Warm Milk Puts You to Sleep??

There has been much discussion about whether or not warm milk can aid in the process of sleep. A lot of mothers would say that they give their children a glass of warm milk to make them fall asleep. Does heated up milk truly help people fall asleep? The answer is not completely known. There are people who feel they can fall asleep quicker with the help of a glass of heated up milk, but in a New York Times article by Anahad O'Connor put an end to the debate over this topic.

The article stated that it can help people fall asleep, but it is not because it contains an enzyme called tryptophan. You might have heard of this enzyme before, it tends to be a popular talk at many dinner tables during Thanksgiving. People claim that the reason for them getting tired after their meal is because the turkey contains tryptophan. Studies have shown that this enzyme can help only the first stage of sleep, and this is when you initially fall asleep. This is the only stage enhanced by the enzyme. Other stages of sleep can actually be harmed by tryptophan; stages like the deep sleep stage. So the verdict is that warm milk can help you sleep, but it is not because of tryptophan. We don't really know why it can help you sleep, and it doesn't help all the people that drink it sleep.

One more fun fact, for those who still believe that it is the turkey that makes them sleepy at thanksgiving, you would have to eat about 40 pounds of turkey to get enough of the enzyme to make you tired!!!

A Recipe From Our Friend Emeril Lagasse

One recipe that has a majority of milk in it is butter. Actucally milk is the only ingredient in it. You don't use milk thought, you use heavy cream. Here is a recipe from Emeril Lagasse on how to make a good homemade butter.

Ingredients - 1 pint heavy cream (very cold)
- Pinch salt, optional

Directions - Find a large jar with a right fitting cover that will hold the cream about half full. Pour cream in and put in the refrigerator for an hour. After this time, take the jar out and shake it as hard as possible for about 15 to 30 minutes. Chunks should be beginning to form now. These chunks are butter and the liquid is butter milk. Pour the contents of the jar into a large mixing bowl. Empty the remaining butter milk back into the jar and put in refrigerator for later use. Take the butter and put it into a clean bowl that is full of very cold water. Empty out the water and rinse butter with cold water until the water coming off the butter is clear. When it is not clear, it is still rinsing off the butter milk. All the butter milk must be off because it will cause the butter to sour if it is still on. Once the butter is cleaned, work and press with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Add salt if you want to give it more flavor. Refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-butter-recipe/index.html

Try it out!!! Let me know if you can make it.

Soy Milk

Soy milk. This is not something I would drink everyday because I prefer cow's milk. However, I cannot ignore the healthy qualities that soy milk contain. One of my brothers, David, is a vegan. He does not eat any products that come from animals, including cow's milk. Therefore, he drinks soy milk. He always get me to drink soy milk when he comes to visit, and when I go to visit him in New York, he takes me to restaurants that only serve soy products, making me get a "Chicken" sandwich that is made of soy. I wanted to find out more about soy milk, so I went on the Silk Soy Milk website and found out some information.

The first thing that I wanted to find out was about the soy bean itself. Soy beans were originally grown in China, and they are a bean that is very high in protein. They are considered a complete protein, and they contain all 8 essential amino acids. They are low in saturated fat (fat that is bad for the body) and high in polyunsaturated fat (fat that is good for the body). They are also cholesterol free.

Just like cow's milk, soy milk is loaded with vitamins and minerals. It is great for the body. There have been many disputes over whether soy milk or cow's milk is better for you. After researching them, they both have very good qualities. One may have more of one mineral, while the other will have more of another. In reality, they are both a very healthy choice and I would recommend either. For me, I am going to stick with cow's milk.

To learn more about soy milk visit the website at http://www.silksoymilk.com/Default.aspx

Cow Milk vs. Human Milk

When coming up for ideas to write, usually I tend to just think of milk from cows. It never crossed my mind to write about human milk. I was flipping through one of my brothers nutrition books that he uses for class and I found some interesting things about human milk.

Cow's milk compared to Human Milk
Energy - same
Protein - 3.2 times higher
Fat - 0.2 times lower
Carbohydrate - 0.3 times lower
Minerals - 3.5 times higher

Looking at these statistics, I will clarify that this is looking at human milk, in relation to cow's milk. This means that the energy is the same for both, but cow's milk is 3.2 times higher in protein and 0,2 times lower in fat. Cow's milk is also 0.3 times lower in carbohydrates but it is 3.5 times higher in minerals. This means that human milk (breastmilk)

For these reasons, cow milk should not be used in infant feeding until the baby is at least 12 months. It is too high in protein and minerals and does not provide the proper amount of fat and carbohydrates that the baby needs. Another reason cow's milk should not be used early on in infant feeding is becasue the main protein, casine, is very difficult for the baby to digest. The proteins found in breastmilk is much easier for the baby to digest.

Milk Protein Broken Down

Everybody knows that milk is very nutritious. When people usually think of the nutrients in milk, calcium is the most popular that comes to mind. Milk is chuck full of calcium, however it is also very high in protein. Milk contains 8 grams of protein per 8 ounces (1 cup) of milk. That is one gram for every one ounce of milk. The protein found in milk is made up of two components; whey and casein. Whey makes up 20 percent of the protein while casein makes up the other 80 percent.

Like most things when they get heated up, they tend to breakdown. This is the same with the protein found in milk. When it is heated, it tends to get denatured. This process of denature begins at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it is heated to 176 degrees Fahrenheit, 80 percent of the protein has been denatured. When milk gets heated in this way the milk separated. A skin is formed on the top while the whey and lactose go to the bottom. When milk is heated too hot then the whey and the lactose stick to the bottom of the pan.

This is important to know because some recipes call for milk in them. Some even want the milk to be heated separately and then added to the mix. This is important because you do not want to ruin the milk because it will then ruin the food that you are making.

Milk - An Aid to Prevent Cancer

Milk has been used in experiments in hope that there would be some ways that it could help with cancer. I read about a study of nearly 300,000 men and 200,000 women and the patients were observed for 7 years. These people all drank different amounts of milk per day. The highest intake being 4 and a half cups and the lowest being 1 and a half cups consumed per day. It was found that those who took the highest intake had a 7 percent lower risk of developing any type of cancer, then those who took the lowest intake of milk.

The researchers looked at all the gastrointestinal types of cancer; colon, pancreatic, stomach, esophageal, and liver cancers. After the research, there were no real statistical traces that milk had an effect of any, except for colon cancer. Women who took the highest intake were 28 percent less likely to develop colon cancer, while the men were 21 percent.

The main question is if it is the calcium that is actually helping in the prevention, or just the Vitamin D. It has been found that Vitamin D has been proven to control cancer cell proliferation. Some think that the results found from this study have to do with the vitamin D and calcium working together, but more research is still being done to prove this theory.