Why milk is good for you

Milk is natures’ most complete food, it contains over 400 nutrients, with endless possibilities. Milk is not high in calories when it’s low fat  so, don’t remove milk totally from your diet, but choose low fat milk since it contains all the nutrients found in full cream milk except for the fat.

Even as an adult, you need to drink milk, bit it is important to know that not all milks are the same. Fortifying milk with vitamins and minerals is a very delicate process, and the quality and quantity of the added nutrients have a direct effect on health.

Stating these facts, President Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Prof. Ngozi Nnam, recommends regular drinking of milk because of its richness in calcium and importance for the bones.

“Milk  contains more than nine essential nutrients necessary for good health, strong bones, energy and a stronger immune system,” she noted.

She spoke on World Milk Day, at a forum by FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, noting that the 2013  theme: “Do More with Milk” is a central idea to  communicate milk as an essential nutritional beverage for a healthy life style.

Mnam argued the importance of enabling Nigerians exchange knowledge on the various ways milk can be used. Nigerians are already versatile with conventional ways of using milk, hence the awareness is focused on the goodness of milk and education on other possible milk usages and their corresponding nutritional benefits.

World Milk Day was created by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to reflect on all the goodness that milk represents and its economic importance for rural areas and the food chain as a whole.

By SOLA OGUNDIPE