Thursday, April 2, 2009

Milk vs Yogurt? why you should choose Milk

I just penned in an entry below on Sri Lanka's craze as a yogurt eating nation and the possible misconceptions arising therefrom, and then I realized that there is a serious educational flaw amongst the public about the importance of fresh milk over any other milk product, processed or not.

I have milk cows and from the beginning of this venture I have steadily lost money, not being able to make the venture work. If I sell to the Milk board in the name of Nestle, Highland, Kotmale, Anchor or other collecting company, I would receive between 22 and 30 rupees per litre having delivered it to the collecting center. It is therefore a no brainer when I go out an hour after milking, to try and sell milk to my neighbours at Rs60 a bottle(75% of a liter).Considering the fact that UHT milk in cartons under the name of Ambewela Milk sells at Rs125 per litre in the shops, this is an excellent value alternative. Boil it at that time and give a child a glass of milk before sending them off to school at that early hour of the morning.

Milk is the most nutritious drink, especially for a young person who needs Calcium and Protein in easily absorb able forms for their growth. However these parents said today that as it rained last evening, that they should not drink milk! "seethala" or some excuse. The same excuse is used for king coconut and for orange.

These parents don't have any hesitation in giving a 25 rupee yogurt cup giving less than a tenth of the nutritional value of the bottle of milk. Yes yogurt is more easily digestible as the lactose in milk turns into a more digestible lactic acid in the yogurt, but a child fed on milk will not usually suffer from lactose intolerance at the early stages where milk drinking is important.

I digress a bit but please read the labels on the ice creams, as most are sold only with vegetable fat and not milk fat, reducing its nutritional value further.

I am therefore at a loss to sit and explain all these attitudes parents have, which I now believe is due to miscommunication in the TV ads, where there is no countering by a milk lobby that is essential to publicise the virtues of milk. Failing which our educational system must try and fill the void extolling the virtues of fresh milk to every small child, and so they will at least know that fresh milk is preferable to any other nutritional intake they have become accustomed to.

Remember milk is a whole meal in itself with almost all the nutrients save for a few vitamins and a couple of minerals. Parents just review how much you spend on your child's food and see if they can have a more nutritional diet with fresh milk for a lower cost. Why is it that some of my customers give the fresh milk to feed their dogs and give their children powdered milk, which has now been shown to have extracted the animal fat and replaced it with vegetable fat? questioning whether you can actually call it MILK!!!

2 comments:

Jack Point said...

Milk is good for children but less so for adults who cannot digest it in its raw form, because they lack an enzyme called lactase.

Processed milk products like youghurt and cheese can be digested by adults.

PleaseElaborate said...

This is a long rant, but why milk is better than yogurt has not been elaborated!