History of Butter and It's Global Culinary Influence

Butter boasts a rich and varied history that spans numerous cultures and civilizations, rendering it a significant component of global culinary heritage. From its earliest applications in ancient societies to its transformation into a thriving industry, butter has exerted a profound influence on culinary practices and economic structures worldwide.

In ancient Rome, butter served not only as a culinary ingredient but also as a medicinal remedy. The Romans acknowledged its potential health benefits and employed it for various medicinal purposes, thereby showcasing its adaptability and importance in early societies. Similarly, in India, ghee, a clarified form of butter, held deep cultural significance as a sacred offering to deities such as Lord Krishna. This illustrates how butter transcended mere sustenance to become intertwined with religious customs and beliefs, demonstrating its multifaceted role in diverse cultures.

Furthermore, biblical references to butter, such as its inclusion in a feast offered to visiting angels by Abraham and Sara, underscore its cultural and historical significance across a spectrum of civilizations.

The contrast between the culinary preferences and economic dynamics of the Mediterranean and Northern European regions is evident. While olive oil reigned supreme as the preferred cooking fat in the Mediterranean, reflecting a preference for lighter, healthier options, Northern Europeans heavily relied on butter as a primary fat alternative, leading to its widespread consumption and integration into daily diets.

The evolution of the butter industry in Northern Europe marked a pivotal moment in butter's history. By the 12th century, butter processing had become a thriving industry, driven by advancements in production techniques and rising demand. Scandinavian merchants emerged as dominant figures in the global butter trade, exporting substantial quantities of butter annually and establishing their economies as leaders in the field.

In conclusion, the enduring significance of butter in global culinary history cannot be overstated. Its varied usage across cultures, ranging from ancient medicinal applications to religious rituals, underscores its cultural importance and adaptability. Furthermore, the evolution of the butter industry in Northern Europe underscores its economic relevance and impact on global commerce. Ultimately, butter's journey from ancient civilizations to the present day exemplifies its resilience and enduring allure, shaping not only culinary traditions but also cultural and economic landscapes worldwide.
History of Butter and It's Global Culinary Influence

History of mascarpone cheese

Mascarpone is a triple-creme cheese made from fresh cream. Traditionally, this was made from the fresh milk of cows that have grazing pastures filled with fresh herbs and flowers. Mascarpone originated during the Middle Ages in Lombardy. Lombardy, in the northern part of Italy includes the cities of Brescia, Cremona, Mantova, Milano and Sondrio, and it has a rich agricultural and dairy heritage.

In the 1500s and 1600s, dairymen in the region became famous for selling fresh cheese curds, known as mascarpone. The name Mascarpone may have originated from the word “mascarpa” which is milk made from the whey of stracchino cheese, or from the word “mascarpia”, the local Italian word for ricotta.

Mascarpone is an ingredient in tiramisu. Tiramisu is the most classic dessert when people think of mascarpone cheese. It's a rich coffee-soaked cake with mascarpone cream and cocoa powder on top.

The word tiramisu literally means “pick me up”. It comes from the Treviso dialect, “Tireme su”, Italianized into tiramisu in the latter half of the 20th century. Historical records state that tiramisu originated in Treviso in 1800. It is said that this dessert was invented by a clever “maitresse” of a house of pleasure in the center of Treviso.
History of mascarpone cheese

History of Carnation Milk Company

Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company (later renamed the Carnation Milk Company) was established by Elbridge Amos Stuart at an existing factory located in King County, Washington, USA in August 1899. Stuart chose the Carnation name after seeing it used in conjunction with a display of cigars in a tobacco store in downtown Seattle.

The previous owners had been producing condensed milk – but when they went out of business Stuart took over the site. It made canned, evaporated milk for human consumption that was sold in grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1910 Elbridge Amos Stuart bought 350 acres of timber and brush near Tolt. He cleared the land, diked the Snoqualmie River to control its flooding, and bought a purebred bull and 84 registered Holstein cows as the basis for a research dairy herd.

By 1929, Stuart's was the largest herd of purebred Holsteins in the world numbering 700. Washington State produced 7,500 pounds of milk per cow per year which was the highest in the nation. Stuart's operation in the Snoqualmie Valley was a model dairy which employed 75 men year round. Stuart acquired the property of the Albers Milling Company and employed it to house the Carnation Farm research facility.

That was Cheese John who came up with the idea of sterilizing the milk by subjecting it to high temperatures, thereby creating the first commercially-produced evaporated milk. The Carnation made evaporated milk until October 1, 1954, when a switch was made to producing the Carnation Instant Milk that had been invented earlier in the year.

In 1985 the Carnation brand was purchased by Nestlé.
History of Carnation Milk Company

The origin of blue cheese and its history

Blue cheese is characterized by visible blue-green veins of mold throughout the interior and by a sharp, piquant flavor. Blue cheeses have probably been produced for a long time either deliberately or by accident before they were describe in writing.

Legend has it that the first mouldy cheese was discovered thousands of years ago when an absent-minded shepherd left his curds and bread in a cave while he was off chasing sheep.

The shepherd returned to find a moldy sandwich but was so hungry he ate it anyway. Since then, moldy cheeses such Roquefort, Gorgonzola, English Stilton and Danish blue have been developed by Europeans into gourmet fare.

Gorgonzola was the first Bleu-veined cheese to be mentioned in the literature, in 879, while Roquefort was describe in customs papers in 1070. Gorgonzola originated when an innkeeper in the Valsassina area, stored stracchino cheese in his cellar for a bit too long, and some developed a blue mould. He served regardless to the local cheesemakers who loved it and copied his method.

Stilton was not mentioned until the 17th century. It was Britain’s most famous blue cheese, named after the town of Stilton, where a busy stagecoach station on the Great North Road the enterprising landlord of the Bell Inn sold the cheese to appreciate travelers.

In Denmark, the production of Danablu and Mycella, Blue Cheeses from cow’s milk started in the 1870s. Denmark is known for its Danish blues or Danablu. This cheese was invented by Marius Boel, who wanted to create a blue cheese that as similar to Roquefort.

Although Boel started with this French cheese as model, the resulting Danish blue, is entirely different. Another Danish blue cheese is Bla Castello, which was developed in the 1960s.

In 1937 Experimentation Station of Iowa State University developed a process for making blue cheese from homogenized milk, which became the standard for the blue cheese industry and was used by the Fred and Robert Maytag to produce their Maytag Blue Cheese.

The earliest makers of blue cheese used bread to begin production of the distinctive mold and then waited patiently for the veins of mold to grow and spreads naturally between the curd.
The origin of blue cheese and its history

History and development of evaporated milk

Evaporated (condensed) milk, like sweetened condensed milk was first developed in the early 19th century and has been available as a canned product for well over a century.

French scientist Nicholas Appert, whose work on food preservation began in 1795, was the first person to evaporate milk by boiling it in an open container and then preserving it by heating the product in a sealed container.

In the 1860s, Borden and Nestle created an evaporated milk preserved in sugar. Patent dealing with preserving of milk after evaporation in a vacuum were granted to Gail Borden by the United States and England in 1856. These patents applied to concentrating milk without addition of sugar.

Milk in the 1850s was considered a child’s drink, highly perishable and likely to carry germs, Evaporating the water and condensing the milk, with addition of sugar yielded a safe, germ free environment resulting in sweet and condensed milk. Borden later added evaporated milk (sugar free) to his production. This new and transportable product became a staple for Civil War soldiers.

In 1884, US patent number 308,421 was issued for ‘an apparatus for preserving milk’ and in 1885, the first commercial evaporated milk plant in the world was opened in a converted wool factory in Highland, IL, where ’evaporated cream’ was manufactured and sold.

By the 1880s, a new technology allowed unsweetened evaporated milk to be produced from a fine curd and to be preserved without sugar.

Borden introduced a formula similar to Mead Johnson’s Dextri-Maltose in the 1920s. In 1927, William M. Marriot, a physician, first recommended the use of evaporated milk in the production in infant formula.
History and development of evaporated milk

Milk and milk products in United States history

Milk drinking was introduced in the 17th century in United States during early European colonization efforts. There was no indigenous dairy tradition, as Native American societies kept no large domesticated mammals.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado transported cattle with him when he explored the American Southwest in 1540 and reportedly turned some loose in the Mississippi River Valley. Spaniards brought cattle to Veracruz (Mexico) in 1525; English cattle reached Jamestown in 1611.

When the Massachusetts Bay Colony established a settlement around what would become Boston in 1630, 30 cattle accompanied with first colonist. Other stock was sent subsequently. Increased availability meant expanded usage. Milk was drunk, churned into butter and converted into cheese.

By 1650, dairy farming was so successful that the Massachusetts Bay Colony exported butter and cheese. From colonial times the dairy remained women’s work, including butter churning and cheese pressing, well into the nineteenth century long after commercial sales flourished in the public markets of seaports and river towns.

Dairy products sold by farmers in the early period were limited mainly to whole milk, farm made butter, and farm-made cheese. Prior to 1859, these products were produced mainly on farms.

Milk was probably not a major beverage until the late nineteenth century, when urban demand and technological innovations made a commercial milk supply possible.

Technical advances in milk processing and distribution brought hand-separators, milking machines, cooling equipment, and storage tanks to commercial dairy farms, while refrigerated tank trucks and glass-lined railcars by the 1930s carried milk to processing plants and profitable metropolitan markets.

Factory cheese production was in an experimental stage shortly before 1850, and made considerable progress during the next two decades. Although some butter as made in early cheese plants, the first commercial creamery was not established until 1861.

Milk and milk products in United States history

Sweetened Condensed milk in history

Sweetened considered milk is preserved by addition of sugar which reduces water activity to a point to most microorganisms.

After witnessing the death of children who drank raw milk from diseased cows during the long voyage across the Atlantic, Gail Borden Junior was determined to figure out how to make milk safer. He came up with a way to remove the water based on method the Shakers had used for extracting water from fruit juice.

He accidentally discovered that adding sugar to milk increases the shelf life, making it a popular choice for troops at military camps. Borden received the first patent for sweetened condensed milk in 1856.

The popularity of sweetened condensed milk began after it was shipped to troops during the Civil War. Up to the 1890s, sweetened condensed milk was long shelf-life format that was sold in hermetically sealed cans, while unweetened condensed milk was manufactured and sold open, largely directly to the consumer, in a similar way as market milk.

In the 1860s, the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company was established in Switzerland by then US Consul at Zurich, Switzerland, Charles Page and his brother George. Their first factory was built in 1866 at Cham, Switzerland.  
Sweetened Condensed milk in history

Buttermilk in history

Throughout history, buttermilk has been held to be a sovereign cure for a wide range of maladies.

Some of the historical records depict the development of a dairy system in ancient India. It is well known in ancient Indian history that buttermilk and ghee were widely consumed milk products during Lord Krishna’s time, about 3000 BC.

The Irish drink large amounts of fresh milk, sour milk, clotted milk and buttermilk and they used milk to make cream, curds, cheese, butter and buttermilk.

In traditional Irish cooking, buttermilk was never far away. It leavened the daily soda bread and served as the ‘whet’ who a plate of plain potatoes and salt. When Irish migrated to North America, the continued to keep cows and enjoy buttermilk.

With the advent of centrifugal cream separators in the 19th century, butter making produced ‘sweet’ unfermented buttermilk. For more than 100 years, cooks of south United States have been using buttermilk to make custard-like or cheese-style pies.

In Southern Food, John Egerton notes that Farm and Home Magazine published a buttermilk pie recipe in 1882.

Today, buttermilk is a cultured milk product which means that it is made by combining bacteria and milk to grow a culture. It is made by adding a special bacterial culture to low-fat or non-fat milk so that it thickens and develops a tangy taste.

Buttermilk is still important ingredients in traditional cooking, a vital agent for flavoring, baking, and marinating.
Buttermilk in history

History of Parmesan cheese

Parmesan is probably the most famous of all Italian cheeses. The history of Parmesan cheese dates back to the twelfth century during Romans times, when Italy’s Po River Valley was developed by Benedictine monasteries and later joined by Cistercian monks.

The Benedictine order was founded in central Italy in the sixth century and in the orderly and controlled environment of the monasteries, they made many agricultural advancements throughout the Middle Ages. 

During twelfth century the pastures of Emilia and Lombardy were carpeted with clover and lucerne, a delicious grassy with perky blue blooms. Both quickly fattened cows and were credited with increasing the volume of milk. They were important in the production of Parmesan.

Written records and literature from the fourteen century onward refer to grated Parmesan cheese, cheese that was already in wide demand abroad by the fourteen century.

Parmesan became the stuff of legend renowned for its taste and adaptability. King Henry VIII once received some top-flight Parmesan as a gift from Pope Julius II to secure his aid in a war against France. 

Bartolommeo Scappi, in 1570 reports that menus for the papal court regularly contain thick slices Parmesan cheese. Grated Parmesan has in fact become de rigueur for dressing pasta, mixed for those who can afford it – with costly spices, primarily sugar and cinnamon.
History of Parmesan cheese

History of dried milk

During ancient times, the warriors of Kidans carried dried milk products for use as military provisions. Tribes such as Khalha, Buriad and other western Mongol used cow’s milk to make aragoul or dried pellets.

The technologies used to make condensed milk and evaporated milk were applied in the early twentieth century to the production of dried milk powder.

Nicholas Appert, produced dried tablets in 1810. A patent for a dried milk process with sugar added was issued to a man name Birdeye in 1850 and in 1855 a British patent covering a milk drying process with issued to Grimwade and a number of other patent were issued.

In 1869, Henry Nestle perfected the process in Switzerland.

United States issued a patent for producing it in 1872. In 1899, Dr. Martin Eckenberg, of Sweden, developed a film drier operating in a vacuum.

In United Kingdom, sterile powder milk successfully marketed after 1900, when new technological process permitted large-scale manufacturing, it was first bought by a managerial, professional and artisanal segments of British society.

By 1907, the local milk stations began to distribute it in place of liquid milk, so that its use spread to the poorer workers.

In United States in 1895, candymaker Milton Hershey crated milk chocolate formula based on Swiss method of combining conched chocolate with powdered milk.

Whole and skim milk powders are commercially produced currently by spray-drying. Whole or skim milk is dispersed as fine droplets into stream of hot air and the bulk of the water evaporates in a matter of second.

By 1980s imported dried milk became a significant competitor in developing countries for people who lacked refrigeration.

History of dried milk

History of Pasteurization

History of Pasteurization
Pasteurization is named for the French scientist Louis Pasture (1822-1895). In 1856, 34 year old Louis Pasteur began his fourth year as the Head of Sciences at the University of Lille in France.

In the fall of the same year, Maurice D’Argineau, a local businessman, found Pasteur in his cramped corner lab.

D’Argineau’s consistent failure to make wine from his fields of sugar beets without it going sour was driving him to financial ruin. Pasteur was particular intrigued by the problem since it hinted at the involvement of one of his pet interests and he readily agreed to study the matter.

Although he first experimented with this process in 1862, pasteurization was not put to use until the early twenty century.

In the United States pasteurization was championed by Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975), a microbiologists who worked for the US department of Agriculture.

Evans suffered from a disease known as brucellosis (undulant fever) and in 1918 she discovered that brucella, the bacterium that caused her disease, could be found in cow’s milk.

Scientists eventually determined that brucella was not the only milk borne bacterium. Milk can harbor other bacteria – such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria – which can cause harmful and even life threatening infectious in the young, the old, pregnant women and the infirm.

Indeed, unpasteurized cow’s milk was a very common cause of tuberculosis, typhoid fever and salmonellosis.

Evans advocated on behalf of pasteurization for years after her discovery. Finally in the 1930s, milk pasteurization became mandatory under US law.
History of Pasteurization

History of Milk in England from late 16th to end of 17th century

History of Milk in England from late 16th to end of 17th century
From the late sixteenth century conditions of life for most country people began a slow deterioration under the impact of sharply rising prices, periods of dearth, and the beginning of enclosures in southern England.

Labourer’s probate inventories of the late seventeenth century now showed a steep fall in the numbers keeping cows except in the pastoral North, where 80 percent still did so, but in the Midlands the proportions fell to 31.6 percent, in the East to 21.9 percent and in the West to only 4.2 per cent.

For the southern labourer the traditional ‘white meat’ were now dearer and scarcer, and although the total number of cows increased in the seventeenth century more were now kept on large farms, where the milk was turned into butter and cheese for sale in the markets.

A growing urban market led to the expansion of commercial dairying in the vicinity of towns, especially London, as well as the practice of cow-keeping within the towns themselves.

Dairymen were normally both producers and retailers. In London, cows in Tothill Fields, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Islington and elsewhere were milk by milkmaids around 4 or 5 am, the milk carried in pails suspend from a yoke and either sold from fixed shops or hawked through the streets.

It was regarded as suitable for young children after weaning, old people and invalids, hardly for healthy adults, though whey was considered very wholesome and London had several ‘whey houses’, which were sufficiently fashionable to be patronized by Pepys: junkets and syllabubs – warm milk frothed over fruit, wine or spice- were also popular.

By end of seventeenth century milk was being added to the new, costly hot beverages tea, coffee and chocolate: tea was at first drink, Chinese fashion, without milk, but by 1700 milk or cream (poured in first to prevent cracking the delicate china) was usual, and the bitterness of coffee and chocolate was found to be softened by cream and sugar.
History of Milk in England from late 16th to end of 17th century

Process of Pasteurization

Process of Pasteurization
Pasteurization, named after Louis Pasteur (1622-1895), its originator, was originally used to treat wine and beer, but soon came into use to treat milk as well, when it found that heating milk for a short time to below its boiling point killed microorganisms.

Pasteurization destroys 100 percent of pathogenic bacteria, yeasts and molds and 95 to 99 percent of other, nonpathogenic bacteria.

The process of pasteurization also inactivated many of the enzymes that cause the off-flavors of rancidity.

In the United States pasteurization was championed by Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975), a microbiologists who worked for the US department of Agriculture.

Evans suffered from a disease known as brucellosis (undulant fever) and in 1918 she discovered that brucella, the bacterium that caused her disease, could be found in cow’s milk.

Scientists eventually determined that brucella was not the only milk borne bacterium. Milk can harbor other bacteria – such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria – which can cause harmful and even life threatening infectious in the young, the old, pregnant women and the infirm.

Indeed, unpasteurized cow’s milk was a very common cause of tuberculosis, typhoid fever and salmonellosis.

Evans advocated on behalf of pasteurization for years after her discovery. Finally in the 1930s, milk pasteurization became mandatory under US law.

The advantages to be derived from pasteurization vary with the conditions under which the milk is produced and the efficiency with which the work is conducted.

If the milk comes from dairies where disease and uncleanliness prevail, pasteurization will prolong the keeping quality of the milk and also materially lessen the danger from disease germs.

If on the other hand, healthfulness and cleanliness receive the exacting attention which prevails on certified dairy farms, nothing can be gained by subjected milk to the pasteurizing process.
Process of Pasteurization

History of Cheese

History of Cheese
According to an ancient legend, cheese was accidentally made by an Arabian merchant when he put his supply of milk into a pouch made of a sheep’s stomach when he set out on a long day’s journey across the desert.

The rennet in the lining in the pouch combined with heat of the sun caused the milk to separate into curd and whey. This story seems to have occurred approximately 7000 years BC in the so-called Fertile Crescent situated between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in Iraq.

The earlier records in Vedic hymms in India (6000 to 4000 BC), Egyptian records (4000 BC) and Babylonian records (2000 BC) clearly show references to milk, butter and cheese.

However it is believed that with the advance of civilizations, the art of cheesemaking spread via the Mediterranean basin to the rest of the world.

Witten history is scarce until the period of the Greek and Roman empires, when various authors left written evidence.

Greek records go back to about 1550 BC and Roman records to 750 BC indicating that milk and cheese were important components of the diet of these peoples.

By the beginning of the Christian era, milk and cheese were used as food throughout Europe.

Milking operations and the curding of milk are depicted in an early Sumerian frieze from El-Ubaid. A food material found in the tomb of Hories Aha (3000 BC) has been proven to be cheese.

A scene on the walls of a Ramesid tomb (100 BC) depicts goats being led to pasture and also skin bags suspend from poles. Such bags were traditionally used to ferment milk by nomadic tribes.

During fermentation, drainage of whey though cloth or perforated bowls allowed the collection of curds which when salted became cheese.

There was indications that that the cheese was made n England well before the arrival of the Romans.

Cheese was included in the offering of ancient Greeks to the gods at Mount Olympus, and cheesemaking was clearly well established craft at the time of Homer’s writing.

Homer in 1184 BC referred to cheese made in caves by the “Cyclops” Polyphemus from milk of sheep and goats.

Later, Herodotus, 484 to 408 BC, referred to the “Scythian” cheese was made from mares’ milk, while Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) noted that “Phrygian” cheese was made from the milk of mares and asses.

By the fourteen century cheesemaking was a considerably industry in Switzerland, but export was forbidden. At this time, a cheese market was operating in Gouda, Holland. It is reported that the first cooperative cheese factory was started at Voralberg in the Balkans in about 1380.

By 1500m it is recorded that the expansion of cheesemaking in England, France, Germany and Holland resulted in Italy losing its dominant position as a cheesemaker.
History of Cheese

History of Yoghurt

History of Yoghurt
It is believed that the ancient Turkish people in Asia, where they loved as nomads, first made yoghurt.

The first Turkish name for this product appeared in the eighth century as “yoghurut,” and the name was subsequently changed in the eleventh century to its present spelling.

One legend tells that an angle brought down a pot that contained the first yoghurt, while another source claims that the ancient Turks who were Buddhists, used to offer yoghurt to the angles and stars who protected them.

According to historian, yoghurt originates from Balkans. The inhabitants of Thrace used to make soured milks called “prokish” from sheep’s milk, which later became yoghurt.

In Bibles, it is recorded that when the patriarch Abraham entertained three angels, he put before them soured and sweet milk.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were also acquainted with preparations of soured milk.

The biography of Roman Emperor Elagabalus (204-222 A.D) mentions two recipes for soured milk.

Ancient physicians of the Near an Middle East prescribed yoghurt or related soured milks for curing disorders of the appetite.

Records also exist o the use of soured milks particularly yoghurt for preservation of meat spoilage during the summer.

Earlier writers of the Middle East mentioned the use of soured milks as cosmetics for Persian women.

One of the first industrial productions of yoghurt in Europe was undertaken by Danone in 1922 at Madrid, Spain. After World War II and particularly since 1950, the technology of yoghurt and understanding of its proteins have already advanced rapidly.
History of Yoghurt

The Origin of Milking

The Origin of Milking
For million of years, breast milk has been the first beverage. Replacement with animal milk carried tremendous implications and potential nutritional advantages.

The first irrefutable evidence for milking domesticated livestock and, by implication, human use of milk and the manufacture of dairy products, dates to approx 4000 BCE and is based on Stone Age rock art produced in the central Sahara region of Africa.

By 1500 BCE, milk use was widely distributed, and in India, many of milk’s qualities and already been described in the Charaka-Samhita.

“Cow milk has ten properties: sweet, cold, soft, fatty, viscous, smooth, slimy, heavy, dull and clear. Buffalo milk is heavier and colder than that from cow; useful to cure sleeplessness and excessive digestive power. Camel milk is rough, hot, slightly saline, light and prescribed for hardness in the bowels, works against worms... Milk from one-hooved animals (donkey; horse) is hot slightly, sour, saline, rough, light, promotes strength, stability, alleviates vata in extremities, Goat milk is astringent...”

Anthropologists, geographers and physicians have written on the physiologic and dietary implications of human using animal milk and use or nonuse o flavored particular societies.

With our ability to feed grass to livestock and the use of milk in its raw form or as fermented cheese, humans expanded into new areas of habitation and increased population density.

The majority of other human populations, following the standard mammalian pattern – lose the ability to maintain lactase production and therefore, cannot digest animal milks easily, a pattern evidenced by most Asians, West Africans, Southern European Mediterraneans and most Central and Southern American.

However, some human populations now maintain lactase production throughout their lives, a physiologic characteristic that links peoples and cultures as diverse as east African cattle pastoralist (the Masai, Suk, and Turkana) with northern European Scandinavians (e.g., Danes, Norwegian and Swedes).

Different cultures have widely diverging regarding the suitability of animal milks as human foods or beverages.

For some, it is question of identification: because animal milks are for the young of specific animal, it is wrong to mix these foods because the consumer may take on characteristics or the animal.
The Origin of Milking

Milk and Nutrition

Milk and Nutrition
Milk has been a staple of the diet of Old World temperate zone people since the agricultural revolution, approx 8000 BC. Milk is mentioned more than 20 times in the Hebrew scriptures (“…. a land flowing with milk and honey………..”) as a metaphor for abundance and wholesomeness.

Also, in one of the Islamic medicine tomes, we read: “Drink milk, for it wipes away heat from the heart, strengthens the back, increases the brain, augment the intelligence, renew vision and drives away forgetfulness”. Although they are not supported by contemporary standards those claim, nevertheless, illustrate the generally high esteem that milk has enjoyed throughout its history.

Milk is a thirst quenching nourishing beverage. For some segments of the populations milk became, and is still today, the principal source of almost all nutrients, with daily consumption of 5 – 7 L.

Nutritional science emerged only at the beginning of the 20th century and quickly recognized the value of milk in a balanced diet. Virtually all US government nutrition programs and nutritional policy statements for the last century have emphasized the importance of milk. As nutritional science grew, so also did the understanding of the composition of milk and of its many benefits.

However, during the past 30-40 years particularly, several factors have converged to alter perceptions of the role of milk in the human diet. These include:

• The emergence and promotion of alternative beverages (and the relative affluence that made their purchase possible),
• Medicine’s emphasis on treating nutrients as toxins (e.g., fat, sodium, cholesterol),
• Animal rights activism
• Still growing technophobia.
  

Milk and Nutrition