Milk is nutritious, easily digestible and absorbed, affordable, and convenient to consume, making it "the closest food to perfection" and known as "white blood." As the most common nutritional beverage in daily life, many people have the habit of drinking milk every day. However, it's important to know that milk, which seems to go with everything, actually has many "enemies."
Milk should not be eaten with these foods, otherwise it can easily lead to a series of adverse consequences.
1. Chocolate
Milk is rich in protein and calcium, while chocolate contains a lot of calories and oxalic acid. If consumed together, the calcium in milk and the oxalic acid in chocolate will combine to form calcium oxalate!
Calcium oxalate cannot be digested or absorbed in the human body; on the contrary, it can cause adverse effects such as slow growth, diarrhea, and calcium deficiency. It can also lead to dry, dull hair and symptoms like urinary stones.
2. Oranges
Drinking milk and then immediately eating oranges can affect digestion and absorption, and can also cause bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. This is because the protein in milk will solidify upon encountering the citric acid in oranges, thus affecting the digestion and absorption of milk.
In addition, besides oranges, one should not consume any acidic foods, such as apricots or sour pomegranates which are high in acid, within an hour after drinking milk.
3. Sugar
It is best not to add sugar when boiling fresh milk, because lysine in milk can react with fructose under heating conditions to form toxic fructoselysine, which is harmful to the human body. This acid can easily neutralize the calcium in milk, affecting calcium absorption, which also greatly reduces the nutritional value of milk.
If you really want to add sugar, please add it after the milk has been cooked and has cooled slightly.
4. Eggs
Some people are accustomed to eating milk and eggs together, but this method is unscientific.
Milk contains lactose, a disaccharide of galactose and glucose, where galactose is its nutritional component. Eggs contain a large amount of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. The absorption of amino acids requires energy, and at this time, there is less glucose available in the blood, so galactose will be oxidized for energy.
A certain protein in eggs will react with a certain nutrient in milk, reducing its nutritional value, so they should not be eaten together.
5. Tea
When drinking milk, you should not drink tea at the same time because milk is rich in calcium ions, and tannins in tea will hinder the absorption of calcium ions in the gastrointestinal tract, weakening the inherent nutritional components of milk itself.
Secondly, the casein in milk will bind with the catechins in tea, so adding milk to tea will destroy the tea's effect of preventing heart disease.
6. Medicine
Some people think that taking medicine with milk instead of plain water can make the drug easier to absorb. In fact, taking medicine with milk will significantly affect the body's absorption of the drug! Milk can easily form a coating on the surface of the drug, causing the calcium and magnesium minerals in the milk to react with the drug to form insoluble substances, thereby affecting the release and absorption of the drug's efficacy.
In addition, it should be noted that you should not drink milk within 1 hour before or after taking medication.
7. Malted Milk Powder
Malted milk powder contains a lot of fat and sugar. If eaten with milk, it can cause loss of appetite and also affect the digestion and absorption of milk.
8. Pineapple
Pineapple and milk cannot be eaten together because pineapple is rich in fruit acid, while milk contains a large amount of protein. If consumed together, the fruit acid in pineapple will cause the protein in milk to coagulate, affecting the digestion and absorption of protein.
9. Milk and juice cannot be eaten together
More than 80% of the protein in milk is casein. In an acidic environment, casein is prone to coagulation, which can easily lead to indigestion and diarrhea. Therefore, it is recommended not to eat fruits immediately after consuming milk or dairy products.
10. Chives or Spinach
Vegetables and fruits like chives and spinach, which contain a lot of oxalic acid, will combine with calcium to form an insoluble precipitate, affecting the absorption of calcium in milk.
Drinking Milk: Avoid These Mistakes
Milk is rich in nutrients, not only including essential amino acids, but also high-content and easily absorbable calcium. Long-term consumption is very beneficial to the body. However, drinking milk must be done in a proper way. Here are some common misconceptions about drinking milk that you must be careful to avoid—
Drinking milk on an empty stomach
Drinking milk on an empty stomach will increase intestinal motility, shorten the time milk stays in the stomach, and prevent the internal nutrients from being fully absorbed and utilized. It is best to drink milk with some starchy foods, such as steamed buns, bread, corn porridge, or beans, to aid digestion and absorption.
Adding calcium powder to milk
The protein in milk is mainly casein, lactalbumin, and globulin, with casein being the most abundant, accounting for 83% of milk protein. Casein is composed of αs1-, αs2-, β-, and γ-casein.
If you add calcium powder to milk, the excess calcium ions will bind with the αs1- and β-casein, causing the milk to coagulate. In addition, calcium will combine with other proteins in milk to form a precipitate, a phenomenon that is more pronounced when heated. Therefore, it is crucial to avoid adding calcium powder to milk for supplementation.
Exposing milk to sunlight
It is common to see milk exposed to direct sunlight for a long time during delivery or collection. The sun will mercilessly destroy the nutritional components of the milk, or even spoil it.
After 2 hours of sun exposure, half of the riboflavin in milk will be lost. The lumiflavin, formed by the conversion of riboflavin under sunlight, can further destroy vitamin C. Therefore, milk should be protected from light and certainly not exposed to the sun for a long time.
Preferring highly processed milk
The nutritional value of highly processed milk is not necessarily better than that of fresh milk. This is because after multiple processing steps, trace elements or inorganic salts are often added to the milk, but these components are not needed by everyone, so they may not be suitable for everyone.