Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Milk shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Milk offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Milk at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Milk? Wrong! If the Milk is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Milk then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Milk? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Milk and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Milk wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Milk then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Milk site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Milk, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Milk, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

's milk.Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals (including monotremes). Mammary glands are highly specialized sweat glands. The female ability to produce milk is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. It provides the primary source of nutrition for infant before they are able to digestion other types of food. The early lactation milk is known as colostrum, and carries the mother's antibody to the baby. It can reduce the risk of many diseases in the baby. Males of all mammal species retain the breasts that are part of the fundamental mammalian animal structure, hence their nipples. Lactation occurs in males in certain rare circumstances, both naturally and artificially, however, some pharmaceuticals precipitate lactation in males readily. The exact components of raw milk varies by species, but it contains significant amounts of saturated fat, protein and calcium as well as vitamin C.

Types of milk consumption There are two distinct types of milk consumption: a natural source of nutrition for all infant mammals; and a food product for humans of all ages derived from other animals.

Nutrition for infant mammals In almost all mammals, milk is fed to infants through breastfeeding, either directly or, for humans, by breastfeeding#expression the milk to be stored and consumed later. Some cultures, historically or presently, continue to use breast milk to feed their children until as old as seven years. . . . or just go with the flow?. The Times, May 5, 2005.

Food product for humans In many cultures of the world, especially the Western world, humans continue to consume milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals (in particular, cows) as a food product. For millennia, cow's milk has been processed into dairy products such as cream, butter, yogurt, ice cream, and especially the more durable and easily transportable product, cheese. Industrial science has brought us casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, and many other food-additive and industrial products.

Some mammals lose the ability to digest milk properly if a long period passes without consumption of it after weaning. In many ethnic groups, people lose the ability to digest milk after childhood (that is, they become lactose intolerant), so many traditional cuisines around the world, such as Chinese cuisine, do not feature dairy products. On the other hand, those groups that do continue to tolerate milk often have exercised great creativity in using the milk of domestication ruminants, not only of cows, but also sheep, goats, yaks, water buffalo, horses, and camels.

The term milk is also used for whitish non-animal substitutes such as soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, and coconut milk. Even the regurgitated substance Columbidae feed their young is called crop milk though it bears little resemblance to mammalian milk.

History cattle, the dominant breed in industrialized dairying today.

Milking has its advent in the very evolution of placental mammals. While the exact time of its appearance is not known, the immediate ancestors of modern mammals were much like monotremes, including the platypus. Such animals today produce a milk-like substance from glands on the surface of their skin, but without the nipple, for their offspring to drink after hatching from their eggs. Likewise, marsupials, the closest cousin to placental mammals, produce a milk-like substance from a teat-like organ in their pouches. The earliest immediate ancestor of placental mammals known seems to be eomaia, a small creature superficially resembling rodents, that is thought to have lived 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous era. It almost certainly produced what would be considered milk, in the same way as modern placental mammals.

Animal milk is first known to have been used as human food at the beginning of animal domestication. Cow's milk was first used as human food in the Middle East. Goats and sheep were domesticated in the Middle East between 9000 and 8000 BC. Goats and sheep are ruminants: mammals adapted to survive on a diet of dry grass, a food source otherwise useless to humans, and one that is easily stockpiled. The animals were probably first kept for meat and hides, but dairying proved to be a more efficient way of turning uncultivated grasslands into sustenance: the food value of an animal killed for meat can be matched by perhaps one year's worth of milk from the same animal, which will keep producing milk — in convenient daily portions — for years (McGee 8–10).

Around 7000 BC, cattle were being herded in parts of Turkey. There is evidence of milk consumption in the British Isles during the Neolithic period. The use of cheese and butter spread in Europe, parts of Asia and parts of Africa. Domestic cows, which previously existed throughout much of Eurasia, were then introduced to the colonies of Europe during the Age of exploration.

Other milk animals In addition to cows, the following animals provide milk used by humans for dairy products:



In Russia and Sweden, small moose's milk also exist. Donkey and horse milk have the lowest fat content, while the milk of pinnipeds contains more than 50% fat. Milk From Cows and Other Animals, web page by Washington Dairy Products Commission

Whale's milk, not used for human consumption, is one of the highest-fat milks, containing up to 50% fat. MSN encarta livescience.com The high fat content of whale's milk is not a product of cetacean's great size, as guinea pig milk has an average fat content of 46%.

Human milk is not produced or distributed industrially or commercially; however, milk banks exist that allow for the collection of donated human milk and its redistribution to infants who may benefit from human milk for various reasons (premature neonates, babies with allergies or Metabolic disorder, etc.).

All other female mammals do produce milk, but are rarely or never used to produce dairy products for human consumption.

Modern production {| class="wikitable" align=left style="clear:left"! colspan=2|Top Ten Milk Producers — 2005
(1000 tonnes)|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 91,940|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 80,264.51|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 32,179.48|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 31,144.37|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 29,672|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 28,487.95|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 26,133|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 23,455|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 14,577|-| || style="padding-left:10px" | 14,500|-|World Total || style="padding-left:10px" | 372,353.31|-|colspan=2 style="font-size:.7em"|Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation ]'s milk is produced on an industrial scale. It is by far the most commonly consumed form of milk in the western world. Commercial dairy farming using automatic milking equipment produces the vast majority of milk in Developed country. Types of cattle such as the Holstein (cattle) have been specially bred for increased milk production. According to McGee, 90% of the dairy cows in the United States and 85% in Great Britain are Holsteins (McGee 12). Other milk cows in the United States include Ayrshire cattle, Brown Swiss, Guernsey cattle, Jersey cattle, and Milking Shorthorn. The largest producers of dairy products and milk today are India followed by the United States FAO Food outlook: International dairy product prices are turning down: how far, how fast? FAO online publication, 1 June 2006 and New Zealand.

Price It was reported in 2007 that with increased world-wide prosperity and the competition of biofuel production for feedstocks, both the demand for and the price of milk had substantially increased world wide. Particularly notable was the rapid increase of consumption of milk in China and the rise of the price of milk in the United States above the government subsidized price."A Thirst for Milk Bred by New Wealth Sends Prices Soaring" article by Wayne Arnold in the New York Times September 4, 2007


Physical and chemical structure Milk is an emulsion of butterfat globules within a water-based fluid. Each fat globule is surrounded by a membrane consisting of phospholipids and proteins; these emulsifiers keep the individual globules from joining together into noticeable grains of butterfat and also protect the globules from the fat-digesting activity of enzymes found in the fluid portion of the milk. In unhomogenized cow's milk, the fat globules average about four micrometres across. The fat-soluble vitamins vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K are found within the milkfat portion of the milk (McGee 18).

. The largest structures in the fluid portion of the milk are casein protein micelles: aggregates of several thousand protein molecules, bonded with the help of nanometer-scale particles of calcium phosphate. Each micelle is roughly spherical and about a tenth of a micrometer across. There are four different types of casein proteins, and collectively they make up around 80 percent of the protein in milk, by weight. Most of the casein proteins are bound into the micelles. There are several competing theories regarding the precise structure of the micelles, but they share one important feature: the outermost layer consists of strands of one type of protein, kappa-casein, reaching out from the body of the micelle into the surrounding fluid. These Kappa-casein molecules all have a negative electrical charge and therefore repel each other, keeping the micelles separated under normal conditions and in a stable colloidal suspension (chemistry) in the water-based surrounding fluid Dairy Chemistry and Physics, webpage of University of Guelph (McGee 19–20).

Both the fat globules and the smaller casein micelles, which are just large enough to deflect light, contribute to the opaque white color of milk. The fat globules contain some yellow-orange carotene, enough in some breeds — Guernsey cattle and Jersey cattle cows, for instance — to impart a golden or "creamy" hue to a glass of milk. The riboflavin in the whey portion of milk has a greenish color, which can sometimes be discerned in skim milk or whey products (McGee 17). Fat-free skim milk has only the casein micelles to scatter light, and they tend to scatter shorter-wavelength blue light more than they do red, giving skim milk a bluish tint. Dairy Chemistry and Physics, webpage of University of Guelph

molecule being broken down into glucose and galactose.

Milk contains dozens of other types of proteins besides the caseins. They are more water-soluble than the caseins and do not form larger structures. Because these proteins remain suspended in the whey left behind when the caseins coagulate into curds, they are collectively known as whey proteins. Whey proteins make up around twenty percent of the protein in milk, by weight. Lactoglobulin is the most common whey protein by a large margin (McGee 20–21).

The carbohydrate lactose gives milk its sweet taste and contributes about 40% of whole cow milk's calories. Lactose is a composite of two Monosaccharide, glucose and galactose. In nature, lactose is found only in milk and a small number of plants (McGee 17). Other components found in raw cow milk are living white blood cells. Mammary-gland cells, various bacteria, and a large number of active enzymes are some other components in milk (McGee 16).

Processing In most western world countries, a centralised dairy facility processes milk and products obtained from milk (dairy products), such as cream, butter, and cheese. In the United States, these dairies are usually local companies, while in the southern hemisphere facilities may be run by very large nationwide or trans-national corporations (such as Fonterra).

Pasteurization and raw milk Pasteurization is used to kill harmful microorganisms by heating the milk for a short time and then cooling it for storage and transportation. Pasteurized milk is still perishable and must be stored cold by both suppliers and consumers. Dairies print Distressed inventorys on each container, after which stores will remove any unsold milk from their shelves. In many countries it is illegal to sell milk that is not pasteurized.

Unfortunately, the heating destroys the vitamin C content and light further destroys other beneficial aspects of milk, being the reason that opaque containers are recommended for storage and transportation. Humans are among the few animals who cannot manufacture vitamin C so its presence in the natural milk of their mothers is essential for the health of human infants and vitamin supplements are necessary for human infants fed only pasteurized milk.

Milk may also be further heated to extend its shelf life through ultra-high temperature treatment (UHT), which allows it to be stored unrefrigerated, or even longer lasting Sterilization (microbiology).

Those preferring raw milk argue that the pasteurization process also kills beneficial microorganisms and other important nutritional constituents. The resulting pasteurized product is said to be less digestible, be less nutritious, and turns Rancidification (as opposed to fermented milk) with age. However, unpasteurized milk can harbor harmful disease-causing bacteria such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, salmonella, diphtheria, and escherichia coli. Raw Milk Vs. Pasteurized Milk. Reproduction from Armchair Science, London 1938. The cows must be maintained in very sanitary conditions and a watchful eye kept as to disease testing and vaccinations for this to be completely safe. Cheeses made with raw milk are regarded as safer as the milk typically had to be heated to some extent anyway to make the cheese, and this would kill many of the dangerous organisms possibly present.

Creaming and homogenization Upon standing for 12 to 24 hours, fresh milk has a tendency to separate into a high-fat cream layer on top of a larger, low-fat milk layer. The cream is often sold as a separate product with its own uses; today the separation of the cream from the milk is usually accomplished rapidly in centrifuge cream separators. The fat globules rise to the top of a container of milk because fat is less dense than water. The smaller the globules, the more other molecular-level forces prevent this from happening. In fact, the cream rises in cow milk much more quickly than a simple model would predict: rather than isolated globules, the fat in the milk tends to form into clusters containing about a million globules, held together by a number of minor whey proteins (McGee 19). These clusters rise faster than individual globules can. The fat globules in milk from goats, sheep, and water buffalo do not form clusters so readily and are smaller to begin with; cream is very slow to separate from these milks (McGee 19)..Milk is often homogenization, a treatment which prevents a cream layer from separating out of the milk. The milk is pumped at high pressures through very narrow tubes, breaking up the fat globules through turbulence and cavitation. Homogenization of Milk and Milk Products, webpage of University of Guelph A greater number of smaller particles possess more total surface area than a smaller number of larger ones, and the original fat globule membranes cannot completely cover them. Casein micelles are attracted to the newly-exposed fat surfaces; nearly one-third of the micelles in the milk end up participating in this new membrane structure. The casein weighs down the globules and interferes with the clustering that accelerated separation. The exposed fat globules are briefly vulnerable to certain enzymes present in milk, which could break down the fats and produce rancidity flavors. To prevent this, the enzymes are inactivated by pasteurizing the milk immediately before or during homogenization. Homogenized milk tastes blander but feels creamier in the mouth than unhomogenized; it is whiter and more resistant to developing off flavors (McGee 23). Creamline, or cream-top, milk is unhomogenized; it may or may not have been pasteurized. Some have suggested that homogenized milk is harder to digest or not as suited to some people as is unhomogenized milk. Unlike pasteurization, homogenization confers no health or safety benefits to the milk, only the convenience of not needing to shake the bottle oneself.

Unhomogenized milk has made a small comeback in a few areas, such as the west coast of the United States where Straus Family Creameries, based originally out of Sonoma, sells one line of organic milk with the cream still on top in old-fashioned glass bottles. They still however pasteurize it to prevent harmful microorganisms.

Nutrition and health The composition of milk differs widely between species. Factors such as the type of protein; the proportion of protein, fat, and sugar; the levels of various vitamins and minerals; and the size of the butterfat globules and the strength of the curd are among those than can vary. Introduction to Dairy Science and Technology, webpage of University of Guelph For example:



Aquatic mammals, such as pinniped and whales, produce milk that is very rich in fats and other solid nutrients when compared with land mammals' milk.

=== Nutritional benefits ===

Processed milk began containing differing amounts of fat during the 1950s. A serving (1 cup or 250 ml) of 2%-fat milk contains 285 mg of calcium, which represents 22% to 29% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) of calcium for an adult. Depending on the age, 8 grams of protein, and a number of other nutrients (either naturally or through fortification):



Studies show possible links between low-fat milk consumption and reduced risk of arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease,colorectal cancer and obesity. Overweight individuals who drink milk may benefit from decreased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 Diabetes mellitus. Dairy's Role in Managing Blood Pressure, web page of the US National Dairy Council

Interestingly, a study has shown that for women desiring to have a child, those who consume full fat dairy products may actually slightly increase their fertility, while those consuming low fat dairy products may slightly reduce their fertility due to interference with ovulation. However, studies in this area are still inconsistent.

Nutritional/physiological detriments

Controversy surrounding milk and milk production A number of advocate groups have sprung up protesting that milk presents a health threat. While whole and other fattened forms of milk contain a large amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, factors which are known contributors to the risk of heart disease and many individuals are lactose intolerant, no study has concluded any causal health risk to normal individuals consuming moderate quantities of skim and fat-free varieties of milk.

Common claims cited by anti-milk advocates:



No study has ever conclusively demonstrated that the levels of white blood cells found in normal milk actually pose any health risk to normal individuals.



No study has indicated that consumption of rBST-produced milk increases IGF1 levels, nor has any study demonstrated an increased risk of any disease between those consuming rBST and non-rBST produced milk. In 1994, the FDA has concluded that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows, nor does any test exist which can differentiate between milk from rBST-treated and non-rBST treated cows. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00564.html

==== Lactose intolerance ====

Lactose, the disaccharide sugar component of all mammal, milk must be cleaved in the small intestine by the enzyme lactase in order for it's constituents (galactose and glucose) to be absorbed. The production of this enzyme declines significantly after weaning in all mammals including humans (except for most northern westerners and a few other ethnic groups, lactase decline occurs after weaning, sometime between the ages of two and five). Once lactase levels have dropped, consumption of even minute amounts of dairy can cause diarrhea, Flatulence, cramps and bloating, as the undigested lactose travels through the gastrointestinal tract and serves as nourishment for intestinal microflora who excrete gas.

Nutrition - comparison by animal source Milk Composition Analysis, per 100 grams{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"|-! Constituents! unit! Cow! Goat! Sheep! Water Buffalo cows produce milk of about 5.2% fat, [Zebu cows produce milk of about 4.7% fat, Brown Swiss cows produce milk of about 4.0% fat, and Holstein (cattle) cows produce milk of about 3.6% fat. The protein range for these four breeds is 3.3% to 3.9%, while the lactose range is 4.7% to 4.9%.

Milk fat percentages in all Beef cattle vary according to digestible fibre, starch and oil intakeshttp://www.kt.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/FACT%20sheet%20PDF%20files/kt21.pdf, and can therefore be manipulated by dairy farmers' diet formulation strategies. Mastitis infection can cause fat levels to decline.http://books.google.com/books?id=qJgdAEhQvnMC&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=mastitis+and+milk+fat+levels&source=web&ots=PrguNhnHdm&sig=W_MS2A7FWTBksmBYvZZk38dRh4A

==Varieties and brands== Cow's milk is generally available in several varieties. In some countries these are:



Milk in the U.S. and Canada is sold as:

 

Milk



 
Copyright © 2008 Hintcenter.com - All rights reserved.
Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
All Trademarks belong to their repective owners. Many aspects of this page are used under
commercial commons license from Yahoo!