Why hold a World Milk Day?
The Day provides an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicize activities connected with milk and the milk industry. The fact that many countries choose to do this on the same day lends additional importance to individual national celebrations and shows that milk is a global food.
Where did it begin?
FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) was asked to propose a specific day on which all aspects of milk could be celebrated.
Why 1st June?
This date was chosen because a number of countries were already celebrating a national milk day on or around this time. Late May was originally proposed, but some countries, for example China, felt they already had too many celebrations in that month. While most countries hold their celebrations on 1st June, some choose to hold them a week or so before or after this date.
India has been the largest milk producing country in the world since 1997 and the recently announced data for 2011-12 reiterated the strong position of the country in the global market. Growing by 5.01 per cent over 2010-11, India remained the largest milk producing country in the world at 127.9 million tonnes as per last available data (2011-12).
Here is some of the data available with us 🙂
| Production of Milk In India |
| Production of Milk in India Annually |
However there are many advantages of drinking milk 🙂
Milk and dairy products contain many nutrients and provide a quick and easy way of supplying these nutrients to the diet within relatively few calories.
Milk, cheese and yogurt all provide the following beneficial nutrients in varying quantities.
- Calcium – for healthy bones and teeth
- Phosphorous – for energy release
- Magnesium – for muscle function
- Protein – for growth and repair
- Vitamin B12 – for production of healthy cells
- Vitamin A – for good eyesight and immune function
- Zinc – for immune function
- Riboflavin – for healthy skin
- Folate – for production of healthy cells
- Vitamin C – for formation of healthy connective tissues.
- Iodine – for regulation of the body’s rate of metabolism