Milk & It's Products

Milk is one of the most important food sources with several nutrition and health benefits. It is widely consumed and helps contributes to daily nutritional needs. Cow’s milk is most abundantly used followed by milk from buffalo and goat.

Apart from being a nutritious natural source milk also contributes to human nutrient needs from its various by-products. The most common milk products include cheese, butter, paneer, curd, yogurt, cream, etc.

Depending on the fat percentage milk comes in various forms such standardised milk (fat content is maintained at 4.5%), toned milk (fat content not less than 3%), double toned milk (fat content less than 1.5%), skim milk (fat content is reduced to 0.5-2%).

Nutritional and health benefits of Milk

• Milk is a rich source of protein. It contains good quality protein and lyseine, which one of the important essential amino acids.
• Milk fat is easy to digest. It contains essential fatty acids such linoleic and linolenic acid.
• It is major source of calcium and can help prevent osteoporosis one of the most common bone related diseases. It also contains vitamin D which helps in calcium absorption.
• It is an important dietary sources of preformed vitamin A
• It is a good source of riboflavin.
• Milk products such as curd and yogurt are probiotic foods, they contain beneficial bacteria which helps maintain a healthy digestive system.

Tips and Tricks

• Do not discard the whey water when paneer is prepared at home. Whey contains concentrated protein and antioxidants. Instead of discarding it, use it while cooking rice, or mix the water with dough.
• Make milk more interesting by adding flavours to it such as cardamom, strawberry, banana, chocolate, pista etc.
• To prevent scorching of the milk do not use thin vessels and high temperatures.

References:

• Dietary Guidelines for Indian- A Manual; ICMR, National Institute of Nutrition.
• Srilakshmi, B. (2002). Food Science (Revised. New age international publication).
• Milk Composition-FAO