It contains fat. A pint of milk has a little more than half an
ounce--the same amount as an ordinary serving of butter. By drinking
milk we can save fat as well as meat.

Milk-sugar is also present, more or less like ordinary sugar, but
not so sweet. The sugar, the fat, and part of the protein burn in
the body, giving the energy needed for the body's activities. A pint
gives as much fuel as 4 eggs, or half a pound of meat, or 3 or 4 large
slices of bread. Although bread is cheaper fuel than milk, its economy
compared with meat or eggs is obvious. The pint of milk costs usually
about 7 cents, while the eggs and meat cost at least two or three
times as much. The economy of substituting milk for at least part of
the meat in the diet is plain. It is the advice of an expert to "let
no family of 5 buy meat till it has bought 3 quarts of milk."

But this is not the whole story of milk. Milk is extraordinarily rich
in calcium, commonly called lime, necessary for the growth of the
bones and teeth and also important in the diet of adults, even though
they have stopped growing. No other food has nearly as much. A pint
has almost enough calcium for one entire day's supply. It takes 2¼
pounds of carrots to give the same amount, or 7 pounds of white bread
or the impossible quantity of 21 pounds of beef! A diet without milk
(or cheese) is in great danger of being too low in calcium, especially
a meat-and-bread diet without vegetables.

Among the most necessary constituents of milk are the two vitamines.
One is present chiefly in the fat and the other in the watery part
of the milk. Without milk fat, in whole milk or in butter, we run
considerable risk of having too little of the fat-soluble vitamine.
The other vitamine is more widely distributed in our foods, so that