Milk is a natural source of 15 essential nutrients and is present in the Most Favourable Absorbable form for Humans. Whether it is skim, 1.5%, 3% or homogenized, chocolate or powdered, milk provides basically the same nutritious elements. However, the fat content changes, and for chocolate milk, the sugar content. As well, milk contains about 85% water, making it an effective thirst quencher.
Helps build and repair body tissues, including muscles and bones, and plays a role in the creation of antibodies which fight infection.
Aids bone and tooth development. Also aids in the maintenance of night vision and healthy skin.
Aids in red blood cell formation.
Factor in the conversion of food into energy and tissue formation, including bones..
Factor in the conversion of food into energy and tissue formation.
Aids in normal growth, and is a factor in the conversion of food into energy and tissue formation, including bones.
Releases energy from carbohydrate and aids normal growth.
Factor in the conversion of food into energy and tissue formation, including bones.
Aids in red blood cell formation.
Enhances calcium and phosphorus absorption, on which strong bones and teeth depend.
Aids in the formation and maintenance of strong bones and healthy teeth. Milk Has Calcium in the Most Bio Available form
Factor in bone and teeth health, conversion of food into energy and tissue formation.
Factor in the formation and maintenance of strong bones and healthy teeth.
Aids in the correct functioning of nerves and muscles.
Factor in tissue formation, including bones, and conversion of food into energy.
Factor in the correct functioning of the immune system, due to its antioxidant effect.
Pasteurization kills any bacteria present in milk by heating raw milk to a specific temperature for a prescribed period of time. This process, developed in 1864 by Louis Pasteur and named for him, helps reduce the threat of many foodborne illnesses, like tuberculosis and typhoid fever. There are lots of nasty bacteria that can live in raw milk, like Salmonella, Listeria, Brucella, Streptococcus pyogenes, Campylobacter, and Mycobacterium bovis . They’ll make you very sick, and infections can even become life-threatening.
Even though pasteurization protects consumers from many of the health risks of drinking milk and eating other dairy products, there’s still a persistent belief that it has a negative impact on milk’s taste and nutritional value. Making dairy safer through pasteurization has helped protect food supplies and there’s no evidence supporting claims that it has a negative effect on the nutritional value of milk or milk products. All types of milk should be pasteurized that’s destined for cheese, yogurt or any other diary products.
To help counter some of the more spectacular claims for drinking raw milk, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published these no-nonsense rumor busters:
With so much curiosity about organic, natural and environmentally friendly practices, it’s easy to see why there’s growing interest in raw milk. Milk straight from the cow, or with very little processing between the dairy farmer and the consumer, sounds like a great product. After all, milk is a wholesome food that’s been helping feed people for at least 5,000 years So, why would there be a problem drinking it fresh and unpasteurized?
Milk contains calcium for strong bones and teeth it is also rich in potassium and helps maintain a healthy blood pressure. Vitamin D helps maintain healthy levels of phosphorous and calcium. Milk is equally beneficial whether it is low fat milk or fat-free.
The FDA recommends that young children, ages 2 through 8 consume 2 cups of milk a day. Both girls and boys 9 to 18 should have 250 ml per day. The recommendation for men and women over the age of 19 is 375ml per day.
Pasteurization kills any bacteria present in milk by heating raw milk to a specific temperature for a prescribed period of time. This process, developed in 1864 by Louis Pasteur and named for him, helps reduce the threat of many foodborne illnesses, like tuberculosis and typhoid fever. There are lots of nasty bacteria that can live in raw milk, like Salmonella, Listeria, Brucella, Streptococcus pyogenes, Campylobacter, and Mycobacterium bovis. They’ll make you very sick, and infections can even become life-threatening.
Even though pasteurization protects consumers from many of the health risks of drinking milk and eating other dairy products, there’s still a persistent belief that it has a negative impact on milk’s taste and nutritional value. Making dairy safer through pasteurization has helped protect food supplies and there’s no evidence supporting claims that it has a negative effect on the nutritional value of milk or milk products. All types of milk should be pasteurized that’s destined for cheese, yogurt or any other diary products.
To help counter some of the more spectacular claims for drinking raw milk, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published these no-nonsense rumor busters
The information below is collated from various sources including the Dairy Council and the Food Standards Agency.
Not all milk is high in fat a 189ml serving of whole milk contains 6g fat, whereas a 189ml serving of Toned milk contains 3 g fat; that’s 50% less saturated fat than whole milk.
Many people believe whole milk is better for children because of its rich fat content and the belief that it is nutritionally more beneficial than semi-skimmed.
In fact semi-skimmed milk has more nutrients than whole milk and also has a reduced fat content; 55% less of the bad saturated fats that we are all advised to cut down on in our diets, even in children as young as 2 years of age.
Soy based beverages are not nutritionally equivalent to milk as it is lactose free. Soy milk contains only about a quarter of the calcium of cows milk, so if you are unable to eat or drink dairy you should allow for this by eating calcium rich foods in other parts of your diet.
Acne is a skin condition caused by numerous red inflamed spots. The spots are caused by the hormone testosterone, which tells the glands in your skin to produce oil. When too much oil is produced, the pores in the skin fill up with oil, and dead cells which results in the formation of a spot.
Some people believe that the consumption of milk and dairy contributes to the development and severity of spots and acne however no definitive evidence exists to support this.
Our body can absorb the calcium in milk and dairy products more easily than the calcium contained in other foods such as green vegetables.
Other foods that contain calcium include green leafy vegetables, tinned fish, beans, lentils and bread. However, the calcium in these foods can be difficult for the body to absorb, and is also only present in small amounts, which means that to get the same amount of calcium as a 200ml glass of milk, you need to eat 8 whole broccoli spears, nearly a kilo of spinach or 7 and a half slices of bread.
Asthma is a long-term condition of the respiratory system caused by swelling of the airways, and excess mucus production. For a long time, milk has been suggested to worsen the symptoms of asthma, despite no scientific evidence to support this.
Unfortunately many asthmatics are advised to avoid dairy which not only provides no benefit to their asthma symptoms, but may lead to poor intake of important nutrients such as calcium and phosphorous for which milk and dairy are rich sources in the diet.
Almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, hazelnut milk, oat milk, hempmilk new varieties of non-dairy milks have been popping up all over grocery store shelves. But are these milk substitutes healthy? Well, not really. While these milk substitutes sound good according to the claims on the packages (things like as much calcium as milk and heart healthy), the ingredients in these processed products tell a different story. Here are seven reasons to think twice before buying non-dairy milks.
This seaweed-based additive is extremely inflammatory and should be fastidiously avoided. As a matter of fact, carrageenan is so caustic to the digestive tract that researchers use it to induce colitis in lab animals! The World Health Organization classifies one type of carrageenan as a “possible human carcinogen” (learn more about carrageenan here). Lesson? Just because a carton of Almond Milk claims the titles “organic” and “heart healthy” does not mean it should be a part of your diet.
This term conveniently eliminates the need to list unsavoury additives on the ingredient list. “Natural flavours” can even mean forms of MSG and artificial sweeteners. I want to know EXACTLY what is in the food that I eat. That is why I prepare most of my food from scratch and only purchase ingredients from companies who have the rare integrity to list every single ingredient on their product. I feel a visceral distrust of a company that puts “natural flavours” on their ingredient list.
Most nut or seed milks contain canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, and/or soybean oil which are all bad news. Vegetable oils are a freak of nature after all, it takes a lot of effort to get a gallon of oil from corn! Vegetable oils are extracted with toxic solvents as well as high heat and pressure, agents that rancidify the delicate chemical structure of the fatty acids. Further, corn and soy oils are most likely from heavily-sprayed and GMO crops.
To prove my point, watch this video on How Canola Oil Is Made. You won’t believe it until you see it! Canola oil is simply not fit for human consumption (or animal consumption, either, for that matter). Vegetable oils = icky. Period.
When it comes to non-dairy milk options, soy milk is by far the worst choice. For the sake of keeping this post a reasonable length, I am just going to give you some of the detrimental health consequences of soy in a nutshell
Want more details and studies on the horrors of soy? I recommend The Whole Soy Story by Dr. Kaayla Daniels.
The natural vitamin D in real milk, as well as the D the human body produces from sun exposure, is D3. Vitamins in a whole-food form, such as in raw milk, provide an easily-assimilated form of the nutrients along with important cofactors for absorption. Vitamin D2 is a synthetic and isolated form of the vitamin and, as a result, is extremely poorly absorbed (here’s the study). It offers no viable benefit to the body and may actually be harmful.
Some experts believe that D2 actually desensitizes the D3 receptors, making us more prone to vitamin D deficiency! Stay far, far away from the D2.
Vitamin D2 In its Natural Form in Milk. Added Vitamin D2 can be Harmful : American Society of Clinical Nutrition : The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement
Tablets When it comes to processed foods, the sum of the parts does not equal the whole. Here’s what I mean in the case of milk substitutes: companies isolate forms of vitamins and minerals and add it into the milk substitute base. But just because a rice milk claims to have as much calcium as regular milk does not mean the body absorbs and utilizes the calcium from both items the same way. I believe nutrients are always better absorbed in the whole-food form.
For example, real, whole milk provides adequate saturated fats to help the body utilize the calcium and fat-soluble vitamins in the milk. Non-dairy milks offer no natural co-factors to allow assimilation of the vitamins.
As another example, non-dairy milks often contain synthetic vitamin A. While naturally-occurring (non-isolated, food-source) vitamin A only creates toxicity in uber-extreme doses, moderate overdoses of synthetic vitamin A can cause toxicity (read more about synthetic vs. natural vitamin A). This is because the body cannot assimilate the synthetic version of the vitamins.
As explained in Nourishing Traditions, traditional cultures soaked their nuts and seeds in a salty brine and then dried them in the sun. This reduced the phytic acid content (a substance which impairs mineral absorption) and the naturally-occurring enzyme inhibitors (which cause digestive distress and impair protein digestion). I know that many of you are already fans of soaking and dehydrating your nuts/seeds to make the nutrients more bioavailable. Unfortunately, commercially-prepared non-dairy milks are not made from properly prepared nuts/seeds. To learn more The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement