Who does not know about milk? Surely everyone knows it, milk is the food obtained from milking cows. Milk is one of the basic needs of the nations in the developed countries. The higher level of life and prosperity of the nation, the greater the level of milk consumption. In fact, nations in the underdeveloped countries do not to use milk as food. As in Indonesia, many people are less aware of the importance of consuming milk. Actually, milk is an almost perfect food and is a natural food for newborns, because milk is the only source of life-giving food immediately after birth. Here, there are three benefits of milk we need to know.
The first is that milk has high nutritional value since it contains good nutrition. Milk contains three components, those are lactose, protein, and milk fat, besides other materials such as water, minerals, and vitamins. Lactose is a major component of soluble carbohydrate in milk and is also known as milk sugar. The importance of milk protein is located in amino acids, which are useful for the growth and formation of the body's cells, while fat is the biggest energy source of lactose and protein. Fat also determines the flavor of milk. Another material such as water is the medium of the total solid dispersion. The minerals contained in milk are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, natrium, and klorium. Calcium and phosphorus are the most important minerals found in milk. Both minerals are important for bone growth. It is very difficult to meet calcium’s needs if supported by food only, without drinking milk. Vitamins found in milk are vitamin A, vitamin B complex, vitamin C (ascorbat acid), vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. And the point is that milk has a good riboplavin. Riboplavin and vitamin A are vitamins that are most often missing in the menu of the day. In addition, milk is also easily absorbed by the body. Therefore, milk can also be used as an antidote to the poison.
Secondly, we can meet milk in other forms. Now, we can find easily lots of products processed originally from dairy. These processed products are the products made from milk or products made from the rest of the treatment. These products include cream, nonfat milk, milk powder, condensed milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt and kefir.
1. Cream is milk that contains fat. Skim milk is milk which contains proteins. Cream and skim milk can be separated with a separator. The cream has low density, whereas skim milk has high density so that both can be separated.
2. Milk powder is a milk product through the process of evaporation. Wherever possible water content in milk is heated so that the water evaporates and finally the result of this process is the dry ingredients only.
3. Condensed milk is obtained by reducing the water content of milk to levels which stay around 40%. In the condensed milk, sugar and chocolate are usually added.
4. Cheese is basically frozen milk protein.
5. Butter consists of components that come from fat milk made by a process of stirring the vat of milk, which is called spin.
6. Ice cream is made from the main ingredients of milk fat, sugar, nonfat solids, stabilizing agent, and egg yolks. The main process in making this is freezing.
7. Yogurt is milk that has the result of maturation of certain tastes, because of the fermentation bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophillus. Fermentation of yogurt will lead a sour taste. If the desired flavor is not too acid, a substance that is commonly added is sweeteners or artificial flavors from fruits.
8. Kefir is a fermented milk product, but using a different microbe. The way is by fermenting milk with kefir grains consisting of lactic acid bacteria and yeast.
The last, milk is known as efficient product because milk is easy to get where we are, either in rural or urban area. In addition, the milk is relatively affordable prices at the bottom. If it is compared to buying supplements with high price to meet nutritional needs, milk is the best solution.
In conclusion, milk is food which has many advantages. Milk has high nutritional value, it can produce innovation products and it is efficient. So do you consume milk every day? If you don’t do that, you can start now.
sorces: Ashry, M. 2006. Ilmu Produksi Ternak Perah. Surakarta: LPP UNS dan UNS Press.
