8 Major Dietary Facts About Milk
Milk is an essential nutritional staple for many people's daily lives, as it not only replenishes the body's needed nutrients but also nourishes the skin! However, many people still have misconceptions about nutrition, causing nutrients that should have been absorbed to be wasted, and causing harm to the body!
Regular Milk Consumption
One, Add orange juice or lemon juice to milk for flavor
Adding orange juice or lemon juice to milk might seem like a good idea, but in reality, both orange and lemon are high in fruit acid. When this acid encounters the protein in milk, it causes the protein to denature, thereby reducing its nutritional value.
Two, The more sugar, the better
It's a common belief that unsweetened milk is hard to digest. Sugar is added to increase the calories supplied by carbohydrates, but it must be done in moderation. Generally, 5-8 grams of sugar are added per 100 ml of milk.
What kind of sugar is best for milk? Sucrose is the best choice.
When sucrose enters the digestive tract, it is broken down by digestive fluids into glucose, which is then absorbed by the body. Glucose has a low sweetness level, and using too much of it can easily exceed the recommended amount.
There is also the question of when to add the sugar. If sugar and milk are heated together, the lysine in the milk will react with the sugar at high temperatures (80°C-100°C), forming a harmful substance called glycosyllysine.
This substance is not only absorbed by the body but is also harmful to health.
Therefore, you should first let the boiled milk cool to lukewarm (40°C-50°C) before adding the sugar to dissolve it in the milk.
Milk Health Knowledge
Three, Milk with chocolate
Some people think that since milk is a high-protein food and chocolate is an energy food, eating them together must be very beneficial. This is not the case.
Adding chocolate to liquid milk causes a chemical reaction between the calcium in the milk and the oxalic acid in the chocolate, forming "calcium oxalate."
As a result, the calcium, which originally had nutritional value, becomes a harmful substance to the human body, leading to calcium deficiency, diarrhea, delayed development in children and adolescents, dry hair, easy fractures, and an increased incidence of urinary tract stones.
Four, Taking medicine with milk to kill two birds with one stone
Some believe that taking medicine with something nutritious must be beneficial, but this is extremely wrong.
Milk can significantly affect the human body's absorption rate of drugs, causing the concentration of the drug in the blood to be significantly lower than that of those who take the medicine without milk, in the same amount of time.
Taking medicine with milk can also easily cause a film to form on the surface of the drug. The calcium and other mineral ions in the milk can then react with the drug to form water-insoluble substances. This not only reduces the drug's efficacy but may also be harmful to the body.
Therefore, it is best not to drink milk for 1-2 hours before and after taking medication.
Five, The thicker the milk, the better
Some people believe that the thicker the milk, the more nutrients the body gets, but this is not scientific.
So-called "overly thick milk" refers to adding more milk powder and less water to milk, making its concentration exceed the normal standard.
Others are afraid that fresh milk is too thin and add milk powder to it. If infants and young children often consume overly thick milk, it can cause diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite, or even refusal to eat, and can also lead to acute hemorrhagic enteritis. This is because the organs of infants and young children are delicate and cannot withstand the burden and pressure of being overloaded.
Six, Adding rice soup or congee to milk
Some people think that this can make the nutrients complementary. In fact, this practice is very unscientific.
Milk contains vitamin A, while rice soup and congee are mainly starch-based. They contain lipoxidase, which destroys vitamin A. Children, especially infants, will have delayed development and be weak and prone to illness if they have an insufficient intake of vitamin A. Therefore, even for the sake of supplementing nutrition, the two should be consumed separately.
Seven, Milk must be boiled
Generally, the temperature required to pasteurize milk is not high. 70°C for 3 minutes or 60°C for 6 minutes is sufficient.
If boiled, the temperature reaches 100°C, and the lactose in the milk will caramelize. Caramel can induce cancer. Secondly, after boiling, the calcium in the milk will precipitate as calcium phosphate, thereby reducing the nutritional value of the milk.
Eight, Exposing bottled milk to sunlight can increase vitamin D
Some people learned from advertisements that to supplement calcium, you also need to supplement vitamin D, and that getting more sun is a good way to get it. So, they follow the advice and put bottled milk out in the sun. In fact, this is得不偿失 (not worth the loss).
The milk may gain some vitamin D, but it loses vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and vitamin C.
These three nutrients will break down in sunlight, causing them to be partially or completely lost. Moreover, the lactose in the milk will ferment in the sun, causing the milk to spoil.