These days, there is so much perplexity around should you have milk as part of your diet or should you go vegan or try something else? Does Milk really help nourishing the body or invite problems like allergies, indigestion, bloating, rashes? Let me help you discover and decide for yourself!

According to the ancient Ayurvedic texts, milk is considered as one of the best life-giving substances. In Sushrut Samhita there is mention about the milk of cow, goat, camel, sheep, buffalo, horse and lactating mother’s milk. Out of these, Cow’s milk is considered most auspicious and sacred after a lactating mother’s milk due to its rich and nourishing properties. It provides special and unique nutrition that cannot be derived from any other food.

20 Reasons to keep Milk in your diet:

It is said that milk when consumed properly and digested appropriately:

1. Is life giving
2. Nourishes all the tissues
3. Promotes balanced emotions
4. Helps balance doshas
5. Directly nourishes Ojas – a very important substance needed in our body at subtle level to be able to be in perfect physical and mental health.
6. It has cooling and calming effect on body and mind
7. Strengthens bones by providing vitamin D and thus playing an important role in absorption of calcium in the body
8. Builds strong immunity
9. Beneficial especially for children and elderly due to its building and nourishing properties
10. Assists in easy movements (peristalsis) of intestines
11. Rejuvenates and restores energy after vigorous physical activity
12. It is Medhya meaning a brain tonic and thus builds intellectual capacity
13. Heals fractures
14. Increases longevity
15. Increases breast milk in lactating mother’s
16. Milk at bedtime can help people or kids who are underweight, excessively tired and promote good sleep thus also great for anyone suffering from insomnia.
17. Helps promote and build reproductive fluids and support hormones thus a fertility booster
18. Supports women going through menopause
19. Brings in sense of stability
20. It is anti-aging

What are my Options?

Milk is sacred but at the same time a very delicate dravya or material. It undergoes changes at molecular level very quickly with any type of processing. Without going into very technical details of effects of assembly, homogenization, pasteurization, ultrapasteurization, packaging and transport I would suggest, the best milk is the one with minimum alterations, processing and the one which is closest to its natural state. Also the milk with A2 protein is easier to digest.

Having said that in today’s day and age we have to make practical choices based on availability of resources.

1st best choice:

The ideal milk in Ayurvedic sense is provided by your own Cow, which has large outdoor area to roam in, eats only natural, good quality food and enjoys loving care. Her horns are not removed, nor the calf is taken away from her. Drinking milk in Ayurvedic sense is drinking the still warm milk from this one cow. Such milk is described as nourishing, easily digestible and Sattvic.

2nd best choice:

Raw, A2 milk from a farm with cows enjoying loving care and facility as mentioned in choice 1.

3rd best choice:

Unhomogenized, Pasteurized, A2, grass fed, Whole milk

4th best choice:

Unhomogenized, Pasteurized, Whole milk

If none of the above choice is available:

5th best choice:

Homogenized, pasteurized, organic, whole milk/full fat milk

Ultra pasteurized milk and milk with reduced percentages of fats indicate highly processed and altered milk which should be avoided since it is heavy to digest and likely to cause side effects like bloating and other digestive issues.

Best Practices (Best way to consume)?

This is a very important subject for current times. It is said that even if one procures the right and best ingredient but if it is not consumed by using appropriate & prescribed methods, one can be deprived from its full benefit and also encounter some side effects.

Milk should NOT be consumed cold. Milk is somagenic which means it’s is predominated by lunar energy which makes it heavy to digest. Hence it needs a strong metabolic fire to get transformed, digested and synthesized completely in the body. Boiling the milk provides this fire or Agni to the milk proteins to get metabolized and synthesized in the digestive system. Boiling the milk with certain spices further enhances this process. Cardamom enhances breakdown of protein molecules, cinnamon supports the metabolization of the naturally occurring sugar content in the milk and the black pepper corns help open the circulatory channels in our body to overcome the clogging effect of milk. In this way the maximum benefits of milk can be derived by the body.

Besides milk can be wonderfully and deliciously combined with other spices and ingredients to achieve different targeted benefits like overcoming insomnia, joint aches, enhance lactation for a mother and many more!

Mutually Contra-Indicated Milk Combinations:

There are certain combinations that are contraindicated to be consumed with milk due to their undesirable interaction and effect on human body. These are:

• Milk with fruits
• Milk with salt
• Milk with yoghurt
• Milk with nightshade vegetables (tomato, potato, eggplant, bell pepper)

Note:

Avoid milk if suffering from allergies until you fix the allergy first, suffering from weak digestion until you first strengthen the digestion, undergoing a severe Kapha imbalance.