Drink more milk – it is good for you!

Drink more milk – it is good for you!

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Statement by Osteoporosis New Zealand, Executive Director, Julia Gallagher.
Milk is a great food source of protein, minerals and micronutrients. Focusing on the fat content alone is too simplistic as the fat content is typically 3% in blue top milk, and considerably less in the trim milk and fortified milk products. This is much lower than meat, and most processed foods. Rather, milk offers a rich source of calcium, the essential building block for bones, and it is excellent that there is a choice of product with calcium content twice as high in some products than in standard milk. Osteoporosis New Zealand rejects the claim that anything but basic milk is only marketing hype and is therefore unnecessary.

Dairy companies invest heavily in nutritional research to determine the most optimal composition of products for specific nutritional needs. In many cases there is sound, independent clinical evidence of a beneficial effect in some people for drinking fortified milks.
Calcium from dietary sources is the favoured approach of having an adequate intake, and enriched milk makes it easier for people to achieve their required intake of these nutrients.

We agree that basic low fat milk is certainly a healthy product, but for those with high calcium requirements (growing children and postmenopausal women in particular), milk with added calcium is an even more effective way of meeting daily calcium requirements.

Ministry of Health figures show that large numbers of New Zealanders are also not getting enough calcium in their food and beverages to protect against osteoporosis.

Some milk products contain added nutrients such as Vitamin D. There is also growing evidence that many New Zealanders are deficient in vitamin D. This vitamin is produced in the skin by exposure to sunlight, though in winter time, in the elderly and in those who cover up in the sun, levels can get dangerously low for the maintenance of good bone health. Vitamin D is also not present naturally in many foods so it is difficult to obtain enough from diet alone.
The combination of calcium and vitamin D in a healthy food product such as low fat milk is not only convenient, but it’s clinically important in building and maintaining the strength of bones and avoiding broken bones due to osteoporosis.

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