Milk is nutritious and loved by many. However, there are some common misconceptions about drinking milk. What are these specific misconceptions? Let's find out together!
Breakfast milk is more nutritious than regular milk
Truth: Breakfast milk has a lot of sugar and a little added oatmeal, so its nutritional value is similar to regular milk. However, it contains food additives like artificial flavoring, making it less healthy than plain milk. The energy and protein in a serving of breakfast milk only meet about one-third of your breakfast needs and cannot replace a full meal. For breakfast, you can drink a glass of pure milk along with appropriate portions of staple foods, nuts, and fruits for a complete nutritional balance.
High-calcium milk is better for supplementing calcium
Truth: Milk is already rich in calcium, and its calcium and protein are in a delicate balance. Adding a small amount of calcium may have little effect on this balance, but adding too much can easily destabilize the protein system, causing protein precipitation and affecting the taste and quality. Therefore, adding calcium to milk is a very technically difficult process, and more is not necessarily better.
Leafy greens are better for supplementing calcium than milk
Truth: An article widely circulated on WeChat claims that leafy greens are better for supplementing calcium than milk. Milk, soy products, nuts, dried shrimp, and leafy greens all contain calcium. The effectiveness of calcium supplementation depends not only on the calcium content but also on the absorption rate. Calcium from milk and dairy products is easily absorbed, while although leafy greens contain calcium, they also contain oxalic acid and phytic acid, which can hinder calcium absorption. Leafy greens can be a source of calcium from foods other than milk.
Milk cannot be mixed with fruit juice
Truth: First, the acids in fruits and vegetables are mostly organic acids, such as malic acid and citric acid, which do not form insoluble compounds with calcium and therefore do not inhibit calcium absorption. Second, fruit juice contains oxalic acid, which combines with calcium to form calcium oxalate precipitate, affecting calcium absorption. However, this also depends on the oxalic acid content in the juice and the amount of juice mixed with the milk.
Eating milk and papaya together reduces nutritional value
Truth: Papaya contains proteolytic enzymes. Because of this, some people have speculated that papaya breaks down the protein in milk, rendering its nutrients useless. In fact, the enzymes in papaya break down protein into small molecular peptides or amino acid fragments, which actually makes the nutrients easier for the body to absorb.