Written by: Senior Dietitian, Ng Yiu Fun
There are many different types of milk on the market, with different flavors or UHT milk that can be stored at room temperature. There are also many myths about milk consumption. Some people think that “whole milk is unhealthy” or “skim milk has chemicals.” How do we choose the right milk for our children?
The first thing we should be aware of is that boxed milk is refrigerated at -4 degrees Celsius. Why should it be refrigerated? Because boxed milk does not completely kill all the bacteria, after it has been stored for 10 or 8 days, the milk will begin to expire and cannot be consumed. Therefore, you must be careful not to drink fresh milk that has expired; otherwise, you will easily get gastroenteritis.
As for low-fat, whole milk, and skim milk, there are some rumors that whole milk is unhealthy or skim milk has chemical ingredients. In fact, this problem does not exist. First of all, since children are also divided into too light, too heavy, or standard body types, we have to look at our children’s body types to choose different milks, even if skim, whole milk are, in fact, full of nutrition.
For example, whole milk is suitable for children who are too light. They really need fat, so they can drink whole milk. It may be asked if some animal fats are not as good for the blood vessels. For children, their blood vessels are very elastic, and the fat in whole milk is not really that high, so an appropriate amount of whole milk is good for them and will not harm their bodies. If the child is too light, two packs of milk a day are not a problem at all.
For overweight children, we recommend skim milk. If it’s skim milk, we save less fat in other areas, such as not drinking so much soup, not eating so many juicy dishes, or not eating so many snacks. All these can help him not become overweight so easily. If an overweight child wants more calcium and different nutrients, one packet of skim milk a day is enough!