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Milk’s Role in a Healthy Diet
So many of our patients continually ask about the role of milk as it relates to the adult diet, and in order to answer this question the following facts are submitted for your consideration.
1. Milk is an excellent and relatively inexpensive source of protein, five vitamins, and other nutrients.
2. Only 30 percent of adults retain their ability to digest lactose (milk sugar) because as we grow older we produce less lactase, the digestive enzyme of lactose. Virtually all human infants depend on milk and can digest it because of the presence of abundant lactase.
3. Adults can and do benefit strongly from milk’s nutrients since most supermarkets carry special brands of lactase-treated milk, in which the milk sugar is predigested.
4. Children need the nutrients in milk. Whole milk is recommended for children under two, and low fat products after that age.
5. Raw milk being healthier is a myth since it can be contaminated to a far greater degree with bacteria. Pasteurization is a necessity.
6. The new boxed non-refrigerator milks are safe and usually have a shelf-life of about six months.
7. There is no connection between milk and mucous formation, and, therefore, one must not necessarily avoid drinking milk in cases of a cold.
8. Two percent low fat milk is not really low in fat, but is really 20 percent fat by weight, while whole milk approximates 35 percent.
9. The best way to consume milk and other dairy products but avoid the fat would be to drink skim or 1 percent milk or low fat buttermilk, low or non-fat yogurt and low-fat cottage cheeses. Remember that few cheeses are low in fat.
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