Q: I am a 51 years old male. Which milk should I have- full cream or low fat skimmed milk?

A:Though milk is a complete protein food when consumed raw, it also contains fat, which means that it combines poorly with any other food except itself. Yet adults today routinely 'wash down' other foods with cold milk. Milk curdles immediately upon entering the stomach, so if there is other food present the curd coagulates around other food particles and insulates them from exposure to gastric juices, delaying digestion long enough to permit the onset of putrefaction. Therefore, the first and foremost rule of milk consumption is, 'Drink it alone, or leave it alone.'

Today, milk is made even more indigestible by the universal practice of pasteurization, which destroys its natural enzymes and alters its delicate proteins.

Milk is now routinely 'homogenized' to prevent the cream from separating from the milk. This involves the fragmentation and pulverization of the fat molecules to the point that they will not separate from the rest of the milk. But it also permits their tiny fragments of milk fat to easily pass through the villa of the small intestine, greatly increasing the amount of denatured fat and cholesterol absorbed by the body. In fact, you absorb more milk-fat from homogenized milk than you do from pure cream!

What can you do about the milk-fat problem and still assure yourself of the good proteins, vitamins, and minerals in milk? Drink it in the recommended glassfuls each day, in amounts suggested, but cut down on the fat. You can compromise, according to your age and your blood-cholesterol levels.

1. For safety first, drink skimmed milk.
2. Otherwise Drink 1% milk…don’t worry you will get used to it.

Skim, or fat-reduced milk will taste different when you first sample it, but keep trying and you will soon develop a taste for it; just as many have developed a taste for black coffee. Once you start liking the new kind of milk, you will much prefer it to the old— and you will certainly like living longer.

The dairy industry can greatly help the cause of heart-saver eating by making fresh skim milk more universally available at prices, which are fair to the farmer, distributor, and consumer alike. The lack of "body" in fresh skim milk often discourages its use by consumers; but you can make it taste better by adding powdered skim milk, which makes it “thicker” and gives it a richer taste.