Role of Milk and Milk Products in Health and Disease Prevention”

The seminar was organized by IDA(WZ) On September 12th 2023 in association with following partnering institutions:

Association of Food Scientists and Technologists India (AFSTi), Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Shree Vitthaldas Thackersey College, SNDT University,  GN Khalsa College (Autonomous) and Bombay Veterinary College, MAFSU and Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI).

[Team IDA (Left to Right- Mr. Rajesh, Ms. Richi, Dr. Parekh, Mr. Hariom, Mr. Madhav, Dr. JB Prajapati, Ms. Candida, Mr. Kuldeep Sharma and Mr. Shyju]

The national seminar commenced with lighting of lamp and welcome address by Dr. J.B. Prajapati, Chairman, IDA (WZ).  While welcoming the guests, he expressed basic views on why milk is pious and cited some quotes from Vedas, signifying the significance of milk and milk products in Indian diet. He also highlighted activities of Indian Dairy Association and the plan to organize such awareness programs pan India during the celebrations of 75 years of IDA.

Dr. R.S. Sodhi, President, IDA, New Delhi, enlightened the audience on trends in dairy market, which is a 3 trillion USD out of a total of 5Lakh crore market share, dairy alone contributes to 2.8 lakh crores. The unorganized sector in dairy is dynamically converting to organized. He gave an overview of market trends in cereals, vegetables & fruits, milk and animal meat sectors in last 5 decades. Milk has grown 10 X while fish and poultry have increased by 12 and 23 X respectively. The Indian dairy production scale was 24 metric tons in 1948 and in 2022 it has crossed 222 metric tons, which demonstrates the huge success that Indian dairy has witnessed. He remarked that the Indian supply chain is excellent and both production and consumption are increasing. He emphasized that 3 parameters control the success of any new food product- taste, nutritive value and affordability. A short comparison of cow and buffalo milk was made. Few market trends on packed versus branded foods were also discussed. He believes that inflation in food industry is one of the major challenges in food sector. He also briefed the audience on how sustainable the Indian dairy market is, and that we contribute to only 5% emissions of the world.

Dr. Meenesh Shah, Chairman NDDB, couldn’t attend the meeting physically but he delivered a brief talk online. He underlined the pace at which research depicting nutritional and health value is increasing as seen by research papers in reputed journals. He touched upon the biological activities of few proteins and bioactives in milk, imparting health benefits on the host. Currently, 40% of population which is youth needs to shift focus to healthy body. He featured some interesting findings of the programs run by NDDB. To about 480 government schools, NDDB offers milk fortified with Vitamins A & D. Another study at Ghadchiroli Anganwadi studies impact of dense laddoos provided to over 5000 young kids between 4-6 years of age. He touched up on the sources on plant-based proteins and why those proteins cannot be compared with natural milk. Additionally, plant-based milk, lacking natural sugar has to incorporate stabilizers, emulsifiers, sugar etc. He congratulated the IDA and conveyed his best wishes for the program.

The keynote address was delivered by Padmashri Dr. V. Mohan, Chairman and Chief of Diabetology, Madras Diabetic research foundation, Chennai. The presentation commenced with vedic mentions of cow milk and significance. He gave an overview of components in milk and their roles and cited several publications depicting the statistically significant results advocating no harm on milk consumption. Research findings supporting yoghurt and cheese consumption, specifically was shown to prevent the development of Type 2 Diabetes. He also shared the findings of The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, which involved the study on 2,50,000 patients in 21 countries over 20 years. People consuming milk and milk products was correlated with increased longevity. He holds the record of largest number of publications (1600) to his credit.  Overall, it was concluded that dairy products are either protective or neutral on several metabolic diseases, but never the causative agent for any ailment.

As part of the program, a reel making competition among the students of partner institutions was also organized. Total 32 students submitted reels on role of milk in nutrition and health and prizes to five best reels were given during the inauguration program. The winners were: Mr. Kevin Bhensdadiya – SMC College

Mr. Siddhartha Pandya –  G N Khalsa College

Mr. Sidra Nagori – SVT College

Ms. Khushi Jaiswal – SVT College

Mr; Abhishek Shinde – College of Dairy Technology – Warud

At the end Dr. J. Parekh, Vice Chairman, IDA (WZ) presented vote of thanks. The anchoring of the entire program was done by Ms. Richie Agrawal, Member of ZEC (WZ).

Panel discussion 1:

The theme of the session 1, which was moderated by Dr. J.B. Prajapati, was “Milk and lifestyle diseases and immunity”. Panelists included – Ms. Sheryl Salis, Certified diabetes educator, Insulin pump specialist, Founder-Nurture Health solutions, Mumbai, Dr. Jagmeet Madam, Principal SVT College, Mumbai and Prof. Smita Lele, Former Head of Food technology department, ICT and Ms. Laurence Rycken, Nutrition Officer, International Dairy Federation (IDF), Brussels. Questions enquired to the panelists revolved around role of milk in general health, control of obesity, hypertension, bone health, and immunity boosting. Prof. Lele quoted Nature is a great nutritionist and provided a wholistic approach about milk and milk products. Excerpts of the discussion touched upon few points- milk as complete food, human and cow milks are close in composition but carb to protein ratio is quite different.  Human being has got all enzymes to digest lactose since centuries, still some people have lactose intolerance. They are advised to take low lactose milk or dahi/butter milk, where in about 25% of lactose is already broken down. Being vegan or not is one’s personal choice but defaming milk is not right. For that matter we can’t photosynthesize so are we cruel in consuming cereals etc.? A small comparison between vegetarians and non-vegetarian sources of proteins were made. Ms Laurence made an online presentation, depicting the initiatives taken by IDF to educate the society about goodness of milk and spread the message on role of milk in nutrition and health.

(From left to right-Prof. Smita Lele, Dr. Prajapati, Dr Madan and Ms. Salis)

Panel discussion 2:

Dr G.S. Rajorhia, Ex. President, IDA, chaired the second panel discussion themed “Milk in nutrition for sports person and elderly” where panelist included- Dr. K.D. Aparnathi, Retd. Head, Dept of Dairy Chemistry, SMC College, Anand, Dr. Panchali Moitra, Professor, SVT Mumbai, Dr. Atanu Jana, Principal, SMC College College, Anand and Dr. Kavita Pandey, Assistant Professor, GN Khalsa College, Mumbai. Dr. Rajorhia first enlisted few points that missed a mention, in his opinion like why milk is termed “Amrit”. The discussion included comparison of plant-based milk and cow milk, followed by its importance in sports persons and geriatric usage. Dr. Jana touched upon the art of cheese making and bioactives present in cheese. Dr. Pandey talk about impact of lifestyle choices on gut microbiota and the need for probiotics and functional foods in diet on general population and sports persons. Biochemistry involved in health benefits mechanisms were highlighted.

(From Left to Right-Ms. Richie Agrawal, Dr. Panchali Moitra, Dr. KD Aparnathi, Dr. GS Rajorhia, Dr.Atanu Jana, Dr. Kavita Pandey and Mr. Madhav Patgaonkar)

Panel discussion 3:

Mr. Kuldeep Sharma, Founder, Suruchi consultants, New Delhi moderated the final panel session themed “myth breakers on milk in Ayurveda” The panelists were Dr. Aditi Gohel,  SVT College, Mumbai, Mr. Sitaram Dixit, Chairman CSGI, Mumbai and Shri. Yachneet Pushkarna, MD Hari Bol Dairy – ISKON. Panelists discussed about myths and facts about milk and its significance in Ayurveda. They touched upon the consumer perception on milk. A case study of Hari Bol Dairy established by ISKON producing Ahinsa milk was also presented, were cows are treated like family members and their waste products are enriched and utilized to make it a sustainable unit.

(From Left to Right-Mr. Madhav Patgaonkar, Dr. Sitaram Dixit, Dr. J B Prajapati, Kuldeep Sharma, Mr Yachneet Pushkarna, Dr. Aditi Gohel and Ms. Richie Agrawal)

The concluding session was chaired by Dr. J.B. Prajapati, where he presented the summary of the entire day’s discussions. The sponsor M/s D’Lecta was honored. Mr Madhav Patgaonkar, presented vote of thanks.