Table of contents:
- Lactose, a good content for your little one's growth and development
- What are the benefits of lactose for your little one's growth and development?
- Strengthens bones and teeth
- Maintain intestinal health
- The source of galactose, the nutrition of the brain
- Prevent the risk of obesity
- What are the sources of nutrition that contain lactose?
When buying milk, you will often hear or see the terms lactose and sucrose. Indeed, both are sugars that are mostly found in your little one's growing milk. Compared to sucrose, it turns out that lactose has more benefits for your little one's growth and development.
Lactose, a good content for your little one's growth and development
Based on a study from the World Gastroenterology Organization, lactose is a natural sugar that can be found in dairy products, both breast milk (ASI) and cow's milk.
The difference is that the amount of lactose in breast milk is higher, namely 7.2% compared to cow's milk at 4.7%. Even though they are different, the lactose content in both of them can meet the energy needs of your little one.
Lactose will be broken down by the enzyme lactase in the small intestine into glucose and galactose. Usually, you can find glucose in several types of foods that contain carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
On the other hand, galactose can be obtained from lactose. However, according to recent research, galactose can also be obtained from nuts and several types of fruits and vegetables.
Galactose functions to support the neural development of your little one's brain. Of course, this content is important, and you should give it to optimize its growth and development.
What are the benefits of lactose for your little one's growth and development?
In addition to meeting your little one's daily energy needs, you need to know the other benefits of lactose. Some of these include:
Strengthens bones and teeth
Lactose can help calcium to be more easily absorbed by your little one's body. This means that your little one's bones will grow stronger. Not only calcium, lactose can also help absorb minerals such as zinc and copper in your little one's body faster.
In addition, lactose has a lower dental caries effect than sucrose. So, you don't need to worry about the risk of tooth decay for your little one.
Maintain intestinal health
Generally, lactose is digested in the small intestine. However, the undigested lactose content in the small intestine will be used by the microbiota or good bacteria in the intestine as a prebiotic (a nutrient to stimulate growth and improve body health) 3.
In short, lactose is believed to be able to treat microbiota or good bacteria in the gut. In fact, lactose might even increase the good bacteria in the gut. The growth of good bacteria is what will make your little one's intestines healthy so that they can support their immunity so they don't get sick easily.
The source of galactose, the nutrition of the brain
Galactose is one of the nutrients your little one needs for the formation of nerve cells in his brain. Galactose has been shown to reduce the risk of disorders that affect brain function decline such as Alzheimer's and nephrotic syndrome.
Prevent the risk of obesity
When compared to sucrose, lactose has less sugar content (1: 5 sucrose) and does not affect the child's metabolism. As a result, the child's weight gain was only a little. This can help prevent the risk of obesity in children.
Not only that, lactose has a low glycemic index (GI). Quoting from the National Health Services, the glycemic index is an assessment of foods containing carbohydrates.
The glycemic index shows how quickly carbohydrate foods are processed into glucose in the body. Which means, the higher the GI value of a food, the faster the carbohydrates in that food are processed into glucose. Excess glucose may cause hyperglycemia in children.
What are the sources of nutrition that contain lactose?
After knowing the benefits, you may be interested in giving lactose to your little one to optimize their growth and development.
Lactose can generally be found in dairy products such as yogurt and cheese. However, lactose can also be found in food products such as bread, cereals and frozen or canned foods.
For this reason, you can check the names of ingredients on food labels first to find possible sources of lactose in the food you want to give your little one. Here are some ingredients that contain sources of lactose:
- Milk
- Lactose
- Whey (whey)
- Curds (curd)
- Milk powder
For your little one who is one to five years old it is recommended to get lactose from growth milk. Make sure before choosing growth milk for your little one, you also pay attention to its sucrose content.
Sucrose is commonly found in fruits and vegetables. However, in food or beverage products, sucrose is usually obtained from the extraction of sugar cane or sugar beets (sugar beet), and is commonly known as granulated sugar.
Therefore, you should choose growth milk that contains more lactose than sucrose. This is because sucrose is not good for your little one's consumption due to its high sugar content.
If your little one shows symptoms of Lactose Intolerance, such as nausea; stomach ache; bloating and diarrhea; after drinking milk that contains lactose, immediately contact your doctor for further tests.
Do not hesitate to consult a doctor or nutritionist about sucrose and lactose and the effects of both on child development so that you can help maintain a healthy diet and type of intake for children.
x
