MILK and dairy are an important part of a healthy balanced diet and provide essential nutrients like protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iodine, vitamin A, B2, B5 and B12. These help with strong bones, muscles, nerves, immune system, eyesight and reducing tiredness.
There’s a perception gaining hold that milk leads to excessive mucus secretion. I have heard many people tell me in recent months that drinking milk increases mucus production from the lungs and so they’ve stopped having milk themselves and/or stopped giving it to their children.
While certainly the texture of milk can make some people feel their mucus and saliva is thicker and harder to swallow, there is no evidence that milk leads to excessive mucus secretion. Dairy, including milk, is very versatile when it comes to nutrition and should not be avoided based on mucus producing myths. If a myth is repeated often by enough people, people think it’s true and disregard the truth.
Adults and children should aim for around three portions of dairy per day which includes milk (250mls), cheese (30g) and yoghurt (125g). Growing teenagers have higher calcium requirements so portion sizes can be a little larger than that set out for adults, i.e. milk 400mls, cheese 50g and yoghurt 150g as an example. Go for low-fat versions of dairy where applicable to context.
Lee McCusker (BA; MSc; MSc; MSc; ANutr; SENr) is a registered nutritionist from Belfast and can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Email: attentivenutrition@
gmail.com
