On Fri, 9 Mar 2001 14:17:24 -0500, Norm Skrzypinski <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>The tables below compare human, cow and goat milk.

Norm, what's your interpretation of this data?

Some facts I gather are

1.Human babies seem to grow much slower that goats and calves
 (therefore require less protein)
2.Calcium intake should really be proportional to protein intake.
  (cow's and goats' is up like the protein)
3.Similar vitamin b-6 is involved with protein metabolism, high protein
  (like cow and goats milk) seems to demand proportionally high vitamin b6
  (neanderthalers beware)

Why the totally different macronutient ratios for babies that was is RDA'd
and what's usual for humans? (Jean Claude noted)
I've some thoughts
 babies loose much more heat due to the small mass and high surface.
 more heat needs disproportionally more energy needs
 The low thiamin to carbohydrate ratio suggests that not all of the
carbohydrate is actually consumed by th baby. Some is consumed by the
upcomeing gut flora (remember the joghurty smell).
Humans can't digest lactose (well) - or can they? bacteria can.
And it's ment to, Are Waerland said.

Rachel posted a computation some time ago,
that the protein per bodyweight was still high, compared to the
calories consumed. I remember I had some doubts.
Lets see: Norms 850 kcal for a 6-12 month old:
Human milk serves 12 g protein. How heavy is a 6-12 year old? mothers?
I don't recall - maybe some 8-10 kg.
This would be rather high protein of >1.2 g per kg bodyweight.
Adequate for a baby, I'd say. It's growing so quickly.

Adequate for a baby it's anyway of course. This is nature's decision.

The amino acid comparison would be interesting to see which proteins humans
need (when growing). But for this we'd need a comparison of amino acids
per gram protein (or divided by total protein).
Then we could see the differences.

Regards, Amadeus