors in numerous studies on children that for most ages the best B: including an adequate quantity

growth is secured when 134 (Imperial) pints are included in the food each day. On the strength of observations such as these, the Committee of Nutrition experts appointed by the League of Nations Health Organisation advised that 1% pints (1 litre) of milk should be the standard daily intake for children and adolescents, and indeed up to the age of 21; also for the expectant and the .ursing mother. Richest in Lime Milk is the food that is richest in lime. The farmer of to-day knows this, for he is nowadays: aware that "milk fever" in a cow is due to the sudden drain of lime salts from her blood into the milk. This sudden drain is caused by the rapid secretion of milk into the udder before her body has had time to adjust itself to supply the large amount of lime required. The farmer has witnessed the rapid cure that results from

injection of suitable lime salts into her blood, and has pronounced it better. than the older methods of treatment. Milk is indeed the only protein food which at the same time contains an adequate quantity of lime. Meat, though a good protein food, is deficient with respect to lime. Moreover, the lime in milk is utilised 50% better than that in vegetable foods. ‘ Milk is our best single food. Skim milk, which costs less, is a good food for children too, for it still contains the protein and the lime and ‘phosphorus present in whole milk. Costs may also be reduced by using skim milk powder for cooking-some children even prefer their milk drink, or their cocoa, miade with it. That children in England grew better with extra milk was demonstrated by the experiments of Dr. Corry Mann. That children similarly grew better in New Zealand when given extra milk was shown by the experiments of Dr. Ture bott and Mr. Rowland, upon the evidence of whose work the valuable Milk in Schools Scheme was instituted. A similar demonstration of the value of milk for children was conducted by H. D. Somerset, whose report on his experience with children at a school in North Canterbury has just been published. (Next week: "No More Diph« theria," by Dr. H. B. Turbott)