It might not be a highlight on everyone's calendar, but 1 June marks World Milk Day - a chance to consider something that we perhaps take for granted.
Twenty years ago, World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to recognise the importance of milk as a global food, and to celebrate the dairy sector. Each year since, the benefits of milk and dairy products have been actively promoted around the world, including how dairy supports the livelihoods of one billion people.
This year's celebrations will kick off with the Enjoy Dairy Rally from 29 - 31 May. Each day will have a specific theme culminating with World Milk Day on 1 June:
29 May - Nutrition
30 May - Community
31 May - Enjoy
Follow the campaign on social media using the hashtags: #WorldMilkDay and #EnjoyDairy
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Nutrition Coach Jackie Wilkinson of Learn to Eat Well distils the truth behind the staggering range of milk types:
The choice of coffees is dizzying these days. Not just flat white, cappuccino or Americano but many varieties of milk with which to make them. The supermarket range of milks has grown hugely too. You'll only get the full nutritional benefits from the real thing but with so many types to choose from, you'll always be able to put something white in your coffee. Here's a look at their nutrition:
Whole milk is rich and creamy with such high quality protein, good fats, high bio-availability minerals and vitamins and digestibility, it rates even better than steak. Dairy appears to protect against heart disease, strokes and diabetes.
Jersey gold top is creamier still and hasn't been homogenised so the cream rises to the top - remember the blue tits pecking through your bottle tops?
Unpasteurised milk is available from farms around the country and still contains its enzymes and beneficial bacteria. It might reduce children's risk of suffering from eczema, hay fever and other allergies.
Organic is the gold standard for animal welfare and lack of chemicals.
Reduced fat milk contains good protein, lots of B vitamins and plenty of calcium and phosphorous. It is usually fortified with synthetic vitamins A and D because the natural vitamins are lost with the fat. However, without the fat, it is harder for your body to absorb the vitamins and the calcium.
A common mistake is to think skimmed milk helps weight loss. I call it the skinny latte fallacy. It's the natural sugar in milk that could cause weight gain so less milk is a better strategy.
Goats' milk is similarly nutritionally to cows' and its A2 casein causes fewer allergies than the A1 protein found in most cows' milk.
Lactose-free milk is really useful if you're intolerant to the sugar in milk (lactose). In South East Asia and Southern Africa 90% are lactose-intolerant but in Northern Europe it's only about 3%. This problem has been exacerbated now that most of the milk available is pasteurised which destroys the enzyme lactase you'll find in raw milk. Another option might be to use the fermented milk kefir which contains hardly any lactose.
Filtered milk has longer shelf life. This comes at the loss of health-beneficial good bacteria. You can make up for this by eating live, natural yoghurt or kefir.
Long-Life milk has been ultra-heat-treated to sterilise it. It's very handy for a weekend shoot if you don't have access to a fridge, as is powdered milk.
Flavoured milks are a bit like runny ice cream with their added sugar, flavouring and other chemicals, so don't ever think of these as healthy. The best I found on sale were from Shaken Udder. My grandfather used to make us milk shakes using Jersey gold top, a few strawberries or cocoa powder and a bit (not a lot) of banana in a blender.
Milk substitutes are helpful if you have allergies. They're white and they pour but they're not milk. Most of them have more than five ingredients and are therefore classed as ultra-processed. They may have synthetic vitamins and minerals added and most have low protein and fat but you can use other foods to make up for what milk would have provided.
Nut milks generally contain only ~2% nuts and might have more added sugar than that - check the label. It's easy to make your own. Just soak some nuts in a glass of water overnight. In the morning, rinse well in a sieve and put in a blender with some fresh water. Whizz. That's it. You can strain out the pulp if you prefer.
Oat milk and rice milk have little to commend them nutritionally and are mainly carbohydrate or as Dr Unwin calls it Â"soon to be sugar” which might not help you during a shoot.
Soya milk has high protein content but this has only a partial set of amino acids. It's calcium comes with the anti-nutrient phytic acid which blocks calcium absorption. I do not recommend consumption of unfermented soya in any form, including milk.
Coconut milk is good for fat and flavour.
Hemp milk is a new one on me and provides some excellent fats.
For more information on diet and nutrition contact Jackie Wilkinson at: jackie@learntoeatwell.co.uk
