Synthetic food has been a popular subject in the lay press since the earliest Sunday-supplement days. Readers were even treated to predictions of "pills" replacing meals.
Technology has not yet, thank goodness, produced a meal-replacement pill. Nor is there yet a truly man-made "synthetic" food.
However, physicians should be aware that "fabricated" foods are beginning to appear in the market. Fabricated foods are roughly defined as foods constructed in the laboratory, of components derived from agricultural products, to achieve predetermined characteristics including nutritional and organoleptic qualities. They may be produced in new and unique forms, or they may imitate natural foods. One of the most significant of these foods from a health standpoint is simulated milk.
Elsewhere in this issue (p 1686) is a statement by the Council on Foods and Nutrition on "Substitutes for Whole Milk." The Council guides the physician through the semantic maze of "filled" milks (cow's