In the years just after World War I, milk was a daily necessity, especially for families with infants and young children. But in 1919, as the country was still reeling from the influenza epidemic, one Arizona newspaper warned that changes in the dairy industry were putting babies at risk.
The complaint centered on skimmed milk.
According to the report, creameries were increasingly removing the butterfat from whole milk and then encouraging the public to accept skimmed milk as a proper substitute.
The article accused the dairy industry and its supporters in the press of trying to “educate” families into buying a less nourishing product while the richer parts of the milk could be sold elsewhere for higher profit.
For poor families, the issue was especially frightening. Mothers trying to save money might have believed skimmed milk was nearly the same as whole milk, only cheaper.
The newspaper claimed that some infants who had been fed skimmed milk during the recent flu epidemic suffered from malnutrition and undernourishment, and it connected that practice to the high infant death toll.
Malnutrition of Babes Increase by Creamery Methods
The plan of the creameries to substitute skimmed milk for whole, undiluted milk that has not been robbed of its butter fat quality, is manifested in nearly every state where the dairy commissioners allow the sale of two or three different grades of milk.
A campaign of advertising is on by the subsidized press to “educate” people into using more skimmed milk, so that the real nutritive values may be exploited for higher prices.
The great infant mortality during the “flu” epidemic is attributable to this cause and many frantic mothers who tried to economize by using skimmed milk now know the cause of their infants death — malnutrition and undernourishment.
Source: Arizona State Miner. Wickenburg, Ariz. August 8, 1919.
