Let’s Talk About Milk
Most patients remember their mothers’ telling them to drink their milk and how, if they didn’t, their general heath would suffer. This factor in people’s upbringing makes it all the more important to understand the role of milk in adulthood. These facts should help you decide if and how to integrate milk into your diet.
- Milk, albeit relatively inexpensive, is an source of protein, vitamins, and other nutrients.
- Unfortunately, lactose intolerance (the inability to digest milk sugar) is shared by as many as 30% of the adult population. It is an inability that increases with age.
Supermarkets have addressed the needs of lactose intolerant adults by stocking special brands of lactase-treated milk. In this product, the milk sugar is predigested, so it will not adversely affect lactose intolerant customers and will allow them to get the benefits of milk, without unpleasant side effects.
- It is recommended that children up to the age of two should be given whole milk and after that age, they should be switched to low fat.
- Drinking milk that is unpasteurized is not a good idea. Raw milk, because it has not been pasteurized can more frequently be contaminated with bacteria.
- Boxed milk needs no refrigeration and has a shelf life of about six months.
- It is a myth that you shouldn't drink milk when you have a cold because it is mucous producing.
- There is a great deal of confusion about what percentages mean in milk. 2% low-fat milk is not low in fat. It contains 20% fat, by weight. Whole milk contains approximately 35% fat.
- For the weight-conscious consumer, the best way to ingest sufficient milk and other dairy products, while at the same time avoiding their fat content is to drink fat-free (skim), 1% milk, low-fat buttermilk, low or nonfat yogurt and/or low-fat cottage cheeses.
As it turns out, mom was right when she praised the benefits of milk products. They are, indeed, important in adults as well as in children, but adults need to be mindful about the products’ fat content.