Can sugar be added to milk?

Reason: Some people want to add sugar to flavor the milk, but they are afraid that adding sugar will destroy the nutrition of the milk. Ignore the statement "cannot add sugar to milk", which has no scientific basis.

Analysis: "Rumors" about milk are always prevalent. Two of the most "broad-spectrum" ones are that milk cannot be drunk on an empty stomach. Drinking milk on an empty stomach is nonsense"), milk cannot be drunk with sugar.

It is rumored that milk cannot be boiled with sugar because the lysine in milk can react with fructose under heating conditions to form toxic fructosyl lysine, which is harmful to the human body. The rumored reaction is actually the "Maillard reaction", that is, when there are both proteins and sugars in the food, brown substances will be produced when heated and a strong aroma will be released.

According to this understanding, milk contains both protein and lactose, and this reaction will occur even if no sugar is added. The Maillard reaction requires less water, higher concentrations of protein and sugar, and higher heating temperatures. Daily heating of milk does not meet the above conditions.

In addition, there is also a saying that brown sugar cannot be added to milk. Brown sugar contains fruit acid, which can easily cause protein denaturation and precipitation when added to milk, affecting digestion and absorption. But even if brown sugar is not added, milk will be denatured when it encounters gastric acid in the stomach. Moreover, denaturation does not affect protein absorption, but is more conducive to digestion and absorption.

Summary: It’s okay to drink boiled milk with sugar, and you can even drink milk at room temperature with sugar. There is no need to worry that added sugar will affect the nutrition of milk or produce substances that are harmful to health. But it should be noted that it is best to drink milk in its original flavor, and especially do not let your children develop the habit of adding sugar to milk.

2 Do you know the proportion of sugar added to milk?

When feeding babies with fresh milk, some sugar is often added to the milk. This is not only for the sake of sweetness, but also because the sugar content of milk is insufficient and cannot meet the needs of infant growth and development. Each 100 ml of milk contains 3.5 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fat, and 4.8 grams of sugar, of which the energy provided by sugar only accounts for about 30% of the total energy. The composition of this kind of nutrients is not as ideal as breast milk for babies, and some sugar needs to be added to supplement calories. The specific method is to add 5-8 grams of sugar per 100 ml of milk, that is, a concentration of 5-8. It can also be calculated based on adding about 25 grams of sugar to 500 ml of milk.

Some parents do not pay attention to the sugar ratio when feeding their children fresh milk and add some sugar casually. This is wrong. The amount of sugar added to milk can directly affect the digestive function of children. If too much sugar is added and exceeds 8, the baby will suffer from diarrhea or puffiness, and the resistance will be weakened; if less than 5 sugar is added, the baby will not take in enough calories, which may cause diarrhea in the long run. Malnutrition. Therefore, you must pay attention to the appropriate proportion of sugar added to milk. Of course, many infant milk powders on the market have added sugar in proportion, so there is no need to add more sugar when using it.

3 Heating milk and adding sugar turns it into poison

Milk is a drink we often drink in our daily lives. However, many of us have misunderstandings about drinking milk. Relevant experts said that usually when we heat milk, it will Drinking with added sugar is a very unscientific way to drink.

It is not advisable to eat oranges about an hour before and after drinking milk. Because once the protein in milk meets the acid in oranges, it will coagulate, which will affect the digestion and absorption of milk. It is not advisable to eat other acidic fruits during this period.

80% of the protein in milk is casein. When the pH of milk is below 4.6, a large amount of casein will agglomerate and precipitate, making it difficult to digest and absorb. In severe cases, it may cause indigestion or diarrhea. Therefore, acidic drinks such as juice should not be added to milk.

The lysine contained in milk can react with fructose under heating conditions to generate toxic fructosyl lysine, which is harmful to the human body. Do not add sugar to fresh milk when it is boiling. It is not too late to add sugar after the milk has cooled slightly.

Milk is rich in protein and calcium, while chocolate contains oxalic acid. When eaten together, they will combine to form insoluble calcium oxalate, which greatly affects the absorption of calcium and may even cause dry hair, diarrhea, and slow growth. .

Because milk easily forms a covering film on the surface of the drug, the calcium, magnesium and other minerals in the milk react chemically with the drug to form water-insoluble substances, thus affecting the efficacy of the drug.

4 Eight taboos on drinking milk

1. Avoid boiling it over a slow fire

Boiling milk over a slow fire will cause the vitamins in the milk to be destroyed by oxygen in the air. , and milk boiled over high heat will easily overflow. Therefore, when the volume of milk expands, you should immediately leave the fire source, and then put it back on the fire to boil. Repeat this three or four times. This will not only maintain the nutrients in the milk, but also And it can kill pathogenic microorganisms in milk.

2. Avoid exposure to the sun

In daily life, it is often seen that during the delivery and collection of milk, the milk is directly exposed to the sun for a long time. In this way, the sun will mercilessly destroy the contents of the milk. of nutrients, even causing it to deteriorate. When exposed to sunlight for 2 hours, half of the riboflavin in milk will be lost, and the fluorescent riboflavin converted from riboflavin by sunlight can further destroy vitamin C, so milk should be protected from light and should not be exposed to the sun for a long time.

3. Avoid boiling milk for too long

Some people think that boiling milk for 5 minutes is appropriate, but this view is not comprehensive. Because the colloidal protein particles in milk can dehydrate and transform into a gel state at 60°C. Calcium phosphate in milk is also unstable and easily changes from acidic to neutral at this temperature and precipitates. When heated to 100°C, milk undergoes complex chemical changes, which not only reduces the color, aroma, and taste, but may also produce other substances that reduce the nutritional value. At present, most milk is scientifically sterilized and sealed, and can be drunk directly. If you want to drink hot milk, you can adopt the method of heat insulation and heating. Just put the fresh milk bag in hot water for 5 minutes, so that it can retain more milk. Many nutrients.

4. Avoid adding sugar to boil

Many people add sugar when boiling milk, thinking that this will make the sugar dissolve as quickly as possible. However, they do not know that adding sugar when heating is very unscientific. practice. Because milk contains lysine and white sugar contains fructose, these two substances will form a conjugate at high temperatures - fructosyl lysine. This substance cannot be digested and absorbed by the human body, destroying the nutritional value of the protein. What is worse is that it may also be toxic to the human body. Therefore, do not add sugar when heating milk. If you want to drink milk with added sugar, you can add sugar after the milk cools down a bit.

5. Avoid eating with oranges

Milk is decomposed in the stomach under the action of pepsin and pancreatin, and then enters the small intestine to be absorbed. If milk is eaten together with fruits such as oranges that contain high amounts of fruit acid, the protein in the milk will undergo a complex biochemical reaction with the fruit acid and vitamin C and solidify into lumps. This will affect the digestion and absorption of the protein in the milk and the vitamin C in the oranges. In addition, adverse reactions such as bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea may occur, so eating both together is not worth the gain.

6. Avoid adding calcium powder

The proteins in milk are mainly casein, lactalbumin and lactoglobulin, and casein has the highest content, accounting for 83% of the milk protein. Casein is composed of OCK-, K-, β- and γ-casein. If you add calcium powder when drinking milk, excess calcium ions will combine with OCK- and β-casein, causing the milk to coagulate. In addition, calcium will combine with other proteins in milk to cause precipitation, especially when heated, this phenomenon is more obvious. Therefore, when supplementing calcium for children, avoid adding calcium powder to milk.

7. Avoid adding chocolate

Some people like to add chocolate to milk to remove the strange smell in the milk. This is unscientific. Milk is rich in protein and calcium. When eaten together with chocolate, the calcium in the milk combines with the oxalic acid in the chocolate to form insoluble calcium oxalate. Not only is it difficult for humans to absorb, but over time, dry hair, diarrhea, and calcium deficiency may occur. and other phenomena. Therefore, the time for drinking milk and eating chocolate should be separated. It is best to eat carbohydrates such as biscuits and bread when drinking milk.

8. Avoid using milk to deliver medicines

Milk and dairy products contain a lot of calcium and iron ions. Generally, every liter of fresh milk contains 1,300 mg of calcium and 1,300 mg of iron. 0.4 mg.

These ions and certain drugs (such as tetracyclines) can form stable conjugates or insoluble salts, making the drugs difficult to be absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, and some drugs are even destroyed by these ions. If such drugs are taken with milk, the concentration of the drug in the blood will be greatly reduced and the therapeutic effect will be affected. Therefore, medicines should not be taken with milk. Eating milk and its products should be separated by one and a half hours from taking medicine.