Lose Weight Program > Why Milk Isn't Fattening

There may be reasons why you shouldn't drink milk, but "It makes me fat" isn't one of them. Unless, of course, you're a kind of walking tank car.

If milk were all cream, it could make you fat. The fat content of whole milk is not excessive, however, considering the other vital elements it supplies liberally.

Moreover, the proteins of milk, and other foods of animal origin, are "complete." That is, they supply all the eight essential amino acids (chemical building blocks out of which proteins are made) that your body needs just as it does vitamins. There are upwards of twenty-two amino acids, but many of them can be provided by body chemistry. The eight that can't be are missing, in various degrees, from the proteins of cereals and vegetables. But when a complete protein comes along, it furnishes the missing ingredients and steps up the effectiveness of the deficient proteins.

Milk is the richest source of calcium in the average diet, and you are quite likely to be deficient in this mineral (without which your heart couldn't beat and you couldn't twitch a muscle) unless you have a minimum of a glass of milk a day, or unless you develop a taste for kale (or yogurt, or broccoli, oranges, almonds, tofu, black beans,spinach, cheese, sardines, peanuts, peas and more). A daily pint of milk is usually considered to meet adult needs fully. Of course, the milk needn't be drunk, but may be used in cooking, and many other foods, such as enriched bread, supply a good deal of calcium.

Whole milk is superior in one respect: It contains Vitamin A. This is a fat-soluble substance, lost when cream is removed. However, when the daily calorie intake is restricted, as in a reducing diet, skim milk is preferred because the calorie value is just about cut in two.

The only significant loss is of Vitamin A, and this can be made up in other ways. Indeed, the calcium content of skim milk is higher than an equal quantity of whole milk, and the same is true of the important water-soluble B vitamins. Buttermilk has about the same calorie value as skim milk, for in the commercial product the butterfat has been removed. That's one way the dairies make a living.


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