UHT-treated packaged milk does your child good

Milk companies turning tide by providing mothers with safer way of helping children gain energy and excel

KARACHI:

Every parent wants to see their child grow, flourish and lead a healthy life. In short, everyone wants to rear their own personal Einstein. This can only be possible if a child is exposed to healthy food from the start, which then contributes towards his/her growth and nourishment. A healthy body cultivates a healthy mind, thus the importance of consuming milk is relentlessly advocated.

Milk, being our first form of nutrition, is advocated as one of the healthiest drinks known to man. It offers calcium for strong bones, carbohydrates for energy, protein for growth, vitamins for red blood cells, phosphorus for utilising energy, riboflavin for healthy and glowing skin, and many other nutrients needed for a strong and healthy body.

But no matter how convinced you may be about the benefits of consuming milk, getting your child to follow suit is no easy feat. No mother is a stranger to chasing, bribing, cajoling and pleading to her child to drink milk. Getting children (and most grown-ups too) to drink milk at any time is a battle of its own. Growing children need milk but run away at the first sight of the white ‘stuff’ and its odour.



Despite its nutritional value, milk usually holds little to no appeal for the young ones. There was a time when mothers would try to disguise the taste of plain milk with honey, cocoa powder, nuts and all sorts of essences. But now, milk companies have taken it upon themselves to make lives easier for mothers.

Realising this and the fact that the primary concern for countless mothers remains the proper nutrition of their children, milk companies are providing them with a quick-fix solution. The local supermarkets now stock a wide array of Ultra High Temperature (UHT)-treated packaged milk, which is healthy, pure and odourless as compared to loose milk. With the advent of UHT-treated packaged milk, the tide seems to be turning and the days when kids ran for the hills at the sight of milk seem to be ending.

UHT-treated packaging not only enhances milk’s nine essential nutrients but also makes it taste great, giving children the much-needed energy, strength and power for optimal physical and mental growth. Research shows nutrient loss is a general aftermath of various processing treatments. The widely practiced method of milk pasteurisation in Pakistan is conventional boiling for a certain time period on the stove. In general, heating applied in industrial processing is UHT processing, which generally refers to milk that has been heated to at least 130°C for not less than one second and then aseptically packaged.

It is a fundamental principle for food and specifically for milk that the higher the temperature and shorter the processing time, the greater is the nutrient retention. During prolonged heating, certain sensitive components of milk, such as water-soluble vitamins, may get altered or destroyed.

UHT-treated milk has a wide array of benefits and should be encouraged. It combines a child’s wants with the needs of his or her body in one attractive healthy package. Many people are ignorant about the nutritional values associated with UHT-treated packaged milk and need to know it is healthier as compared to loose milk because the latter loses 50% of its nutrients when heated for more than a minute through conventional boiling methods, generally employed in households.

Mothers are often unaware of these facts and at times, even apprehensive about giving their youngsters UHT-treated packaged milk. It is, therefore, recommended that it be encouraged in order to ensure that children start drinking milk from a younger age and as much as possible, as it is at their tender age when the bones are best able to absorb calcium and become stronger. So, help your child gain the energy to outperform, the strength to excel and the power to thrive.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2016.

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