GOT MILK?

 

My main topic this week is milk (and on a lesser scale, other dairy products). Oddly, it only struck me recently that my milk drinking habits have changed over the years. I began as a heavy drinker lol but have waned off considerably, first when the kids left home and most recently last year when I began to try to eat healthier.

 

 

Growing up as a child, we drank milk at every meal and I continued this into my adulthood. LOL...if I wasn't drinking milk because I was pregnant, I was drinking milk because it was on the table for the kids...man we went through alot of milk over the years! Things started to slack off a bit when the 2 left at home became teenagers and weren't always home for meals. I'd just eat my meal, then have a cup of tea afterwards. Then when I started counting calories last year, milk was just too many calories to add to my meal and strangely I had started to like drinking water.

Over the years I also got in many servings of cheese and ice cream...lol, I've probably reached my lifetime limit already. It's been hard to cut down to only 3 servings a day but at least I don't have to worry that I'm not getting enough :)

I just started eating yogurt last year (I'm still not a big fan though, it has to be the kind with fruit in it) so that also counts towards my 3 servings.

Even though milk is high in calories, it is also high in nutrients and apparently can help with weight loss ...

Around thirty studies suggest that a diet rich in calcium or in milk products, as part of a calorie-reduced diet, could make it easier to maintain a healthy weight or lose excess weight.

In fact, it appears that calcium could make the body use fat as an energy source more efficiently and reduce fat storage in cells.

Also, it seems that milk products could achieve this more effectively than calcium supplements, which suggests that other milk components, such as protein, could play an important role, perhaps by reducing appetite.

So, consuming the recommended 2-3 servings of milk products every day could help you manage your weight in a healthy way.

It has also been shown that women who drink low-fat or skim milk lose more weight than those who exclude milk from their diet.

There are several types of milk available today...the one I consume the most of is Almond Milk because it has the least calories.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:

1. What is your history with milk?
2. Do you get in your daily recommended 3 servings?
3. Which milk do you drink?
4. What percentage of your intake isn't milk but is other dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream?

NEXT WEEK'S BLOG: Motivation

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DISCLAIMER: Whenever I use the word DIET in my blog posts I am in no way suggesting that I have invented/discovered some miracle system to lose weight. Whenever I use the word DIET, I am simply substituting a single word to replace the longer phrase EATING HEALTHIER THAN IN THE PAST.