Keller's Malt Food

KELLER'S MALT FOOD (Keller) (Keller's soup) for small children, proposed by the German physician Keller in 1898, is a modification of Liebig's soup. The basis of the preparation proposed by Liebig was the desire to create a food whose constituent elements would be in the same relationship as they are contained in mother's milk. Keller, as a physician-physiologist, expanded the rationale for this type of infant food, which had been given by its originator, the chemist-physiologist. Keller based his proposal on the following considerations. In gastrointestinal diseases, phenomena of acid poisoning (acidosis) are detected in the child's body. The acids accumulating in the body are neutralized by ammonia, which enters the urine under these conditions, being bound to acids, and is thus diverted to a certain extent from conversion into urea. From this, it follows that a rationally composed food (for sick children) should contain an alkali, but not sodium; rather, it should contain potassium, which is predominantly found in human food. Furthermore, the food should contain protein in a moderate amount (since an excess of protein would threaten the onset of putrefaction), fat in an insignificant amount as an element protecting protein from combustion, but not in excess (which would cause the formation of acids), and finally, a large amount of carbohydrates, the introduction of which is based on their property of burning without residue and thereby creating a source of energy in the body, as well as protecting plastic elements from combustion. As carbohydrates, Keller introduces wheat flour and maltose (the most easily assimilated and digested of the disaccharides) into his food. Method of preparation. The food is composed of milk (1/3) and water (2/3). Flour is dissolved in the milk (5% of the amount of food), and malt extract (10%) is dissolved in the water (50°) [in Germany, a product from the Loeflund factory is used; in the USSR, malt extract is now manufactured in some places (Kazan, Tatapteko-upravlenie)]—a factory-made preparation that is a condensed wort obtained during the malting of barley, with the addition of potassium alkali. Both parts of the food are combined and the whole is boiled. Composition of the food (per 1 liter): proteins—11.4, fats—12.4, carbohydrates—107.0. Caloric value—668. Malt food is a valuable acquisition for the dietetics of infancy, but it should find application not as a means for feeding, as Liebig thought, and not for the treatment of acute nutritional disorders, as Keller supposed, but as a product prescribed as a "contrast" food for dystrophy caused by an excess of milk in the child's dietary regimen. Its significance is determined, in addition to what Keller pointed out, by the fact that it contains a complex (not a single one) of carbohydrates, and furthermore, the presence in the food of a diastatic enzyme, extracted from the malt during the preparation of the wort, plays a large role. This enzyme acts on the starch of the flour and converts it into a state of swelling, which facilitates its further digestion. It must be borne in mind that this type of starch change occurs only at a temperature of 75–80°. At a lower temperature, the enzyme exhibits a different kind of effect on starch—saccharifying—due to which the sugar content in the food is excessively increased. Therefore (according to the views of the French school), the entire preparation of the food should be carried out at 80°.