Milk composition and its implications in the adult diet.

In the 50 years since the establishment of the Milk Marketing Board there have been startling changes in the lifestyle and eating habits of UK population. We have passed through an era when food was rationed and choice restricted, into one in which food is plentiful and restrictions are, in the main, self-imposed. The diet/health interrelationship is now focused not on deficiency but on excess. As a result, dietary guidelines based, in the midst of controversy, on a concensus of medical opinion have been issued to help the professionals, to help consumers to help themselves. Unfortunately, attempts to express these guidelines in practical terms have led many consumers not to evaluate their diet as a whole but to see it as composed of good and bad foods. Milk and a number of milk products have tended to fall into the latter category. Alongside this issue, there is concern about the adequacy of the diet of families of the unemployed and those on a restricted income. The erratic eating habits of older teenagers and the expansion of the wine, soft drinks, crisps, snack foods, 'take-away' and chocolate bar markets also give cause for concern. Milk composition and its implications in the adult diet will therefore be discussed in the context of the diet as a whole, bearing in mind current trends in eating habits and Department of Health and Social Security recommendations for the population in general. The changing role of milk and milk products in the UK diet In human nutrition, it is changes in patterns of milk and milk product consumption, rather than the slight changes in milk composition, that reflect the dietary significance of milk constituents. In the UK, the National Food Survey (compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) monitors the adequacy of the household diet, the nutritional contribution made by different foods, and differences between households of varying income, family structure and locality. However, there is an 18 month interval between collection of information and publication of detailed analysis. Table I shows that, in 1980, liquid milk remained the most significant of all milk products despite a gradual reduction in consumption since 1975 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, 1982). It also highlights the relatively high contribution of 'minor' nutrients from milk-while supplying only 10% total energy and 13% total fat, it contributed far more calcium, protein and vitamin B,. Cheese consumption altered little …