With #Februdairy in full swing, Farmers Guardian explores the nutritional values and health benefits for dairy consumers.
Nutritional Value
As humans, we require many vitamins and minerals for our growth and repair, and there are not many single food components such as milk that are as nutritionally rich as milk. It contains key vitamins such as calcium, for healthy bones and teeth, as well as phosphorus, which is remarkably beneficial for the development and functioning of our cells.
The NHS state the average person aged 19-64 requires approximately 700mg of calcium per day, and a regular 8 oz glass of milk has up to 300mg. That is just short of half your daily intake.
Heart Health
Milk has copious amounts of vitamin D and K, these two are exceptionally beneficial for cardiovascular health.
A mix of all the nutrients suspended within milk are likely to decrease the chance of type 2 diabetes and improve your heart health drastically.
Stress relief
A whopping 20 per cent of our milk protein is whey protein, containing all 9 amino acids (and having a high level of the leucine amino acid). This means it is ideal for muscle growth and repair.
So, with the sufficient amounts of protein we digest via milk, the easier it is for our muscles to work efficiently.
Sustainable sourcing works
We are all concerned for the future of our planet, and one way seen as an active contribution to climate change is by consuming dairy products.
What often is not taken into consideration, however, is that all the 'eco-friendlier' alternatives, such as soy milk, have incredibly high amounts of food miles and a large carbon footprint, as they often come from other countries where only that plant can grow.
To make room for these alternative plants to grow, mass amounts of deforestation also occur in the Amazon, destroying an ecosystem that produces 20 per cent of the worlds oxygen.
Therefore, it is a lot kinder to our planet to locally source milk from a nearby dairy farmer, with ineptly low food miles and no deforestation at all.
Children need growth
Thanks to the endless list of nutrients that allow our bodies to develop and change, milk is a great source of nutrition for children.
The calcium alongside other vitamins aid children throughout their constant phase of growth, and if calcium deficient, their body will begin to take away from other elements of the body, decreasing functioning efficiency.
