Click here for the printable (Word) version of the lesson

Make Mine Milk ...or Things Made From Milk

Introduction

Take two cooked chicken or turkey bones, clean and dry. Place one bone in a cup of water and the other in a cup of vinegar for two to three days. Go on with the lesson and in two to three days come back and compare the bones. What will you find? The acid in the vinegar will take calcium out of the bone, making it bend. You will easily see the difference between dense and porous bones. If your diet is calcium deficient over a long period of time, bone mass progressively decreases. Consuming products made with vinegar does not have this effect on people.

In this lesson, you will learn why everyone needs milk and milk products in their diet, how to choose among the different types of milk and how to deal with lactose intolerance.

Dietary Calcium

Calcium is the mineral your body uses to build bones and teeth. In two or three days, take a look at the bones you put in vinegar and water. See what happens when calcium is removed from bones. If you don't get enough calcium when you are young, you could suffer from osteoporosis when you get older. This is a painful disease where bones become brittle and break very easily. Calcium also may protect you against colon and breast cancer. It may also help regulate blood pressure.

Now that you know how important calcium is, who would you say needs calcium? That's right. Everybody needs calcium. However, some of us need more calcium than others. How much calcium do you need ? These daily recommendations were recently revised and increased.

• Children 1 to 3 need 500 milligrams of calcium.
• Children 4 to 8  need 800 milligrams.
• Youth 9 to 18 need 1300 milligrams.
• Ages 19-50 need 1000 milligrams.
• Adults 51 and older need 1200 milligrams.
• Pregnant or nursing teens up to age 18 need 1300 milligrams of calcium.
• Pregnant or nursing women 19 and older need 1000 milligrams.

In fact, professionals in the area of nutrition believe we need more. The National Institutes of Health recommends 1,000 mg of calcium for premenopausal and estrogen-treated women. They also recommend 1,500 mg of calcium for postmenopausal women not treated with estrogen.

One cup (8 ounces) of milk has about 300 milligrams of calcium.

Figure out how many glasses it would take to give you the calcium you need each day.

Most of us don't get enough calcium. This is especially true of teenagers. Calcium is very critical in teen-age years because bones are rapidly growing.

Take a look at the Food Guide Pyramid. How many servings a day from the milk group does it recommend? That's right, two to three servings. But remember, if you're a pregnant teen-ager you need a lot more. Now if we do a little math, three eight-ounce glasses of milk will give about 900 milligrams of calcium. So, if you need 1200 milligrams, where do you get the rest?

Eating a well-balanced diet that includes all of the food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid should provide the rest of the calcium you need.

One way to increase absorption of calcium is to get enough vitamin D. The best source is sunlight and milk fortified with vitamin D. All milk sold in Louisiana is fortified with vitamin D. Exercise also helps a person to use calcium.

Milk and milk products are our best source of calcium. Good nondairy sources include sardines and other fish canned with the bones, dark-green leafy vegetables, tofu, shellfish and orange juice with calcium added. And don't forget foods made with milk and milk products like macaroni and cheese, cream soups, pudding, custards, cheese pizza and tacos to name a few.

It's easy to get calcium without getting extra fat. Just learn to read the labels and select low-fat or non-fat products. In fact, skim and 1 % milks have more calcium than regular milk without the fat. The label tells the story.

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. Information and Graphics on this site are copyright protected by LSU Agricultural Center's Louisiana Cooperative Extension Services. For more information on the EFNEP program, contact EFNEPMail@agcenter.lsu.edu.