According to the latest Community Health Survey, on average we consume just over one portion of Milk and Alternatives per day.  That is not even close to the recommended daily intake for each age group:

• Children 2-3 and 4-8 need 2 servings
• Children 9-13 and teens 14-18 need 3-4 servings
• Adults 19-50 need 2 servings
• Adults over 50 need 3 servings

Milk products are our best natural source of calcium and they contain up to 16 essential nutrients that contribute to a healthy body.  I think milk products are even better than most people realize.  A balanced diet that contains enough Milk and Alternatives is associated with healthy bones, healthy blood pressure, and a positive outlook on life.

With all the chatter of milk and alternatives I thought it would be fun to have a little quiz.  I am going to throw down 5 questions below and you let me know in the comments if they are true or false.  I will tell you all the answers tomorrow.  I think this might be a fun way to interact so make sure you tell all your friends and maybe even post it on your blog or mention it on twitter/facebook.

Pop Quiz

Answer TRUE/FALSE in the comments to participate in the Quiz.

1. One string of cheese gives you less than half of serving
2. Two 100g single-serving containers of yogurt are just a little more than one serving
3. It takes almost 25 milkettes in your coffee to equal a serving
4. The milk people put on their cereal usually adds up to about a half of serving only
5. A 500ml container of flavored milk equals 2 servings

I hope you have a great Tuesday and I will for sure talk to you tomorrow.  I have a fun announcement this week once all the details get ironed out.

Take care

zesty

Hi everyone, Julie from Savvy Eats here!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with my blog, I am a Food Science & Engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in May. I’m an unusual engineering student in that I don’t want to do super-technical work when I graduate. What I really want to do is write about food. More specifically, I’d like to write about the science behind food.  To that end, I am starting a new series this week on my blog answering all your food science questions!

For my guest post today, then, I thought I’d explain why yogurt is a good source of calcium, but cottage cheese is not.  Hey, I live in Wisconsin, aka Dairyland, so it is entirely appropriate for my first post!

First of all, whole milk is essentially a bunch of fat molecules trapped in a water-based fluid.  The only reason that the fat and water don’t separate is that the proteins in milk keep it from doing so.

There are two types of proteins in milk.  Most of the proteins are casein, which are not soluble in water, but about 20% are whey proteins, which can dissolve in water.

That is the important part to keep in mind.

Whey = Soluble in water.  The green-ish liquid in the picture below, from food-info.net.

Casein = Not a fan of water.  Not water-soluble and therefore steers clear of it as much as possible.  Oh, and all the calcium is naturally found in the casein, not the whey!

Cottage Cheese

To make cottage cheese, the casein must be separated from the whey.   When this happens, the calcium leeches out of the casein and into the whey proteins.  Since all of the casein and only a little of the whey is curdled to make cottage cheese, then, there is very little calcium.

To summarize

Whey = Now has the calcium, and isn’t in cottage cheese.
Casein = Becomes cottage cheese, but has lost its calcium to whey.

Yogurt

To make yogurt, both the casein and whey proteins are curdled together, so none of the calcium leeches out.  Yogurt, then, is a great calcium source!

Yogurt = Contains casein + whey, and therefore keeps the calcium!

I hope you have found this interesting and enjoyable.  I’ll be posting soon on savvyeat.com about why you can use a flax/water mixture in the place of eggs when baking.   I hope you’ll check it out!