When it comes to the way of consuming milk, many people dismiss it, thinking, "Is there even a need to explain? Just gulp it down." This is unscientific. There are also principles to consider when consuming milk. It should be advocated to 'eat' milk rather than 'drink' it. This means consuming it with starchy foods like steamed buns or bread, allowing the milk to be slowly chewed in the mouth before swallowing. This allows for full contact between the milk and salivary digestive enzymes, can also prolong the milk's stay in the stomach, enabling enzymatic action with gastric digestive juices, and then being slowly released into the intestine for easier absorption and utilization.
If you gulp down milk, it is not conducive to intestinal absorption.
At first glance, the above paragraph seems very reasonable, but what is the actual situation? We always say "drink milk," and no one says "eat milk," because milk is a liquid food, and grammatically, it cannot be said to be "eaten" milk. Even from the perspective of nutrient absorption, you cannot "eat" milk. Firstly, there is no digestive significance in the milk fully contacting salivary digestive enzymes in the mouth, because milk contains lactose, while saliva contains salivary amylase, and there is no digestive or digested relationship between the two. Secondly, the idea that because milk is a liquid, its passage through the stomach will be very short, affecting its digestion, is a fanciful result. This is because when the protein in milk comes into contact with gastric acid, it denatures quickly and is then broken down and digested by pepsin in the gastric juice. Also, because milk contains protein and fat, its transit time through the stomach is much slower than that of water. Thirdly, after milk passes from the stomach into the small intestine, the small intestine is the primary site for the digestion of proteins and fats. Under the action of trypsin, lipase, bile salts, and other substances, the nutrients in the milk are digested and absorbed.
In fact, the protein and fat content in milk is not high. For adults or children with normal eating habits, the main purpose of drinking milk is not to supplement protein. The protein content of milk is about 3%, while lean meat is about 20% and fish is about 18.5%. At this point, the important role of drinking milk is to supplement the calcium that the body needs. 100 ml of milk contains about 110 mg of calcium, which is far higher than other foods. The digestion and absorption of calcium in milk have little to do with whether you drink or "eat" it.
Mixing milk with other foods has certain benefits, but it is not a matter of "drinking" versus "eating" as mentioned above. For people with lactose intolerance, consuming milk with other foods can reduce the concentration of lactose, thereby reducing the occurrence of intolerance symptoms.