Supplementary value of vegetable-milk curds in the diet of children.

One of the most important food problems of India and the Far East in general is the provision of adequate amounts of milk and other dairy products in the diet of the people. The per cuput daily consumption of milk in India has been estimated at 5.4 oz. (Agricultural Marketing Adviser to the Government of India, 1950), which is inadequate as compared with the recommended minimum requirement of 10 oz. (Indian Council of Medical Research: Nutrition Advisory Committee, 1944). With the prospects of further increase in population, the milk shortage is likely to become very acute. With a view to making up the shortage in the essential constituents, especially protein, minerals and vitamins, various attempts have been made in India to prepare palatable and adequately fortified milk substitutes from soya bean, groundnut and other raw materials (De & Subrahmanyan, 1945 ; Desikachar & Subrahmanyan, 1949; Nandi, Rajagopalan & De, 1953). More recently a method for large-scale production of an improved type of vegetable milk has been standardized by Subrahmanyan, Moorjani & Bhatia (1952). Metabolic studies with albino rats have shown that the calcium in such a milk is well utilized (Moorjani & Subrahmanyan, 1950~) and that the calcium-fortified milk possesses a marked supplementary value to the poor rice diet (Moorjani & Subrahmanyan, 195ob). Extensive consumer trials carried out by us (unpublished) in several parts of India have shown that the lactic-fermented curd and buttermilk prepared from the vegetable milk are highly acceptable and, for practical purposes, indistinguishable from similar products made out of cow’s or buffalo’s milk. Feeding experiments conducted by us (unpublished) on thousands of children in different areas in Mysore and Madras States have further confirmed that the curd is easily assimilable and forms a good supplement providing about 250 mg calcium daily at an intake of 8 oz. curd. As further quantitative data are needed, a programme of feeding experiments with children was undertaken in a local boarding home to study the supplementary value of vegetable-milk curd to the diet.