A part of the digestion of the casein is performed by pepsin in the
stomach and a part by the trypsin of the pancreatic juice.
_Digestion of Milk._ The larger part of the digestion of the milk
sugar is performed by the pancreatic juice; yet it is partly acted
upon by the saliva. There is little chance for the saliva to act upon
the milk sugar in the mouth, however, as very little saliva is mixed
with the milk. This constitutes another objection to the diet of all
milk, and is an argument in favor of drinking milk slowly and holding
it in the mouth until it is mixed with saliva. It is one reason, also,
why children should be given bread broken in the milk, instead of a
piece of bread and a glass of milk. By swallowing the milk slowly, the
curds formed in the stomach are smaller and the milk is more thoroughly
digested.
When the fat (cream) is removed milk digests more readily, so that in
case of delicate stomachs _skimmed milk, clabbered milk or buttermilk_
are often prescribed instead of sweet milk. Boiled milk is also more
easily digested by some because of the lactalbumin which is separated
and rises to the top in a crinky skum. The casein is also more readily
digested in boiled milk, forming in small flakes in the stomach instead
of in curds.
When one takes from two to three glasses of milk at a meal, less
solid food is needed, because the required nutriment is partially
supplied with the milk. One reason why milk seemingly disagrees with
many people, is because they lose sight of the fact that milk is an
actual food, as well as a beverage and they eat the same quantity of
food in addition to the milk that they eat if drinking water. This
is the reason that milk seems to make some people bilious and causes
constipation. It is due to too much food rather than to any quality in
the milk.
Constipation may be occasioned by drinking milk rapidly so that large
curds are formed by the acids in the stomach, rendering it difficult of
digestion. The constipating effect will be overcome by lessening the
quantity of food and by the addition of limewater to the milk.
To prepare limewater put a heaping teaspoon of slaked lime into a
quart of boiled or distilled water; put into a corked bottle and shake
thoroughly two or three times during the first hour. Then allow the
lime to settle, and after twenty-four hours pour or siphon off the
clear fluid.
Barley water or oatmeal water added to milk also prevent the formation
of curds.
In young babes the milk is curdled, or the casein separated from the
water and sugar, not by hydrochloric acid, but by a ferment in the
gastric juice, known as rennin. It is the rennin, or rennet, from the
stomachs of young calves and young pigs, which is used to coagulate the
casein in cheese factories.
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