The casein in cow's milk is coagulated by the hydrochloric acid of the stomach, which forms into lumps or curds, rather difficult to digest. This can be overcome or counteracted in several ways. First, if milk is allowed to sour or clabber, the casein is coagulated by nature, which is really the first process of digestion. In this form it neither burdens the digestion nor causes the supersecretion of hydrochloric acid, which is likely to occur when sweet milk is too liberally used. Second, the sipping and thorough insalivation of milk, by taking it into the mouth with something that requires thorough mastication, insures better digestion and assimilation, and less liability to produce intestinal gas.
Milk will harmonize chemically with all non-acid fruits, cereals and nuts. Milk is in chemical harmony with meat and eggs, but all of these articles being highly nitrogenous, when taken at the same meal, the portions should be limited to the minimum.
Milk should not be combined with acid fruits, especially those of a highly acidulous character, such as lemons, limes, grapefruit, pineapples, etc. (See Lesson VIII, Vol. II, p. 314.) Neither should it be taken at the same meals with succulent plants, such as lettuce, watercress, romaine, parsley, etc.
Milk for sour or acid stomach
When the stomach has long been over-burdened with food, and made the receptacle in which acid fermentation has taken place until the mucous membrane has become irritated or probably ulcerated, there is no food so acceptable as milk. For the common disorder of hyperchlorhydria, which is a term used to describe a condition of chronic sour stomach or supersecretion of hydrochloric acid, milk is one of Nature's best counteractive food nutrients. (See "Superacidity," Vol. II, p. 418.)
In cases of severe constipation or alimentary congestion, milk should be given as follows:
Milk diet for constipation
Omit breakfast. Begin about 9:30 taking an ordinary glassful of fresh, cool milk every twenty or thirty minutes, until about one and one-half quarts have been consumed. After two or three hours, repeat the same process until about two quarts more have been taken. With each quart of milk, from three to four heaping dessert-spoonfuls of clean, wheat bran should be taken, in thin cream or rich milk. At noon and at evening a few tablespoonfuls of coarse cereal (wheat or rye flakes), might be eaten. They should be masticated thoroughly, and eaten with nuts and a limited quantity of cream. Under this regimen I have known the most severe cases of constipation to yield readily, and the patient to make a gain in weight of half a pound daily for a period of from twenty to thirty days. If the appetite should rebel against taking milk in this quantity, the amount should be reduced, and a cupful of soaked evaporated apricots taken at night just before retiring, and in the morning, just after rising.
When milk is taken for the purpose of counteracting a congested condition of the bowels, or an irritated condition of the mucous membrane of the stomach, it should be combined with the fewest possible things—one coarse cereal only will give the best results. A large quantity of milk, three and one-half to four quarts taken daily, as above directed, will act as a laxative, while a small quantity will have a tendency toward constipation.
THE ADULTERATION OF MILK