Running head: MILK IS HEALTHY FOR HUMANS

Dairy Product Today - Milk: Is drinking milk healthy for humans?

Jingru Dou

University of New Mexico

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Dairy Product Today - Milk:

Is drinking milk healthy for humans?

The public's definition of health has changed gradually with more and more

understandings of a quality life. This is especially obvious in diets. People are on the way of

pursuing for food with better nutrients that helps human bodies. Therefore, we have been starting

revalue the food we ate every day. The demand of food product’s diversity and individualization

are improved remarkably. High protein, high-fiber, and low fat foods became the mainstream

consumption. Such as, milk is a good choice for human. It is rich in protein, calcium, vitamins,

and many other micro element which is a well-balanced diet and provided basic nutrients for

human bodies. However, even milk is a perfect nourishment, some people could not drink it at

all. A tiny little sip of milk they will have symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal distension,

stomachache, and such. When someone have the symptom like above does or related, most of

them accuse the problem to milk. Someone have consumption problems of dairy products since

they were born.

In fact, these group of people probably have lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance, is a

condition that human body cannot digest lactose efficiently and cause adverse reactions. Lactose

is one of the disaccharide and it can be not absorb by human body at the first place. It need to be

lactase hydrolyze into monosaccharide to be absorbed. This is the main problem of people who

have lactose intolerance facing with due to their lactase are less active or loss activity completely

in their body. The lactose accumulated in their small intestine because it can not be absorbed will

cause infiltrate concentration anomaly. And as these lactose moved along in intestinal tract, it

will used by the micro-organisms in large intestine, which produce excess amount of gas, acid,

and other metabolism. And it will cause many lactose intolerance clinical effects such as
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abdominal distension and nausea. Lactose intolerance influenced many people around the world,

however, most of the milk and other dairy products nowadays are available for people who have

lactose intolerance. And it is not a problem anymore after milk has been improved and

transformed.

Milk provide us variety of the basic sources

Milk and its products are the important sources of protein, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin

A, vitamin D and vitamin B2 in the diet. Also include other minerals, these are all support with

the basic nutrition need for human bodies. Melissa Majumdar (2019), stated that “Drinking milk

is a great way to meet needs for nine essential nutrients, including: phosphorus, B12, calcium,

magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin D, riboflavin, niacin, and protein” (Majumdar, 2019). Fresh

milk is a complex latex body that composed with water, fat, protein, lactose, minerals, vitamins,

etc. Its nutrients are relatively low compared with other foods because the it only contains 86%

to 90% water. In addition to relatively large fluctuations of fat, the various type of milk are

basically stable, which means many milk such as bovine milk, donkey milk, goat milk, sheep

milk are all drinkable and they are all benefits human.

Vitamins is an organic which are essential for human bodies. Milk provided fat soluble

such as vitamins A and vitamins D. Vitamins A also can be called as anti - xeroma vitamins.

“Fat-soluble vitamins are compounds essential for the human body, as they regulate various

processes” (Gupta, Sumit, Syama, Sharma, 2017). Vitamin A is one of the most vitamins that

helps for human body growth and metabolism. It fear lights and ultraviolet ray, and oxidation

rapidly in the air. However, it is heat resistant which means it will not lost its with a hundred

degree Celsius.
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Vitamins A are contained inside of animal, and it especially abundant in liver and cod-

liver oil. Milk is abundant in vitamins A sources. The major function of Vitamins A in human

body is developing growth, protecting mucosa and epithelium, strengthen children’s immunity,

maintain eye healthiness and protect eyesight, enhance skeletal growth, also to maintain normal

reproduction ability. Especially for keep mouth, nose, eyes, lungs,stomachs and intestine’s

healthiness. Vitamins A formed a human body protective screen for defending the invasion of

bacteria. At the same time, it also produce antibody that resists exotic germs.

Furthermore, milk contains carbohydrate which are also one of the important resources

for human body. Milk carbohydrates mostly are lactose, and it is in the range of 3.4% to 5.4%.

Lactose improve its bio-availability by promoting calcium, iron, zinc and other minerals absorb

in the intestines. It also improve the human micro-ecological balance by promote the

reproduction of intestinal lactic acid bacteria, and promote the synthesis of vitamin B in

intestinal bacteria . Take this example, some people do not like to drink cow milk for many years

in adulthood. The lactase activity in their body is low and cannot break down the lactose. Lactose

is decomposed and fermented by intestinal microorganisms in the intestines, causing symptoms

such as flatulence and diarrhea, which is called lactose intolerance. However, they can eat milk

powder treated with lactase, or eat some yogurt to take the symptoms down.

Milk helped our bodies become more healthier

As we all know, milk is a good resources of protein. Breaking down proteins and some

other compounds in milk into bio-active moieties have some good effect on human health.

Because it will release of encrypted pep-tides. A Canadian researcher Griffiths (2016), states that

“The release of encrypted peptides from caseins and whey proteins has several impacts on health
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as these peptides have antimicrobial, antihypertensive, anti-cancer, anti-virulence and

immunomodulatory activities, among others” (Griffiths, 2016). However, milk contains high

concentrations of saturated fats (SFA) (Jenkins, McGuire, 2006), which involved high risk of

heart disease (Huth, Park, 2012). Therefore, a group of people works on alternating cow’s diets

to create a better fatty acid profile of the milk to reduce the risk of heart disease. In their studies,

they found out that “...although provided in a late stage of lactation, a n-3 fatty acid enriched diet

favourably changed milk fatty acid profile, from a nutritional point of view, and promoted

animal healthiness by enhancing cellular and humoral immune response” (Bragaglio, etc, 2015).

Furthermore, a group of researchers have studied the fact on how milk influenced on

women. Their research is widely studied on many different types of women in the society. They

found out “the frequency of drinking milk is positively associated with intakes of calcium,

vitamin D, protein, etc” (Feskanich, etc, 1997). And their further study claimed they “...found no

suggestion of a reduced risk of fracture of the hip or forearm when women in the category of two

or more glasses per day were compared with those in the one or fewer glasses per week

category” (Feskanich, etc, 1997). Combined their data, it is not hard find out the more milk

consumption women take, the healthier they get. Indeed, the frequency of milk consumption is as

important as keeping healthy. So it leads to a fact that people are eating less vegetables with

more meats nowadays, thus it is important for us to find a substitute to prevent nutrition lost

completely in our bodies.

Thirdly, it is obvious that milk is calcium rich and I believe most of people know why

calcium is important. Since we were young our parents told us to drink milk, and the reason they

have is variety but all kinds the same: milk helps us grow. The reason calcium help grow is that

it build us stronger bones and increase the mass of bones. And stronger bones help us grow faster
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also make our body stronger, for us to fight better with diseases. Meantime, not only calcium

supported in bone health, but the muscle health and teeth health. Other food products can help

also but milk are the most available source for calcium intakes.

People who against with Milk - Opposition

Case #1: Breast milk is better than cow milk for children

Some people argues that human milk is more nutritious than cow milk for infants. Infants

should only be taking breast milk rather than cow milk. They disbelieve and disagree with the

fact that more and more mother choose to feed their baby with cow’s milk. Even some

researchers use scientific method claimed that “human milk is more nutritious than bovine

because of its large fraction of beta casein, and small fraction of alphaS1” (Voorhoeve, etc,

2018). Indeed, “human milk is the recommended food for all neonates, but as breast milk alone

does not meet the nutritional requirements of preterm newborns, it is supplemented with

additional nutrients” (Bertino, etc, 2019).

Today is not same as the yesterday, more and more women start show up in places like

businesses, politics, science labs, etc. They are less likely provide sufficient breast milk for

infants grow. There are two reasons it happen. First, they don’t have enough time to feed baby

and some of mother even buy breast milks online. A group of people tested milk purchased

online and found out more than half of milk purchased online are not 100 percent human milk

and some of the donated milk even contain diseases (Keim, 2015). Studies suggested that

“Vitamin D concentration of milk in healthy women is low, even with currently recommended

vitamin D intake, and would theoretically provide inadequate vitamin D intake compared with

recommended intake for infants” (Dawodu and Tsaung, 2011).

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Second, if they don’t have enough rest or over exhausting at the moment and their breast

milk may have some problems. Studies “showed that breastfeeding without adequate sunlight

exposure and vitamin D supplementation are important risk factors for vitamin D deficiency

rickets in breast-fed infants” (Dawodu and Tsaung, 2011).

Overall, cow’s milk may be problematic to infants, however, breast milk cannot provide

enough nutrients that infants needed. Therefore, the best way solve this problem is mothers can

feed infants their breast milk and milk powder (with infant formula) together enables infant’s

healthiness.

Additional benefits of milk

Today, milk can be made into all different type for human to taste, such yogurts, cheese,

milk powder, pasteurized milk, raw milk, etc. These are all substitute of milk that helped people

get their nutrients need. It gave people variety of choices to choose between milk products.

Flavored milk is the milk added more sugar that will be more populated among people, mostly

school kids. “The advantage of including flavored milk in the diets of children is that, despite its

added sugar content, flavored milk has a nutrient profile similar to that of plain milk, ... and the

data on consumption shows that flavored milk intake may have increased over time, highlighting

the significance of understanding the role of flavored milk in the diet of children” (Fayet-Moore,

2000). As you can see, there are many options for people to choose which increase the popularity

of milk in dietary industry.

Milk: A Proven Healthy Dairy Product for Children and Adults

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The probiotics of milk and milk components have extraordinary effect on human health.

“As well as the more commonly known benefits of drinking milk such as it being an excellent

source of calcium, there are emerging nutritional advantages to the consumption of milk and

dairy products, such as increased satiety, which may help combat obesity, and it has been shown

that components of the milk fat globule membrane may reduce cancer cell proliferation”

(Griffiths, 2016). Obviously, milk is good for human health. Even there might have problems

with milk, we always can use scientific method to find the solution and upgrade it to another

level. For instance, Chinese kids cannot drink milk due to speciality of ethnic group. Scientists

start searching and experimenting about how to make it drinkable for them. Just like Sheng

(2019), and other scientists find out in their studies, “replacing conventional milk with milk

containing only A2 β-casein reduced gastrointestinal symptoms associated with milk intolerance

in Chinese preschool children, with corresponding improvements in aspects of cognitive

performance” (Sheng, Li, Ni, Yelland, 2019). It not only tell us they find a solution to for it but

also there are always solution to solve questions as long as we know the mechanisms. And “as

we learn more about the mechanisms involved in the health benefits of consuming dairy

products, the opportunities to ‘design’ healthier foods through the modification of milk

components or the addition of fermentative cultures become endless” (Griffiths, 2016). Scientific

method and developing new ideas will benefits us find out more values of milk. Even some

people have some side effects after drinking milk, but the medical systems and technology is

stronger day by day. And they find out milk is actually good for health and people drinking milk

already for a long time. In conclusion, milk is a proven health dairy product for people and it is

“the most popular type of dairy food among children and the single largest source of dietary

calcium among children in the United States” (Fayet-Moore, 2000).

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Antoniazzi, Sara,. Moro, Guido E.,. Spada, Elena,. Milani, Silvano,. and Coscia, Alessandra.

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