BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD 45 



and its products are given a very high place, on account of their 

 high content of the different foodstuffs or constituents, and their 

 high degree of digestibility. A quart of average milk is consid- 

 ered by such high authorities as Sherman of Columbia University 

 to be approximately equal in food value to a pound of steak, 

 or eight or nine eggs. He is here referring chiefly to their heat 

 and energy value and high degree of digestibility. 



American cheese (a Cheddar cheese) may be regarded, in a 

 very large sense, as a concentrated form of milk, as it contains 

 most of the milk constituents, excepting the sugar. It has about 

 twice the food value of average meat. On this point Sherman 

 says " Generally speaking, cheese sells at no higher price than 

 the ordinary cuts of meat. It is a fair general estimate that a 

 given amount of money spent for American cheese will buy about 

 twice as much food value as it would if spent for meat." 



Altogether apart from a distinctive and most important 

 function which will be considered later, butter has a very high 

 heat and energy value a pound being equal to about five 

 quarts of average milk. It is by no means merely a relish, as it 

 has in the past been considered by many. 



We cannot here afford the space to discuss the food values of 

 the various other milk products, such as cream, ice-cream and 

 condensed milk. It will suffice to say that cream occupies an 

 intermediate position between milk and butter, combining the 

 features of both. 



BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS 



The High Value of Milk and Milk-fat under this Classification 



The biological study of foods based upon observations as to 

 the influence of various foodstuffs upon the growth and thrift of 

 animals has revolutionized our ideas with regard to problems 

 of nutrition, and has established the fact that the biological 

 classification of foods is the true one. In doing so it has shown 

 that milk and milk-fat have values as foods which, a few years 

 ago, were quite unknown, and which as yet have not been deter- 

 mined chemically or at least have been determined only in part. 



