Dairy for nutrition, health and livelihood

  Hey look! Are you eating ice cream or frozen dessert? There are two frozen delicacies available in the market, termed as “Ice cream” and “Frozen Dessert”. Both appear to be exactly similar in taste, appearance and other properties, but there is a significant difference.   You will not know it until you read the label and see the list of ingredients. Ice cream is a dairy term regulated by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, that embodies the essence of dairy goodness. Crafted from natural milk cream and milk solids, it remains an unparalleled delicacy. Frozen dessert, on the other hand, has either non-milk protein or non-milkfat or both added to substitute milk protein or milk fat or both. Milk fat or cream is the costliest component of milk and hence the substitution of milk fat with cost-effective vegetable oils in frozen desserts has been a common practice. However, this substitution, often driven by commercial interests, blurs the lines between authenticit...

  Are you looking for a milk substitute? Some doctors and nutritionists advise you to go for milk substitute for health reasons and you look for analogue products made with plant seeds/beans. Same is the case with vegan group! Please note that all non-milk plant base beverages (PBBS) have added sweetness, sugar, artificial flavours, artificial colours, thickeners, salt and preservatives (highest amount of thickeners is in soya beverage). Just talking about only soya based dairy substitute alone, please keep in mind that in soya beverage, apart from proteins and iron, all other nutrients are fortified. Soya has become most controversial food because of presence of phytoestrogen (isoflavones), which is similar to estrogen. This could produce the female infertility, cancer cell and thyroid malfunction. The Boiled soyabean has 90-130 mg of isoflavones/100 gm of soya.   Soya is also a potential endocrine disrupter and it can mimic the estrogen action in body. It is reported t...