What's the deal with milk?

Milk is often touted as a "miracle drink," full of restorative, nutritional properties. And there's some truth to this claim. Find out why mammal milk is called "the perfect food" in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff works dot com
where smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, what
is the big deal about milk and why do people
treat it like some kind of miracle drink? Milk is
the product of mammals. All female mammals make milk, and
all mammal babies drink it. That is the definition of

(00:24):
mammal nous. Milk is an amazing beverage. Human children routinely
live on nothing but mother's milk for six months to
a year, and many can go as long as two years.
When you consider that a two year old kid can
walk and talk and argue with you, that's a pretty
long period of time to go without ever touching solid food.

(00:45):
In order for milk to sustain a child for two years,
it has to be a perfect food. That is, it
has to provide the child with every single nutrient a
child needs in exactly the right proportions. Each mammal's milk
is tuned to the needs of it's young so that
it's perfect for that species. Milk can also provide all

(01:07):
the fluids of child needs. In environments where the water
quality is poor, the mother's body acts as a filter,
so the child receives germ free fluids. Take human milk
as an example. Human milk contains everything that a human
child needs. Human milk contains eight point five percent carbohydrates,

(01:28):
mostly in the form of lactose to sugar. Human milk
contains four point five percent fat. Human milk also contains
all the essential fatty acids of child needs. Human milk
contains one point one percent protein. Human milk contains all
the different amino acids that a child needs in the
right proportions. Human milk contains all of the vitamins and

(01:51):
minerals that the child needs. Minerals make up about point
two percent of milk. Human milk also contains antibodies and
other immune system components to protect the child whose immune
system is still developing from disease. Human milk is eight
seven percent water. The milks of different animals have different ratios.

(02:13):
For example, dolphin milk is fourteen percent fat and ten
percent protein. Whale and ant eater milk are both more
than twent fat. It turns out that cow's milk is
fairly close to human milk in terms of its percentages.
Cow's milk has a little less fat and a little
less sugar and about three times more protein than human

(02:36):
milk does. It's not perfect like human milk is in
terms of vitamins, minerals, and antibodies, but it certainly is
a good all around food for children to consume because
it is so balanced. Do you have any ideas or
suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an
email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For

(02:57):
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dot com home page. M