Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Let's talk about Milk baby

One of the biggest shockers I had when I started my career as a Dietitian was the amount of adults who are still drinking whole milk.  Why?  Chances are you are not going to develop Rickets, so what is the deal with that?  There are several reasons why:  texture, taste, "Grandpa drank it and never had a heart attack", "skim-milk is too watery", and so on and so forth.  For those of you who do not have lactose intolerance or a milk allergy, drinking milk is a wonderful choice for protein, calcium, and vitamins.


A glass of skim milk (fat-free) contains~ 0 grams of fat, 90 calories, 8 grams of protein, 30% of your daily value of calcium, and 25% of your daily value of Vitamin D.
A glass of whole milk contains~ 8 grams of fat, 160 calories, 8 grams of protein, 30% of your daily value of calcium, and 25% of your daily value of Vitamin D.

Those extra 8 grams of fat make a huge difference because those 5 of those grams are saturated fats.  The icky kind that stick to your arteries & raise your LDL cholesterol levels.  And if you are watching calories, saving 70 calories by drinking skim milk vs. whole milk can leave you wiggle room for additional foods in your diet, such as a piece of fruit or some veggies with fiber to keep you satisfied.

Honestly, most adults eat too much fat and calories anyways.  Give your heart a break and make the switch to skim milk.  If you are having trouble with consistency and taste, even putting some Hershey's Sugar-Free syrup with Calcium in your milk makes it a better option than a glass of whole milk. 

5 comments:

  1. For those of us who *are* lactose intolerant, fortunately, there is lactose-free milk!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Use a cocoa powder instead of Hershey's Sugar-Free syrup, which likely has a scary fake sweetener in it, PLUS child slave labor. Yes, that's right. Hershey's gets a huge amount of their cacao from the Ivory Coast of Africa, where child slave labor on the cacao plantations is a huge problem. Wouldn't it do your heart good to NOT consume slave-made goods??

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the information & reply Kate! What kind/brand of cocoa would you suggest I mention instead? ~Allison

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done Admin. I really like the content of your blog. Seems like you spent considerable amount of time over the most recent posting as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great blog article about the Great blog article about this topic, I have been lately in your blog once or twice now. I just wanted to say hi and show my thanks for the information provided.

    ReplyDelete