Dairy products are known to build and maintain healthy teeth and bones. Plentiful milk, yogurt, and cheese in your diet can be good for heart health, blood pressure, and maintaining a healthy weight. Therefore. dairy products greatly help improve health!
Dairy items like. Milk, Cheese, and Yogurt are naturally loaded with important nutrients such as calcium and protein. The unique package of vitamins and minerals they provide means these dairy products have vital health benefits. Dairy products help improve our health in many ways. Here are some benefits of dairy products to our body systems.
Improve Digestive Health
Fermented foods contain probiotics and active bacterial cultures with unique characteristics that allow them to survive in our gastrointestinal tract. When consumed in proper amounts, these provide us with health benefits and have the potential to maintain a natural balance of the gut microbiota.
Fermented dairy products like yogurt, culture drinks, and kefir are some of the most common and very easily available food sources of probiotics. These products are an ideal source of probiotics. The composition of milk (which has carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) acts as a protective matrix to retain the survival of probiotics from the digestive system through our gut, this also helps them survive the adverse conditions of the stomach.
Improves Bone Health
Bones are our living tissues, that are constantly in a state of repair and renewal, so building and maintaining bones from childhood to elderly age is very important. The key ingredients for strong bones in life include calcium-rich foods such as milk, cheese, and yogurt, weight-lifting exercises, and also vitamin D from safe and adequate sun exposure.
Bad bone health can increase the risk of osteoporosis, a disease where bones become brittle and are at a high risk of fracture. In many countries, osteoporosis affects one in three men and one in two women over the age of 60. Bone health is determined by both lifestyle factors and genetics. Moreover adopting a bone-health friendly lifestyle at any age can help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Improve Dental Health
Good dental health involves much more than just having the right oral hygiene. Healthy nutrition and proper eating habits also help to keep our teeth healthy. Dairy foods have a vital role to play in dental health. This is because they contain a unique combination of special anti-decay nutrients. For example calcium, phosphorus, and the protein, casein.
- Milk helps reduce the risk of cavities, which makes it a good drink of choice between meals.
- Hard cheese, another dairy product has been linked to reducing the risk of teeth erosion and dental cavities.
The Australian Dental Association recommends eating a small amount of cheese after consuming sugary foods or drinks to help protect teeth and reduce their risk of tooth decay.
Weight Management
Healthy weight maintenance and body weight requires balancing our energy from food through daily activities or proper exercise.
Dairy products are a good part of a proper calorie-controlled diet. They are often counted as a vital portion in portion-control meals. Adequate portions of milk, yogurt, or cheese a day can help lose more weight, more inches from the waist, and more body fat as compared to people who eat fewer servings of dairy foods a day.
Muscle mass and Hydration
Protein drinks help build lean muscle mass. Many such proteins are found in milk. For example whey and casein. These are the most commonly used nutrition supplements designed to maintain or grow muscle mass.
Milk contains these high-quality proteins that provide all the essential amino acids required to build and maintain muscle mass. Milk’s unique blend of whey and casein protein contains amino acids in a pattern similar to muscle protein.
Casein is a slow-to-release and slow-to-digest protein which has been shown to reduce muscle breakdown.
Whey is a quick-absorbing and fast-acting protein with a high concentration of leucine – a branched-chain amino acid. Leucine specifically helps stimulates the building of new muscle tissue. Whey protein is mostly found in protein powders. The compound is present in milk, thereby making it an ideal food for muscle formation.
Milk also assists with rehydration after an exercise session by replacing fluids and electrolytes (potassium. and sodium) in the correct balance. Other nutrients in milk, like protein, help the body retain fluid more effectively.
Reduces risk of Diseases
Dairy products play an important role to maintain a healthy diet and reduce the risk of serious diseases. Here are a few examples.
- A healthy diet that includes a variety of foods from the five main food groups such as fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, and yogurt can help you manage your blood pressure. Additionally, multiple studies show that three daily serves of milk, yogurt, and cheese reduce the risk of hypertension.
- A healthy lifestyle and diet can help reduce the risk of heart disease. Studies show that people who regularly consume milk, cheese, and yogurt are more likely to have a reduced risk of heart disease as compared to those who don’t.
- A review that combines the effects of 16 separate studies for over 520,000 people, states that higher intakes of all varieties of milk, yogurt, and cheese were linked to an 11% reduction in the risks of type 2 diabetes as compared to people eating fewer dairy foods.