Farm to table foods: The nutritional value of milk

Ever wonder what happens to your food once it leaves the farm? Su-Nui Escobar is a certified nutritionist who helps educate Latinos on the importance of dairy and describes milk’s journey to your home. Farm to table foods, markets and restaurants are getting more common. It’s no surprise that moms are on the search for local options at the grocery store. Milk is one of the most common farm to table foods, often originating from dairy farms fewer than 300 miles away from your home. However, many moms for some reason are cutting back on dairy and encouraging their kids to drink milk. That means many kids across America are not getting the proper nutrients in their diets. That is why Escobar joins The Hype Magazine to tell about the importance of the nutritional value of milk.

How important is it that growing children receive the proteins and nutrients provided by dairy in their diets?

Well it is really important because it provides the building blocks of things like muscle and bones. For example, the protein is good for the muscle the vitamin D and calcium. It also helps with the bone health. Milk is a very easy way to provide these nutrients because if your kids are like my kids, they don’t always eat everything that I put on the plate. So, it’s a good way to do it in a way that is tasty and easy to do.

How does milk make its way from local farms to our glasses?

Well the great thing about milk now that we’re really trying to eat foods that come from local sources. Milk is one of those things. Since we have 47,000 milk producers in the nation, there’s always going be one near us. This means that the milk never has to travel over 300 miles to make it from the farm to our table. In addition, most of the milk producers are family owners, which means that they’re going to be looking out to make sure that we have a product that is high quality. So, milk is one of those things that naturally is local and it comes from the farm to our table.

What are some quick and delicious ways we can incorporate milk into our meals to ensure we’re all getting enough protein and nutrients every day?

Well there’s several ways for that! I’m going to talk really quick about doing the classic shake. You put milk, some local fruit and this is local and easy, so now you’re always going to have different fruits which is a good thing because you add some different nutrients to your family’s diet. Oatmeal with fruit and milk is always like a very safe, easy way to go. Also, granola with fruit and milk, another great option, and you know when you want to see a little bit you can do French toast which actually, if you prepare it at home, the syrup they could be very healthy and of course, pair up with a glass of milk for extra protein.

What about protein? Are we getting enough protein?

Yeah actually meals typically have eight grams of protein, which is great especially in the mornings, because we want to distribute the protein throughout the day. We don’t want just protein at lunch and dinner, but we also want at least 20 grams at breakfast. By providing a glass of milk we tackle at least eight of those grams.

Where can our viewers go for more information?

The web page in Spanish is www.fortis.com/lechepunto.com and for English recipes you can go to milklife.com and you will find delicious and tasty recipes, because at the end of the day, we want to eat healthy but moreover, we want to eat tasty.

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Tags: DCypher Studios

About the Author

David Morales is the Executive Editor of The Hype magazine. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, David has a background as an artist manager, writer, blogger, drummer, and in the human services industry. He is passionate about helping others, learning and has a deep empathy for the creative process. You can follow his social media @dcypherstudios