News
Dairy protein for kids
Monday 01/11/2010
Protein is essential for growth, so it is a very important nutrient for growing children. Protein can be found in most foods, but the best sources are meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, pulses (like lentils and dried beans), nuts and seeds. Protein from the diet is broken down during digestion into things called peptides and amino acids. These are used by the body as building blocks for growing and maintaining all tissues - such as muscle, skin, internal organs, tendons, bones and hair. These are also essential for a healthy immune system and are an integral part of our genetic material - DNA.
Protein is made up of amino acids. There are 22 amino acids known to be important for human health and the body can make 13 of these on its own. The remaining nine amino acids are called "essential amino acids" because it is essential to get them from food and drinks.
Dairy protein is great for children because it naturally contains all nine essential amino acids within the one food. This means it is considered to be a good quality protein source, as opposed to some plant foods, which do not provide all essential amino acids within the same food.
Children don't need to get all their essential amino acids within the same meal; they can get them by eating a variety of different protein sources throughout the day.
Another reason dairy protein is so good for growing children is that it contains things that stimulate bone forming cells. We all know the calcium in milk is good for our bones, but the protein in milk is now known to be very good for bones too - especially growing bones.
Children need just under one gram (0.95g) of dietary protein per kilogram of their body weight per day, which is slightly more than what adults need (0.8g/kg/day) due to children's increased requirements for growth.
