CaIci yumm!!

Two WSU researchers have
developed a lactose-free milk
which, they say, tastes great

Dr. Leora Shelef

JANICE ROSEN

Special to The Jewish News

I

offutti move over! There will
soon be another cholesterol-
free dessert available. Not
only is it cholesterol free,
but it is lactose free and,
most importantly, it tastes good.
What is this new product, you ask?
Elef processed soy milk.
Certainly it is not the most ex-
citing of names — Elef, .Inc. is work-
ing on that — but it is an exciting
product. "It's possibilities are end-
less," states Dr. Leora Shelef, one of
the researchers who discovered the
process to produce the soy milk. She
and her partner, Dr. Michael Zemel,
are faculty members of Wayne State
University.
We had to go through a chemi-
cal rationale of looking at why it
couldn't be done and how we might
overcome the specific problems that
prevented successful calcium fortifi-
cation before," Zemel comments. It
wasn't obvious, but it wasn't too ter-
ribly difficult."
There has been a great need for
calcium fortification. Most of us have
grown up drinking the most nearly
perfect food — milk." One of life's
simple pleasures — a glass of milk
and a plate of cookies — is denied to
many who are lactose intolerant or
who have milk 'allergies.' About one
percent of the United States popula-
tion cannot tolerate lactose in any

Dr. Michael Zemel

form without severe reactions. But
about one-half the world's adult
population has a degree of lactose
intolerance.
Blacks, Asians and Jews from
southeastern Europe have a high in-
cidence of lactose intolerance. Milk,
and all foods made with milk, must
then be removed from their diets,
taking with it the calcium that is
naturally present in milk. It is for
this reason that researchers have
been trying to find a way to fortify
soy milk with calcium.
Drs. Shelef and Zemel have suc-
ceeded in developing a process that
not only fortifies soy milk with cal-
cium, but they are able to process it
with as much as 60 percent more
calcium than is present in cow's
milk.
"It has no lactose, no cholesterol,
no preservatives, no fat and it is
good to eat," states Len Wanetik,
president of Elef Inc. "Imagine this
at Tally Hall."
The milk comes in three flavors:
regular, chocolate and strawberry.
However, any home flavoring can be
added to the milk. Elef ice cream is
made in vanilla, chocolate and
strawberry flavors; it's yogurt comes
plain, vanilla and lemon flavored.
The product is comparable to
two percent milk nutritionally. Dr.
Zemel comments that anything can
be done with Elef milk that can be
done with regular two percent milk.
He and his family are particularly

fond of Elef chocolate milk served
hot.
"We'd like people to go for this,
not particularly because this is good
for them. We don't want people to
think 'Oh I'd better have some be-
cause I need my calcium today.' That
should be an added plus," remarks
Dr. Zemel.
Drs. Shelef and Zemel have been
working together on various projects
for the past six years since Dr.
Zemel joined WSU's department of
nutrition and food science. Dr. Shelef
has been associated with the univer-
sity since she moved to Detroit 20
years ago. She is a food scientist
concerned, not only with the chemi-
cal properties of food, but making
food palatable. A food scientist
"deals with the food up to the point
it gets into your mouth," she ex-
plains.
As a nutritionist, Dr. Zemel is
concerned with "metabolism primar-
ily, everything that happens after
the food passes your lips — diges-
tion, absorption, nutrient transport.
For instance, we formulated this
food to insure that it is highly avail-
able for absorption in the body," he
explains.
The Elef processed soy milk dif-
fers from other milk substitutes in
three ways. A relatively simple
process enables Elef to inexpensively
produce it's soy milk calcium levels
60 percent more than cow's milk.
The taste of the soy milk has been
altered so that it can be successfully

flavored, and it has dramatically
longer shelf life — 21 days — with
no significant microbiological deter-
ioration.
Members of the medical com-
munity are looking forward to its
availability. Dr. Joyce Walf, a Bir-
mingham pediatrician, with between
one and three percent of her patients
suffering from lactose intolerance,
comments, "Until now we had to tell
people who were allergic to sugar
(lactose) or milk protein to drink
either water or fruit juices. Now we
will have an alternative which has
as much protein as milk and less
sugar. This is a much better alterna-
tive for the milk intolerant patient."
Neither of the two professors is
a native Detroiter, though both feel
Detroit is home now. Dr. Shelef is a
sabres. She was born and grew up in
Haifa, Israel and considers herself
fortunate to have two "homes" —
one in Detroit and one in Israel. Her
husband's work brought them to De-
troit. Once here, she became associ-
ated with Wayne State University
and acclimated to Michigan weather.
"I grew up in very warm
weather," she says. Now, she and
her family are cross-country ski
enthusiasts as are Dr. Zemel and his
family.
Dr. Zemel came to Detroit after
completing his graduate work in
Madison,. Wis. He and his wife enjoy
winter. When there is enough snow
on the ground for cross-country ski-

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