What Milk Should You Consume? : This article is about what kind of milk you should include in your diet to stay young and healthy for a long time.
MILK, man's first and oldest beverage, has taken on a new form that puts it in the front ranks of concentrated protective foods. I refer to dry skim milk-the new process powdered milk-an inexpensive, readily digested, high-protein food that is handy to use and short on calories.
Unfortunately, the old roller processed milk, dried and ground between hot rollers, had a slightly brown cast and settled out when made into beverages. It was unsatisfactory except for baking. Its taste-its smell, too-was somewhat remote from that of fresh milk. As a result, the term 'powdered milk' may cause some persons to turn up their noses and protest, 'That's not for me!'
But the new spray-processed skim milk is an entirely different and wholly satisfactory product. Liquid milk is dried by being sprayed into compressed air; and the milk solids come out with the fine, smooth texture of face powder. The color is beautifully white with a faint greenish cast caused by the high-concentration of riboflavin. The flavor of the new dry skim milk is mild and delicate, and its faint smell resembles that of sweet dried coconut.
I must confess to taking a few liberties with history when I say that dried milk is 'new.' Actually, long before the birth of Christ the ancient Egyptians prepared a concentrated milk by drying it in the sun. And the sturdy Mongol horsemen who made up the invading armies of the conqueror Genghis Khan were supplied with sun-dried milk as a concentrated marching ration that would assure them the full nourishment necessary for their strenuous campaigns. So we're a few centuries late in learning that dried milk is a wonderfully concentrated food. If everyone in this country were to use this economical food in their daily diet, it could overcome the widespread deficiencies of protein, calcium and riboflavin which afflict thousands upon thousands of persons, causing them to fall ready victims to aging diseases.
Did you know that the addition of even so little as a table-spoonful of powdered skim milk to your daily servings of food would be a worthwhile contribution to your Eat-and-Grow-Younger program?
Did you know that less than one-half cup of powdered skim milk contains all the nutrients found in a quart of fresh skim milk?
Did you know that powdered skim milk contributes far more to your health than either whole fresh milk or cream because it is so highly concentrated?
Did you know that powdered skim milk is tolerated by persons who find whole fresh milk hard to digest?
Did you know that the highly concentrated amounts of protein, calcium and riboflavin in dry skim milk can help prolong your 'prime of life,' and aid you in retaining a sexual youthfulness?
Did you know that there are no nutritional values in yogurt over ordinary buttermilk or sour milk? If you like yogurt for its distinctive taste, then by all means use it, for it's a good milk product. But if you find its price a little above your pocketbook, then ordinary buttermilk or soured fresh milk will give you the same nutritional benefits, particularly lactic acid, as the more expensive yogurt. Also, dry skim milk made into a liquid, with lemon juice added to sour it, makes a sour milk that is good to drink and excellent for cooking.
These milk facts should be known to everybody, since milk is one food about which much myth and misconception has been built up throughout years of propagandizing by the dairy industry.
Milk, we have been told repeatedly for decades, is a 'perfect food,' and a 'complete food.' Like much other propagandizing, these statements are but half-truths. Sweet milk is not a 'perfect food' for anyone who cannot digest it properly. Nor is sweet milk a perfect food when taken at mealtime by persons whose digestive juices are not acid enough to properly digest the protein foods eaten. Because sweet milk has an alkaline reaction in the stomach, when taken by the glassful at mealtime it tends to counteract the natural acidity of the hydrochloric acid in our digestive juices. Many persons who had thought they suffered from 'chronic dyspepsia' have discovered that their symptoms vanished completely after they ceased drinking sweet milk with their meals. If you like the flavor of fresh sweet milkand it does not lie in your stomach like a handful of puttythen by all means enjoy it, but between meals, and never at mealtime, especially if you have long since celebrated your thirtieth birthday.
Buttermilk as a mealtime beverage is quite a different matter, because its high lactic acid content actually promotes the digestion of proteins and iron-containing foods.
If you'll only stop to think for a minute, you'll realize that nature provided sweet milk for the suckling young animal, unable as yet to masticate solid foods. Nowhere in nature do you find any animal, except man, mixing fresh sweet milk with solid protein foods.
Another mistaken belief popularly held about fresh milk is that the 'richer the milk, the better.' Nothing could be farther from the truth. The protein, minerals and vitamin B-complex (riboflavin and thiamin mainly) are all contained in the skim milk, not in the cream.
Many mothers, for instance, make the mistake of purchasing the richest milk they can find for their children. Yet, instead of gaining in weight and health, their children actually lose weight and have little appetite. The reason for this is that the cream in the rich milk satisfies their appetites too quickly, taking away the desire for larger quantities of other foods containing richer sources of protein, minerals and vitamins. However, i£ the children were given a less rich milk, not only would they drink more of it, but they would eat more heartily of the protective foods. The same holds true for any age.
In many persons the undigested £at in too rich milk combines with calcium, thereby preventing this vital mineral from reaching the bloodstream. When this happens, a serious calcium deficiency, with all its aging discomforts and ailments, is likely to result-despite the most earnest of efforts to 'drink plenty of milk for calcium.'
And, to make matters worse, the combination of fat-and-calcium forms a sort of hard soap in the intestines, causing a hard-to-overcome type of constipation. Perhaps you are one of the many persons who find rich whole milk 'binding.' I£ so, that is the explanation.
Regardless of whether or not your weight is normal, dry skim milk is the best sweet milk for you.
If you want to gain weight, dry skim milk, used liberally, will provide extra amounts of the protein, minerals and vitamins, lack of which probably caused you to be underweight in the first place.
If, on the other hand, overweight is your problem, and yours should be a reducing diet, then dry skim milk is equally good. Liberal amounts of this powered skim milk can be used without making your calorie count jump up like the thermometer on a hot day. This milk can be incorporated into your reducing menu in a number of flavorful and appetite-satisfying ways. Moreover, the highly concentrated protein in this type of milk
is a valuable aid to a high-protein reducing diet, since the more protein you eat (without adding calories) the more quickly your sluggish thyroid gland can be prodded into taking over and bringing your body weight back to normal.
