Milk as a source of lactose, vitamins and minerals.

Milk is an almost complete single food and the more important contributions milk and milk products make to our daily needs for energy, protein, calcium and certain vitamins are summarized in Table I. Besides its general role as an important component of the mixed diets eaten by most of the population, cow's milk has a special value in infant nutrition through serving as the source of most of the ingredients used in the preparation of infant milk foods. In this paper present knowledge of the role in human nutrition of the lactose, vitamins and minerals of milk is summarized and some indication is given of topics that require further investigation.