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 "Food prepared by nature itself" - this is how the great physiologist IP Pavlov called milk. In the first months of a child's life, milk is his only food, which cannot be replaced by anything. When a child is 5-6 months old, milk alone can no longer cover all the needs of a growing organism, and the children are given complementary foods. But milk still remains the main product in the child's diet. Children who are deprived of milk or receive insufficient milk grow more slowly, develop worse, and get sick more often.
Milk should also figure prominently in the diet of schoolchildren. Food that includes milk on a daily basis ensures the normal growth of a teenager, helps him cope with school workload more easily and plays an essential role in the prevention of infectious diseases.
Milk is also an irreplaceable dietary product. It promotes the fastest recovery of strength after illness. Milk and dairy products should be included as an obligatory part of the daily diet of not only a child, but also an adult.
What explains the high advantages of milk and its exceptional role in nutrition?
Milk, like many other foods, contains the same substances that make up the human body, that is, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, mineral salts, vitamins and water. However, if you build a child's diet so as to provide the body with all the necessary nutrients, but exclude milk from this diet, the result will be unsatisfactory, the child will begin to lag behind in weight and height.
The point, therefore, is not only that milk contains all the nutrients necessary for a child, but also in the quality of these substances and in their ratio.
Cow's milk contains on average 3.3 percent protein, 4.7 percent milk sugar and 3.7 percent fat, 0.7 percent minerals, and about 87.6 percent water. In addition, milk contains vitamins, enzymes and some other substances, which, although they are in very small quantities, nevertheless play a very important role in nutrition.
Milk proteins, as well as proteins of meat, eggs, fish, are complete and provide the best conditions for growth and vital activity of the body. Milk protein is very digestible. Scientists have found that if you replace in
the child's diet is milk protein with another type of protein, even if it is complete, then the growth and development of the child slows down.
Milk fat has a melting point lower than that of a human body, and is found in milk in the form of tiny balls in a drop of milk the size of a pinhead contains 1,500,000 individual fat balls. Both of these properties of milk fat contribute to its high digestibility.
Milk also contains sugar. It is completely absorbed by the body.
The mineral composition of milk is very diverse. It contains potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, fluorine and other substances. The calcium of milk is of particular value. It is necessary for the building of bone tissue, the formation of teeth, the proper functioning of muscles, etc. Of all the minerals most often in the diet of a child, and an adult, it is calcium that is lacking, and milk and dairy products - cheese, cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt - rich in calcium, and in compounds that are easily absorbed by the body.
Milk contains almost all known vitamins. In baby food, milk is the main source of vitamins A and D, it also contains B vitamins, in particular, it is especially rich in vitamin Bg - riboflavin.Vitamin C in milk is not enough to meet the body's needs and therefore additional sources of it must be sought.
The amount of vitamins in milk is subject to significant fluctuations, depending on the season, feed and conditions of dairy cattle. Summer and autumn milk is 3-4 times richer in vitamin A than winter milk, and the latter is richer in B vitamins than summer milk.
Very valuable food products are prepared from milk: dry and condensed milk, cream, butter, cheese, various lactic acid products: cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, kumis, acidophilus and others.
Cheese and cottage cheese are rich in protein and are also a good source of calcium. Cream, butter and sour cream are mainly milk fat. By the way, many people have a misconception about the low nutritional value of skim milk and buttermilk. Meanwhile, after fat removal, almost completely protein, milk sugar and mineral salts remain in them.
Powdered milk is the best substitute for fresh milk in areas where the latter is insufficient. In terms of its chemical composition, it almost does not differ from natural milk.
Lactic acid products have a particularly high nutritional value. There is a saying in India: "Drink sour milk and you will live long." The well-known Russian scientist I.I.Mechnikov found that lactic acid products suppress putrefactive processes in the intestines, and recommended widespread use of yogurt as a means of improving health and combating premature aging.
Everyone is well aware of the dietary value of products such as kefir, koumiss, acidophilic milk and yogurt, which contain all the nutrients of milk in the most assimilable form and, in addition, regulate bowel movements.
With some diseases, as well as in old age, when it is not recommended to eat meat every day, dairy-plant food completely covers all the needs of the body.
We often underestimate milk as a drink when it is a necessary food. Milk and dairy products should be included in our daily diet as its most essential part.
In the directives of the XX Congress of the CPSU on the sixth five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1956-1960, it is proposed to increase the sale of milk and dairy products in 1960 in comparison with 1955 by 2.7 times.
Only about a year has passed since the Congress, and the whole country has already felt the significant successes that have taken place in agriculture, in particular in animal husbandry. The gross milk yield on collective farms has increased by 32 percent compared to last year. In 1956, the state procurement of milk in comparison with 1955 increased by 3.8 million tons. This makes it possible to supply the population much better with milk and dairy products, which are so necessary for good nutrition.
Associate Professor B. D. VLADIMIROV, "Health" magazine, 1957
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