WHY cow's MILK? 63 



we may desire to see the milk of some other animal 

 tried in its stead, for a long time to come cow's 

 milk will be the staple diet of a majority of bottle-fed 

 babies. It is computed that of the 18,000,000 cows 

 in this country, the milk of more than 5,000,000 is 

 used as milk,^' most of it in a raw state. What the 

 constituents of cow's milk are, and how it compares 

 in its chemical composition with the milk of other 

 species, we have already seen. There remain, how- 

 ever, some other important aspects of its use by man 

 as a food to be considered. 



Milk, by which is here meant cow's milk, is often 

 spoken of as though it were a perfect food. That the 

 milk of any animal is normally a perfect food for its 

 own yoimg is true, so there is no doubt that cow's 

 milk is a perfect food — for calves. But as a food for 

 human beings it is far from perfect. Milk contains 

 the four classes of nutrients necessary for man, 

 protein, fat, carbohydrates, and mineral matter, in 

 more nearly the correct proportions than any other 

 single food material. A quart of milk contains about 

 the same amount of nutritional value as twelve 

 ounces of beef or six ounces of bread. But the nutri- 

 ment is better balanced than in either bread or beef. 

 For while in the meat there is protein and fat, and in 

 bread protein and carbohydrates, milk has all three 

 in about equal proportions.*' 



The protein is present in larger quantities than the 



