Importance of Milk and Milk Product is discussed in this article. We hope you find it informative and helpful for your research.
Nutritional Importance of Milk and Milk Products
Importance of Milk and Milk Products in Human Diet
Read Also: Benefits
Importance of Milk and Milk Product is discussed in this article. We hope you find it informative and helpful for your research.
Nutritional Importance of Milk and Milk Products
Importance of Milk and Milk Products in Human Diet
Read Also: Benefits of Breastfeeding to Mother and Child
As a complete food, easily taken, easily digested, and absorbed, milk is an ideal food for infants and children. Milk is not essential for adults though it is a good source of essential nutrients, protein fats, some carbohydrates, minerals, calcium, and phosphorus.
Importance of Milk and Milk Products
It does not however contain very much iron. The vitamins in milk are thiamine, riboflavin, and nicotinic acid but there is also a negligible amount of vitamin C. The vitamin A content of cow’s milk will depend on the food eaten by the cows as green fodder produces more vitamin A.
Milk from other animals besides cows is used in parts of the world. In Somalia camel’s milk is used, in India water buffalo milk. Goat’s milk is used in various countries.
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Milk is nature’s provision for the young developing animal and like eggs, it contains all the nutrients needed to maintain life, especially in the first few weeks.
The protein of milk is caseinogen and lactoalbumin and the biological value of milk protein is very high. The fat in milk is in very fine globules and it is easily digested in this form.
This is in the form of milk sugar called lactose although sugar is not as sweet as glucose. The calcium in milk is in a form that is readily absorbed into the bloodstream.
It is easily made available to the tissues for bone formation. It is believed in this connection that it is the combination of calcium and phosphorus which is important in milk. The calcium in milk is more fully absorbed and retained than in other foods.
Milk is often sourced or curdled purposely and used as food in a semi-solid state. The quantity of milk produced varies with seasonal changes affecting the food available for the cattle.
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After the rains the quantity is high and at the end of the dry season, it is low. Cheesemaking is an effective way of preserving some of the surplus milk in the flush seasons.
The most popular cheeses are made from cow’s milk and contain 25% to 35% protein. This protein is of excellent quantity as it is virtually the same as the protein in milk.
Butter and ghee are made from the cream of milk. Skimmed milk is leftover after the fat or cream has been removed and made into butter. It is a valuable food as it contains most of the protein nearly all of the calcium of the original whole milk and the B group of vitamins.
Conclusively, research carried out by food scientists revealed that children can grow on a diet composed almost entirely of bread made from wheat and vegetables.
This evidence gives hope to those people who can not obtain milk because animals producing Milk, especially cattle can not be reared in those areas.
This could be due to certain reasons such as transport for such perishable food is not available or because there are insufficient funds to purchase milk.
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Where milk is obtainable, either fresh or dried skim milk, its use should be encouraged and where Milk can not be obtained, the possibility of making dried skim milk available should be explored.