K . Maijala Livestock Production Science 65 2000 1 –18
3 Table 1
a
Summary of the composition of average cow’s milk in Finland Main component
Sub components Sub sub components or remarks
Name Water
86.8 Water soluble vitamins B, C
Lactose 4.8
Galactose Cannot be found elsewhere
Glucose Fat
4.4 Fatty acids
Short chained unique in milk Altogether c. 400 fatty acids
Glycerids Tri, di and monoglycerids
Phospholipids Lecithins in all animal cells
Sterols Cholesterol, important for brains
Vitamins A, D, E. K
Protein 3.3
c. 20 amino acids, of which 8 necessary for human Casein 80
c. 20 genetic types Whey proteins 20
b lactoglobulin, a lactalbumin, Serum albumin,
Immunoglobulin Proteosepeptones .
Microproteins Enzymes, hormones etc
Minerals 0.7 Macro minerals
Ca, P, K, Cl, Na, Mg
Micro minerals Zn, Cr, I, F, Fe, Cu, Co, Mn
Others Trace
Trace elements Enzymes, hormones, gasses, NPN compounds,
S binding component
a
Bold face 5 an important source of the vitamin mineral for humans.
decreases in the consumption of animal fats and upon valid scientific evidence, the goals and methods
products containing them in many countries. For for the development of milk production needs to be
specialists in animal production,who had studied the planned in sustainable ways.
value of these animal products comprehensively and who were also responsible for the long-term develop-
ment of their production, the situation appeared
2. Revolution of nutrition ideas by lipid
confusing. It was difficult to see how long time the hypothesis
new trends can survive and to what extent production should be adjusted to these new hypotheses, since
The hypothesis on the role of C and lipids in heart the permanent biological laws and the and the long-
diseases started to gain ground in the latter part of term needs of humans, which had led to mankind
the 1950s. General attention was paid to the possible using milk for millennia, were being challenged for
danger of animal fats, especially to milkfat. The the first time.
hypothesis was strengthened by a study based on The problem has been discussed in many interna-
FAO and WHO statistics, claiming that there was a tional meetings of agricultural scientists in the 1990s
strong association between estimated fat intake of six ´
see e.g. Serrano Rıos et al., 1994; Mantere-Alhonen nations and the reported incidence of CHD-mortality
and Maijala, 1995; Ravn, 1999. There is a need Keys, 1953. In spite of the fact that these results
continuously to follow the development of knowl- were based on biased statistics ch.4.1, the hypoth-
edge on the effects of animal foods on human health esis continued to thrive and stimulated a lot of
and to weigh these together with other aspects. In research along the same line and thus, affecting
this paper both aspects will be discussed, namely nutritional recommendations in many countries.
first the validity of the view that milk products are a The C and lipid hypotheses were especially wel-
cause of CHD and second the impact of this view- comed by medical researchers in Finland, where the
point upon milk production and society. Clearly people of North-Karelia province showed an excep-
there are important issues which need to be resolved tionally high incidence of CHD. A special project
to safeguard the well-being of our successors. Based was started in 1972, in which the population of that
4 K
. Maijala Livestock Production Science 65 2000 1 –18
province was given much advice including avoidance image of milk fat and milk and has led to extreme
of milk fat in daily food. The population of neigh- avoidance by people for whom many components of
bouring province was used as a control. The CHD- milk are important. Further the situation has been
mortality of North-Karelian men fell 41 in 1967– exploited by promoters of competing products.
87, and that of the control province 47. For women the figures were 25 and 34, respectively Puska
3.2. Unfortunate consequences of recommendations et al., 1983. The total mortality of men fell 2.3 and
2.2 1000 in 1972–77, and that of women 0.9 and The recommendations were in conflict with previ-
1.3 1000, respectively. It is difficult to understand ous ideas about the value of milk as a healthy
why these results have been used in propaganda foodstuff and its economical biological advantage-
against use of milk fat since then. ousness, which had been central to the development
However, there has been increasing criticism of of specialist dairy cattle production for a century or
the original hypotheses in recent years and complete more. However the new ideas, often exaggerated,
books have
been published
on the
subject have had considerable influence on milk production.
¨ Ravnskov, 1991; Werko and Olsson, 1991; Apfel-
Because of the decreased consumption, the product- baum, 1992; Mann, 1993; Gurr, 1999. There are
ion of butter in Europe has decreased by 29 in also many literature reviews including also positive
1980–98 Fig. 1. The opposite trend for cheese research results concerning the health effects of milk
1 35has not compensated in milk production, and dairy products McGill, 1979; Stehbens, 1989;
which has declined by 13, which means ca. 700 Muldoon et al., 1990; Blaxter and Webster, 1991;
million kg decrease in production of milk protein and Ulbricht and Southgate, 1991; Jacobs et al., 1992;
corresponding decreases in supplies of many other McNamara, 1992; Harper, 1993; Rosenman, 1993;
valuable ingredients of milk. Fig. 2 shows that the Sieber, 1994; Renner, 1995. Having in mind the
development has been somewhat different in differ- slow change in some sectors of animal production, it
ent parts of Europe. In Eastern European countries has thus become topical to consider the extent to
the fall became greater in the 1990s due to the which it is desirable to follow these ideas in choos-
political changes which also reduced cheese pro- ing goals and strategies for the development of
duction. In the Mediterranean countries both butter animal production in its different phases and sectors.
and cheese production increased. The decreased consumption of dairy products has contributed to
unemployment and economic depression in many
3. Dietary recommendations countries in the 1990s.
