The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-03-15
STANDARD FOR MILK.

Why should milk that contains
much cream be accounted the best?
Cream is only fat, and we do not rate
the food-value of meats solely by the
amount Of fat that they include, says
Literary Digest. DR.. ]. o. Gilbert,
writing in the Medical Record" New
York;, takes the view that this devo-
ito INTO ''rich" milk has no logical
basis. In our earnest search after
q fat milk, he says, we have probably
gone too far. We quote from an edi-
torial in ''The Hospital London. No
vember 17) which notes DR.. Gilbert's
opinion appreciatively:-
1.-The milk which is richest in cream
Is not, therefore, the most nutritious,
for the&ver simple reason that a
rich milk Is less easily digested and
absorbed than a milk in which the
fat percentage is low. AS far as its
other constituents are concerned, a
milk poor in fat is as valuable food
as milk rich in fat. The fat percent
age, the popular standard by which
milk is judged, is most valuable while
the proportions of the albIminoids,
sugars, and salts vary but little in
the different samples of milk. In 9TH
er words, While the energy-producing
and heat-givfng qualities of the sew
eral kinds of milk may be great or
little, the valuable proteid ingredients,
which go to the building-up of the It's
sues-the prime property of any food
remain very much the same in all
varieties Of cows milk. Thus thin
milk is for all purposes, save for en-
ergy and heat production, as valuable
a food as the so-called rich milk In
deed, it not infrequently happens as
the experimental feeding of young
growing animals has shown, that a
thin milk may prove, in the long run,
more flesh forming than a rich milk,
inasmuch as the former is less liable
to induce gastroenteric disorders. Let
us consider what this means. 1t
means, first of all, that the enormous
quantity of skim-milk produced in this
country could be turned to more econ
omical use than the feeding of animals
or the manufacture of ivory for table
knives and piano keys. The despised
skim-milk is valuable article of food,
capable of supplying many of the
wants of the organism, and from its
lightness and digestibility, peculiarly
suitable to those whose digestive pow
ers are debilitated. 1t means, that but
termilk, which can be had for the ask
ing almost everywhere in this 'coun.
try, is valuable food for men and
women, although at present utilized
only to feed pigs. Surely, if he is es-
teemed the greatest benefactor to the
race who can grow two grains of corn
where only one grew befc:e, in like
manner honor should be paid him who
rescIes a waste-product and trans
forms it into a valued article of a ma
TONS Diet
Is **
SIT may seem that this argument
runs counter to the experience which
has stamped itself upon the laws of
this country in such fashion as to
make the fat percentage the standard
for the estimation of the purity of milk
offered for sale. And it may be urged
that If a thin milk were legally sala-
BILE as 'unskimmed milk watering
could never be detected. This objec-
ton, of course, leaves out of sight
the fact that a watered milk presents
a lowered proportion not only of its
fat, but also of it's other solids"