Is there a nutritional difference between UHT and normal milk?
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
In this week’s Q & A Thursday, the first question is:
In our household we have both full cream fresh milk (for my cereal) and UHT skim milk (for my partner’s protein shakes). Can you advise if he would be better switching to fresh skim milk, or is there no discernable difference?
What is UHT?
UHT stands for ultra-high temperature processing. Milk is heated at a temperature of 135°C for 1 – 2 seconds. This is done to sterilise the milk and kills virtually all bacteria – meaning the milk can be kept for longer, without refrigeration.
Does it change the nutrient content of the milk?
If you compare the basic nutrient levels between UHT and normal milk, there’s very little difference between the two. There’s a really tiny difference in their potassium, calcium and levels – but not enough to be nutritionally significant. While almost every other nutrient is the same.
But.
When you compare how absorbable those nutrients are, there is a difference. The UHT process damages some of the proteins in milk, which makes them less digestible.
It’s possible the UHT process may also affect the availability of some of the calcium in UHT milk – although this is still being determined.
In short
Yes there is a nutritional difference between UHT and normal milk. You’re losing useful protein if you drink UHT milk, and possibly also some of the calcium. I’d advise making the switch to fresh skim milk.
References
Warning – brain exploding medical speak alert:
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a fortnightly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered, leave a comment below or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
UHT milk photograph courtesy of Leo Reynolds under the terms of a creative commons license
22 November, 2007
Comments
Do you have any information on whether this is true for shelf-stable (I assume, UHT) soy milk versus the ones in the refrigerators (I assume, non-UHT)?
Thanks =)
Haha, your comment engine turns asterisked words into bolded words, that’s neat.
PS: Currently (with this comment and the last) pressing submit just gives an error message unless the “Receive email updates” box is ticked. Ah, computers.
Thanks for that Joanne, we’ve done an upgrade to the blog today, so there’s a little glitch there – we’re onto it.
I’ll also take a look at your soy question. I’ll have to do some research on that one.
Thanks for telling me about the comments they should be fixed now.
Good info!!!
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