As a kid, you’re told to drink your milk by almost every adult you know, but why are you told to do that? Why does milk make up an important part of your diet and is this something that only applies to child wellness? Let’s investigate the role that milk has to play in your wellbeing.
According to the National Dairy Council, there are nine essential nutrients in milk that benefit your health:
1. Calcium: This mineral help your body to builds healthy bones and teeth, and maintain that bone mass as you age.
2. Protein: Not only does protein help your body to build and repair muscle tissue, it also serves as a source of energy.
3. Potassium: Also found in bananas, this mineral helps your body to maintain a healthy blood pressure.
4. Phosphorus: Your body needs phosphorus to help strengthen your bones and generate energy.
5. Vitamin D: This vitamin goes hand in hand with calcium, so it’s vital in helping your body to maintain bones.
6. Vitamin B12: This vitamin helps your body to maintain healthy red blood cells and nerve tissue.
7. Vitamin A: As well as maintaining your immune system, vitamin A helps your body maintain normal vision and healthy,
glowing skin.
8. Riboflavin: Also known as vitamin B2, riboflavin helps your body to convert food into energy.
9. Niacin: This vitamin, which also goes by vitamin B3, metabolizes sugars and fatty acids.
As well as packing this nutritional punch, milk can even play a role in your weight loss – albeit under the right conditions. Dr. Brian Roy, an associate professor of applied health sciences at Canada’s BrockUniversity, has recently published a study on how milk impacts your body after exercise. While he does allow that – generally speaking – there is some controversy surrounding milk’s influence on weight loss and body fat in general, Dr. Roy points out that, in his study, milk had a monumental impact on young adults’ weight.
The results of Dr. Roy’s study show that when young adults consumed milk after weight training, they lost more body fat and gained more muscle mass than those who had consumed different drinks that contained the same energy and macronutrients. He comments, ‘The important message from this is that it is probably important to include multiple servings of milk as a part of your daily diet. However, simply adding more milk to your diet will add to your total energy intake. So, if you add more milk to your diet, it likely will be most effective if it replaces other sources of energy from your diet, to ensure you are not consuming excess calories.’
But what about other studies that have claimed milk contributes to heart disease? Research led by professor Peter Elwood of CardiffUniversity has found that drinking milk can lessen your chances of dying from illnesses such as coronary heart disease and stroke by up to 15 to 20%. Elwood notes, ‘The fact that milk-drinking raises cholesterol is, for many people, proof that milk is a cause of heart disease. But cholesterol is only one mechanism in heart disease. Blood pressure is another relevant mechanism, and milk-drinking is associated with a lower blood pressure. It is therefore totally unreasonable to base conclusions about milk and heart disease on the effect on cholesterol alone.’ He adds, ‘As heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer are major sources of healthcare expenditure, any measure that is associated with a reduction in these diseases—however small that reduction is—is also bound to have an impact on healthcare costs.