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THEWIDEWORLD OF MILK AND ITS DERIVATIVES NUTRITIONAL QUALITIES What are the nutritional characteristics of milk and its derivatives? Follow me, I will introduce them to you! The nutritional composition of milk and dairy products can vary between the different types of products. However, in general, milk is a source of: • Water that we all know to be very important for our body! • Carbohydrates which are contained in milk as lactose, a sugar which from a chemical point of view is made up of two molecules called galactose and glucose; • Proteins that are contained in milk in quantities of about 3.5g per 100g of product. Milk proteins are divided into whey proteins (about 20%) and caseins (80%). Milk proteins are high quality proteins, among the most digestible and bioavailable ones because they contain a good balance of all essential amino acids 2 . • Fats that are found in milk in quantities that vary according to breed and diet, lactation stage and other factors. Fats are mainly present as saturated fats and partly as unsaturated fats. Some technological treatments can reduce the fat content in milk. There are different types of milk on the market that contain a different amount of this nutrient: WHOLE milk (which contains a minimum of 3.5 g / 100 g), PARTLY-SKIMMED milk (which contains a quantity of fat between 1.5 and 1.8 g / 100 g) and SKIMMED milk (which contains a maximum of 0.5 g / 100 g); • Minerals that are very abundant and account for about 1% of the weight of milk. The greatest mineral content is certainly calcium, while the second is phosphorus. These two nutrients are necessary for the proper maintenance of bones; • Vitamins which are contained in raw milk in high quantities. In particular, milk contains Vitamin A in addition to carotenoids, which are especially abundant in the 2 The explanation of what “amino acids” are is inside the second volume “Discover all the secrets of pulses, white meats, fish products and eggs”. You can download it from www.esselunga.it, in the section “Let’s learn to eat well”..