Milk protein: the key to a healthy diet

Dairy products are recommended in a balanced diet, and therefore they occupy a privileged place, in the third step of the food pyramid.

Following a healthy diet can be difficult with today’s lifestyle. Consuming quality dairy proteins can help us meet many needs, because what they provide us also fits perfectly with the precepts of a balanced diet: complete, varied and sufficient.

Dairy is recommended in a balanced and healthy diet. Dairy products occupy a privileged place in the third step of the food pyramid, which indicates that they should be consumed daily. What’s more: it is advisable to take them several times a day.

Essential amino acids

The protein present in milk and its low-fat, low-sugar derivatives (such as yogurt, protein shakes, custard, quark cheeses, etc.) are included in a healthy diet. In the first place, because they are proteins of the highest quality and of high biological value, since they are complete in themselves, having all the essential amino acids.

Its high levels of calcium are highly absorbed, thanks to the rest of the components that appear in dairy products (supplemental Vitamin D, for example). 

Different national and international organizations currently recommend the consumption of low-fat milk and derivatives, such as UNED, (National Distance Education University).

But the great contribution of milk proteins to a healthy diet is its richness in essential amino acids, that is to say: those that cannot be synthesized in the body and it is necessary to acquire them with the diet. The most important ones present in dairy are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. This composition has been analyzed by experts and recognized as a complete protein with excellent bioavailability.