The main source of calcium and with a protein content equivalent to that of meat, milk is also a source of intolerance. Even allergy is linked to its mode of production.
Composition And Nutritional Values
When we speak of milk, it is that of the cow. Otherwise, it is specified. Milk comprises 88% water and macronutrients: 43% lactose (milk sugar), 29% lipids ( essentially saturated fatty acids), and 28% protein. First of all, its high calcium content makes it a good product for health, especially since this calcium is the one that the human body assimilates best. Bioavailable calcium associated with phosphorus is useful for fixing bone calcium and that dentition.
But calcium is also used for muscles (muscle contraction), cell renewal, blood coagulation, blood pressure, the transmission of nerve impulses, hormonal functions, and enzymatic activity. As for milk lipids, these are all proteins equivalent to meat, providing calories and good cholesterol. Lipids that promote the assimilation of fat-soluble vitamins A, B, and D, which milk also contains.
A Source Of Vitamin B12
It is the vitamin used for cell division and the production of red blood cells: milk is the third best source of vitamin B12 after meat and fish. And the first is for vegetarians. The National Nutrition and Health Program recommends consuming three dairy products daily to balance calcium intake (900 mg per day for an adult) and fat, 100 ml, corresponding to a dairy product. Growth in children and adolescents, then prevention of osteoporosis, cardiovascular risks, colon cancer, and obesity: milk also prevents metabolic syndrome and lower assimilation of nutrients with age.
Lactose Intolerance? Long Live The Bifidus!
Infants and adults are subject to intolerance to milk sugar, lack of lactase, and the enzymes that allow it to be digested. However, the more we lose the habit of drinking milk, the more we are intolerant. Hence the interest in yogurts, or more exactly, in work done by two bacteria are lactobacilli, which transform lactose into lactic acid, and Bifidus, the latter naturally present in the intestinal flora of human beings and which participates in the last phase of digestion.
UHT, Pasteurized, Or Raw: Which One To Choose?
This drink comes in three forms on the shelves: UHT sterilized milk can be kept for three months as long as the pack is unopened. The Ultra High Temperature has destroyed all microorganisms. Convenient for transport and storage. The disadvantage, vitamins are not resistant to sterilization. Hence the existence of UHT re-enriched with vitamins, which bears the mention “guaranteed vitamin content.”
And the advantage of pasteurized milk, heated to a high temperature of 80°C, which can be kept for two days in a cool place. Raw milk is milk as it comes from the cow’s udder. This most natural milk is also the most difficult to keep. And the one that carries the risk of infection, especially Legionnaires’ disease. On the other hand, it would have properties against allergies, such as milk and hay fever.
Strictly Speaking, Cash Cows
The cow is a mammal that produces milk after giving birth. The Prim’Holstein is the most used dairy cow for production: while a non-dairy cow produces around four liters of milk per day, the Prim’Holstein produces twenty-eight. For a dairy cow to produce milk indefinitely, it is artificially inseminated. And reared in a “tie-stall” without seeing the slightest pasture. Life expectancy was reduced to an average of three years.
What Can I Substitute For Milk?
The trick is to cover your calcium needs. Many vegetable milks contain calcium: the term “milk” is reserved for cows, and they are found under the name “vegetable drink.” They contain plants and water. Thus leguminous drinks (that of soya, but also chickpeas or peanuts), oilseed drinks ( almond, hazelnut, cashew nut, pistachio, coconut ), and drinks derived from cereals (those of rice, oats, spelled, millet, quinoa ).
Some kinds of milk are more or less accessible (soya milk is cheap, but pine nut milk is a luxury). Some contain gluten (oats, spelled), while others are free (almonds, hazelnuts). If you don’t like these vegetable drinks, many other foods are very good providers of calcium: thyme is twenty times richer in calcium than milk.
Except you’re not going to eat whole handfuls of them. Hence the interest in a varied diet, including sardines, basil, olives, dried figs, and fennel . Yes, for lack of dairy farming, the Mediterranean region has naturally produced other forms of calcium. Knowing that we find it everywhere, including tofu, which is also very rich in calcium.
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