The present invention relates to liquid food for supplying protein which is easily and safely provided for undernourished patients who suffer from hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia and the like or common healthy men who desire to supply nutritious food and develop their muscles.
Protein is an important nutritive element as an ingredient of body constitutions. People need to consume much protein for developing physical strength or for preventing complications.
However, when protein is supplied by using common foodstuffs to a patient who should take much protein, for example, a patient who suffers from a liver complaint, a patient who needs dialysis of the kidney, etc., he becomes fat or suffers from fatty liver. Accordingly, it is difficult to cure the hypoalbuminemia. Then, in order to efficiently ingest protein only, food for supplying protein has been used in the form of protein materials which can be added to daily meals. On the other hand, a plasma agent is used for a patient who suffers from hypoproteinemia. However, it becomes difficult to use the agent because the agent has many troubles, so that it is important to use the food for supplying good quality protein.
For the present, several kinds of food for supplying protein such as, for example, milk protein, soybean protein, egg protein or a mixture thereof are available on the market, and most of the food is powder.
The food for supplying protein is prepared by dissolving the powder in water, milk, juice, etc. or by mixing in dessert such as, for example, a jelly or custard pudding, or in a meal for giving to a patient.
In such a case, the powdered food has the following problems.
(a) It is apt to become unsanitary.
(b) When it is dissolved in water, many bubbles are formed. It is difficult to break and remove the bubbles and these operation steps are troublesome.
(c) As the solution of the powder food is apt to be contaminated by bacteria, the solution must be used within a few hours.
For the above reason, it is desired to obtain the liquid food for supplying protein usable as it is.
Furthermore, the protein used in the above liquid food should be highly nutritious. The nutritive value of the protein is determinerd by the kinds of amino acid and quantity thereof which constitute the protein. Protein scores are used for evaluating the nutritive value. As the protein scores of several kinds of protein, lactalbumin: 100, egg protein: 100, casein: 91, soybean protein: 60 are exemplified. From these scores, it is understood that the lactalbumin and the egg protein are highly nutritious.
The liquid food for supplying protein is prepared by liquidizing and sterilizing protein. However, when the lactalbumin and the egg protein are especially used, the protein is denatured by heating on sterilization treatment and the protein is coagulated and precipitated. In conventional methods, it is difficult to produce the liquid food for supplying protein having prolonged stability by using highly nutritious lactalbumin or egg protein.
Moreover, as the liquid food for supplying protein is used for oral administation in many cases, it should be tasty. However, protein such as, for example, albumin or casein or a degradation product thereof tastes rough and bitter, and it changes color remarkably after sterilizing. As a result, it is difficult to use the above conventional liquid food as an oral product.
As described above, there are problems that the production of the highly nutritious liquid food which is tasteful and can supply with protein is difficult.