Let’s take a look at a pressing controversy today. Real vs Fake dairy products. Alternative dairy products are making a jump as they are supposably healthier, safer, and a more humane way to consume products. Dairy alternatives rely on calcium fortifications and other synthetic nutrients just to try to come close to whole milk’s unique package of essential nutrients packed with vitamins and minerals. Whole milk has 13 essential nutrients which are necessary for bone health and brain development. Milk is 87% water and 13% nutrients which makes it virtually 97% fat free. Synthetic dairy products are made from lab grown dairy proteins combined with fats and minerals to imitate a product that looks and tastes like cow’s milk. These imitation products fall short of what whole milk offers based on nutritional value. Fake dairy products have additives and sugars within which cause it to be unhealthy. Milk’s only ingredient is milk.
Take butter for example, real butter has milk and cream for ingredients. Now let’s take a look at commercial margarine, which ingredients include Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Water, Buttermilk, Potassium Sorbate, Soy Lecithin, Mono and Diglycerides (emulsifiers), Lactic Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta-Carotene. Can you pronounce all of those names? I always tell students and adults if you can’t pronounce it, do not eat it. Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. Do you really want to be consuming that?
When you look at the ingredients it should be obvious that imitation dairy products are very unhealthy for you. They truly lack compared to whole dairy products that come from farm to table. Farmers take great pride in their cattle in producing nature’s most perfect beverage, milk. It is a cow’s job to produce milk and they could get sick with a disease called Mastitis if they are not. It is vital that children drink whole milk from a young age so they can develop strong bones and a healthy developing brain. The next time you go to a grocery store for dairy products, turn the product around and look at that nutrition level. Is it a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce? That should be your answer for which products to buy.