A report from the Jamaica Dairy Development Board says Jamaicans are not drinking enough milk for a healthy life. In fact, the board says Jamaica is consuming only half of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) minimum requirement.

An indicator of nutritional status, the per capita consumption of milk in Jamaica remains at 105 millilitres per day, which is one-third of the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, and one-fifth of the average for developed countries.

This is also slightly less than the average of other developing countries.

This was revealed at the launch of the ‘Drink Real Milk’ campaign last Thursday, an initiative aimed at reviving the local dairy industry as well as increasing the consumption of real milk by Jamaicans through the collaborative efforts of CB Group (through Nutramix), Seprod Limited (through Serge Island), Newport-Fersan Jamaica Limited, and the Jamaica Dairy Development Board.

“Jamaicans know about strong bones and teeth, but they don’t know about all the other things — for example, whole milk has saturated fats which is important for brain development in young kids,” said Brand Manager for Nutramix Tina Hamilton. “I know a lot of times, because of the trends, ‘Let me get a one per cent milk or low fat’… [but] For children it is important for them to drink whole milk for brain development as well as development of their bodies overall.”

She also said that milk consumption is important for teenagers, as it has been found that type two diabetes is a very big problem among teenagers. Hamilton pointed out that there is a large percentage of teens who drink milk that do not end up developing type two diabetes.

Additionally, adequate milk consumption will prevent osteoporosis in adults and can greatly contribute to the good health of athletes in training.

“For athletes… milk breaks down a lot slower, so it’s better for you than sports drinks, even water. Drink milk instead of the sports drink, because it replenishes your body even better and faster and helps to build muscle and also controls your weight,” Hamilton explained at last Thursday’s campaign launch.

The Nutramix brand manager noted that, generally, there is lack of awareness about certain health aspects and benefits of milk and this is why the ‘Drink Real Milk’ campaign is an educationally driven one.

“We are hoping this will be a 10-year campaign and what we’re doing now is rolling out in phases. So the first phase is really just the awareness phase so bringing it back on board to say, ‘Listen, this is a problem, you need to recognise it as a problem so that we can move forward’,” Hamilton insisted.