benefits of drinking milk?

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Benefits of Milk for Children.

Milk is an exceptional drink. It can make an important contribution to the diets of children and teenagers.

To view the benefit click on the title you are reading.

Milk is the original ?fast food?

A glass of milk is a quick and nutritious snack for children and teenagers.

Milk helps to ensure kids don?t miss out on essential nutrients.

A daily glass of semi-skimmed milk provides a six-year-old with all the vitamin B12, around half of the calcium, phosphorus and vitamin B2, about one third of the protein, potassium and iodine and around one tenth of the vitamin A, vitamin B1, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, magnesium and zinc he or she needs each day.

Milk is a naturally nutritious drink.

The amount of nutrients supplied by milk is high in relation to its calorie content. Milk is therefore a particularly valuable food for children whose requirements for vitamins and minerals are high in relation to their energy needs.

A 189ml carton of whole milk (4% fat) or semi-skimmed milk (1.7% fat) contains less fat than popular playground snacks such as a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar.

School milk can help to tackle inequalities in diet and health. This is because milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods. Milk is a nutrient dense food ? it provides substantial amounts of a wide range of essential nutrients in relation to its energy content.

A 189ml carton of semi-skimmed milk can provide the following daily vitamin and mineral requirements for a 6 year old:

52% of the calcium
32% of the protein
9% of the vitamin A
11% of the vitamin B1
44% of the vitamin B2
16% of the niacin
13% of the vitamin B6
98% of the vitamin B12
12% of the folate
7% of the vitamin C
29% of the iodine
18% of the magnesium
53% of the phosphorus
27% of the potassium
12% of the zinc
5-6% of his or her daily energy requirement

Milk is one of the best sources of calcium.

A good supply of calcium is needed during the childhood and teen years in order to build strong bones and help protect against osteoporosis in later life. Milk is a great source of calcium. Although vegetables also contain calcium, to get the same amount of calcium as from one glass of milk, a young person would need to munch their way through more than twelve portions of spinach or more than eight portions of red kidney beans or more than four servings of broccoli.

Milk is kind to teeth.

Dentists say that milk is one of the few drinks that are safe for teeth between meals. Sugary and acidic drinks such as fizzy drinks, squashes, fruit drinks and fruit juices cause teeth to wear away and decay if they are consumed too often.

Milk drinking may help to control body fat and reduce the risk of obesity.

Researchers have recently discovered that young children who consume lots of milk and dairy products tend to be leaner than those with lower intakes.

Milk is one of the staples of a balanced diet and in Britain the average person consumes about half a pint a day. Milk and dairy products together provide about 55 per cent of the calcium consumed in Britain, 19 per cent of the protein and 27 per cent of the riboflavin (vitamin B2).

Besides these important nutrients, milk also contains compounds that have been implicated as anti-carcinogens such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and butyric acid. Calcium and calcium-rich foods, such as low-fat dairy products, lower blood pressure and may also reduce your risk of colon cancer.

Despite milk's important contribution to the diet, articles often appear in the media casting doubt on its benefits. These doubts are often based on anecdotal information rather than sound, peer-reviewed scientific research but nonetheless once in print these myths spread by word of mouth.

Here are the top ten milk myths, which are regularly defended by the Dairy Council. To view the facts click on the myth you are reading.

MYTH: Allergy to cows' milk is common in young children

FACT: Only two to three per cent of the population are truly allergic to milk. Cows' milk allergy is mainly a condition of infancy and around nine out of ten of those affected grow out of it by the age of three. If anyone has a concern, they should consult a medical doctor and not rely on High Street or mail order allergy tests. It is unwise to exclude dairy products from the diet without specialised advice from a State Registered Dietician.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Drinking milk causes calcium to be leached from the body

It has been suggested that the consumption of milk and dairy products increases the rate of calcium loss from the body and therefore increases the risk of osteoporosis. Several studies have confirmed that calcium is well absorbed from milk and that much more calcium is absorbed from one glass of milk than from a portion of most vegetable foods.

Supporters of the 'calcium leaching' idea bolster their case with statistics to show that osteoporosis is more prevalent in countries where a dairy culture exists, eg northern Europe. However, this can be explained by the fact that countries in the northern hemisphere have a limited number of months each year during which sunlight exposure is sufficiently strong to generate vitamin D synthesis in the skin - vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of calcium. Also, in industrial countries, the general lifestyle tends to be less active and thus osteoporosis tends to be more prevalent.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Drinking milk causes excess mucus production

FACT: It has been suggested that milk and dairy products increase mucus production, and that avoiding milk will therefore alleviate the respiratory symptoms associated with colds. However, there is no good scientific evidence to support this. In one test, people given flavoured milk and soya drink found no real difference between the two. Milk does tend to leave a slightly filmy coating in the mouth or throat, but this is the result of milk's texture and perhaps a little saliva production but not mucus.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Drinking milk is directly linked to cardiovascular disease

FACT: Foods such as milk, that provide some fat and for which lower fat alternatives exist, are often singled out when dietary advice is given. This may lead to the assumption that a direct link has been shown between milk intake and heart disease, but this is not the case. Milk contains several components that may actually help protect against heart disease.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Drinking soya 'milk' is more healthy than cows' milk

FACT: Strictly speaking soya 'milk' is not even milk, it is a drink of plant origin. It is naturally low in calcium, which is why some brands are fortified, and it contains phytate, a strong inhibitor of the absorption of several minerals including iron. Although it is often claimed that soya helps to reduce the rise of cancer, recent studies have indicated that soya could have the opposite effect - and be cancer promoting. The long-term effects of soya consumption by Western populations are at present completely unknown.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Lactose intolerance is widespread

FACT: Lactose intolerance (an inability to digest the milk sugar, lactose, properly) does not mean that you should avoid all dairy products. On the contrary most lactose maldigesters can tolerate a certain amount of lactose and so can enjoy hard cheese (which is virtually lactose-free), yogurts and small quantities of milk. The gradual reintroduction of dairy products in progressively greater quantities tends to improve your ability to tolerate lactose.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Milk is a major contributor to fat intake

FACT: On average, whole milk contains 4 per cent fat, semi-skimmed 1.7 per cent and skimmed only 0.1 per cent. The Guideline Daily Amount* for fat intake for women is 70g per day and 95g for men. Milk only supplies around eight percent of the fat in the British diet. Therefore milk is not a major contributor to fat intake.

*The Guideline Daily Amounts are official government figures for the predicted daily consumption by an average adult of normal weight eating a diet conforming to Department of Health recommendations.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: Skimmed milk contains less calcium than whole milk

FACT: Calcium is contained in the non-cream portion of milk and so when milk is skimmed all the calcium remains. In fact, pint for pint, skimmed and semi-skimmed contain slightly more than whole. Milk provides almost 40 per cent of the calcium in the British diet.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: The protein in milk (animal protein) is not good for you

FACT: The protein in milk is very good for you, as it is a high quality animal protein. The protein from animal sources, eg milk, eggs and meat, provides all the indispensable amino acids that we cannot make by ourselves. Some studies have also shown that it may help protect against cancer.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

MYTH: There is a link between milk consumption and diabetes

FACT: It is sometimes suggested that there is a link between the development of Type 1 (or juvenile onset) diabetes and the consumption of cows' milk. It is important to recognise that this is just one of several theories about the cause of diabetes. At present there is no conclusive proof one way or the other. Milk is not the only food that has been linked to diabetes - trials in animals suggest that wheat and soya protein have a greater potential to induce Type 1 diabetes. The Dairy Council recommends breast-feeding for the first few months of an infant's life, cows' milk should not be introduced as a main drink until the child is one year old.

For scientific references please contact The Dairy Council's nutrition team.

Other Answers:
Calcium is essential for early bone development in young children and in women :)

For the all round development of the body.

Why do babies drink milk from the moment they are born.

It has to have a lot of healthy benefits to the body. Arthi provided you with a lot of information about milk. However, you can tell that it was copied and pasted due to the question marks where there should be apostrophes. I just figure you should hear from both sides of the spectrum, so here is my answer to a question similar to yours.

Cow's milk really isn't good for human beings. Think of it this way, human breast milk is best for human babies, it contains antibodies, proteins, and essential fatty acids necessary for the baby to grow. It's the same for cows. Cows millk is best for calves, it contains all the proteins, antibodies etc. etc. needed to help a baby cow grow VERY fast.

The main protein in cow's milk is casein, and cow's millk contains 20 times more of this protein than human milk. However, these proteins are far too big for the human body to even assimilate (as are the majority of the things found in milk). Even though cow's milk has more calcium than human milk (4 times as much), it cannot be used by a human body b/c of the "big packaging." In fact, people who drink 2-3 glasses of milk a day have been shown to have a lower level of blood calcium. Multiple international studies have linked milk with increased risks of cancer. Crazy, ain't it? Vitamin A and D aren't naturally present in cow's milk; they are added by man, but there are an abundance of other foods that contain calcium and vitamins and are easier for the human body to use.

Cow's milk also has a TON of fat. 2% milk actually contains 35% fat, the "2%" fat is determined by weight only. Low fat milk is 24-33% fat, and whole milk is a whopping 49% fat. So what else is in cow's milk?

Some dairy cows are given the hormone BGH to increase milk output. A normal cow produces 1.5 -2 gallons of milk per day. With BGH, they produce 8-9 gallons per day. That is some serious hormone action there, which is probably showing up in the milk. Now let's talk about government regulation for milk pasteurization. The standard state test (called a Standard Plate Count) is that milk containing 30,000 organisms or less per MILLILITER has been adequately pasteurized and is safe for people to drink. And finally, 20-40% of caucasians and up to 90% of asians and africans are lactose intolerant due to the fact that humans gradually lose the the lactase activity in their small intestines between the ages of 1-4.

I actually just found out about this information recently. I'm 21 and have been drinking milk occasionally all my life (I wasn't classified as lactose intolerant, but milk has never really tasted good or sat well in my stomach). Soy milk is ok, but I've also heard that it is highly processed. I've been turned on to Almond Milk. The sweetened kind tastes really great, and the unsweetened tastes a little bit like regular cow's milk with a hint of bitter almond.

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