Milk

Milk is a white liquid, but it can also be yellow, cream, pink, or brown. It comes from the mammary glands of lactating mammals. Milk gives young mammals the nutrition they need before they can digest solid food. Milk has important nutrients like calcium and protein. It also contains lactose and saturated fat. To use lactose, the body needs an enzyme called lactase.

As a product from farms, milk is collected from animals, mostly cattle. People drink milk and use it to make many dairy products. Health groups suggest that children over 12 months drink milk each day. Many people enjoy milk and its products. Milk farming is important in many countries.

Etymology and terminology

The word milk comes from old English words like meoluc and milc. Many languages have similar words for milk. This shows that many cultures share the idea of milk.

Since 1961, rules set by Codex Alimentarius say that milk is the natural liquid from animals. This liquid comes from milking and has nothing added or taken away. It is meant for drinking or making other products. The word dairy means places or ways to handle animal milk.

Types of consumption

Milk is consumed in two main ways. First, all infant mammals drink milk directly from their mothers. This milk, especially the early milk called colostrum, gives babies important nutrients and protection. The World Health Organization suggests babies be breastfed exclusively for six months and continue with breastfeeding along with other foods up to two years or more.

Second, humans also drink milk from other animals, like cows, goats, and sheep, throughout their lives. This practice began thousands of years ago when a genetic change allowed some people to continue making the enzyme lactase into adulthood. Lactase helps our bodies digest lactose, the sugar found in milk. Today, milk is made into many products such as cheese, yogurt, butter, and ice cream. Different animals like yaks, water buffalo, horses, reindeer, and camels are also sources of milk in various cultures.

History

Humans began drinking the milk of other animals after they started to keep them during the Neolithic Revolution. This happened in different places around the world, from as early as 9000–7000 BC in Mesopotamia to 3500–3000 BC in the Americas. The most important animals for milk were cattle, sheep, and goats, first kept in Southwest Asia. At first, these animals were raised for meat, and dairy farming developed later.

As farming spread, the use of milk spread too. It moved from Southwest Asia to Europe, South Asia, and Africa. In Europe, milk became important, and some groups relied on animals for food. In places like East Asia, the Americas, and Australia, milk was not commonly eaten until much later, mainly after European influence.

During the Middle Ages, milk was valued and called the "virtuous white liquor" because water was often unsafe to drink. In more recent times, improvements in transportation and technology changed how milk was produced and delivered, making it more available to many people.