BULLETIN 221] [APRIL, 1914. 



Ontario Department of Agriculture 



ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



Food Value of Milk and Its 



Products 



R. HARCOURT 



If the true nutritive value of milk and its various products were fully realized 

 they would be more appreciated and much more freely used. They are cheap, 

 palatable, easily digested, and highly nutritious. Excepting in the case of milk,, 

 and t!ien only in the case of infants and invalids, they are rarely used as an 

 article of the diet, but are regarded as a luxury to be used as a condiment. They 

 are, however, foods of exceptionally high value, and can very profitably be made 

 to take a more prominent place in our dietaries. 



FOOD AXD ITS FUNCTIONS. 



A food may be considered anything that when taken into the body will build 

 op its tissues and keep them in repair, or which is consumed in the body to yield 

 force and heat. It is used to form the tissues and fluids of the body, such as 

 muscle, blood and bone, to repair their waste, and, if in excess of the daily re- 

 quirements, it may be stored in the body in the form of fat for future use. When 

 food or body tissue is consumed in the system, the energy contained therein be- 

 comes active and manifests itself in the force or heat required by the body. 



To be a complete food it must contain all the constituents required by the 

 healthy growing animal. These are protein, fat, carbohvdrates and mineral mat- 

 ter. The protein compounds are necessary for the building up of new and the 

 repairing of the old tissue. When eaten in excess of what is thus needed they 

 may be simply burned to produce force. The body tissue when broken down also 

 yields energy. Familiar examples of protein are lean meat, white of egg, casein 

 of milk and cheese and gluten of wheat. The fats and carbohydrates are used as 

 a source of energy, and when eaten in excess of this requirement may be trans- 

 formed into fat in the body. Fat is found in meat, lard, milk, oils; and the 

 starches, sujjars and woodv fibre or cellulose form the bulk of the carbohydrates. 

 The mineral matter of a food is absolutely essential for the formation of bone, and 

 ifi also present in the tissues and fluids of the body. 



