Nutritional Value of Milk
. Most milk is composed of 80 to 90 percent water. The remaining 10 percent consists of an abundance of the major nutrients needed by the body for good health, including fats, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Cow milk typically contains about 3.5 to 5 percent fat, which is dispersed throughout the milk in globules. In addition to providing milk’s characteristic taste and texture, fat supplies vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as certain fatty acids that the body cannot produce on its own. Lactose, a kind of sugar found only in milk, gives milk its sweet taste. Making up about 5 percent of milk’s content, lactose is a carbohydrate that is broken down by the body to supply energy. Infants digest lactose easily, but many adults, especially those of Asian and African ancestry, have lost some of their ability to digest this sugar. When these adults drink milk, they often suffer gastric distress and diarrhea. The most important protein in milk is casein , accounting for 80 per...