Milk champion

Recently Kapi-Mana News published some letters from pupils at Paremata School who wrote about the cost of food and comparing milk with a soft drink.

I think it is important that the children know about the saying ‘‘comparing apples with apples’’, as milk and soft drinks are very different.

Milk is what is called a complete food as besides water it contains protein, calcium, sugars, fat, vitamins, and trace elements, all of which are needed to build a strong body. As you know, babies grow well on just milk — if you only fed it soft drinks, it would not thrive.

To make a cup of soft drink equal to a cup of milk, you would also need to eat a thick slice of cheese, half an apple, half a banana and half a carrot. If you add the cost of those items to the cost of the soft drink, you will find that milk is very good value for money.

When I was at primary school in England it was wartime and we children were given a cup of milk each day to help keep us healthy. I always drank mine.

Now I am 80, I have strong bones and only about a third of my teeth have fillings. I know, to be fair, that this was helped by our water, which also had fluoride in due to the layer of chalk through which it permeated to the artesian wells.

I hope my letter will help the children and their parents, make right choices when buying or eating food. I would like to see the political parties address the squalor that most able-bodied and childless people are forced to endure because of the callous indifference of those who are supposed to be supporting those most in need and a society that has simply washed its hands of us.