There’s more to milk than helping wash down breakfast cereal, Australian scientists have recently discovered.

The active ingredients in milk are able to stabilise mouth, throat, stomach, and intestinal health issues including ulcers, tissue damage from drug treatments, food poisoning, or inflammatory bowel conditions, new research suggests.

“We have long known milk is an excellent source of nutrition but now we are beginning to realise it is an excellent medicine as well,” says Victoria researcher John Brumby. “We used the bovine genome and recent advances in biotechnology to develop methods to identify active proteins in milk that not only nourish us but actually have a positive biological effect on our bodies.”

“There is a global trend towards functional foods and complementary medicines and this research is exciting considering milk is something we all have access to daily,” added Brumby.

Research Director, Dr Ben Cocks said the availability of advanced separation technologies had fast-tracked the ability for milk components to be scientifically identified and validated.

“We have developed methods to identify bioactive proteins that could potentially treat gut inflammation and help injured tissue repair,” Dr Cocks said.

The researchers believe that the discovery of these new health-enhancing benefits from milk could be developed as potential niche dairy products and pharmaceuticals to benefit the community.

But many experts disagree, saying that many studies into milk are inconclusive. Some even claim that it can cause all sorts of issues such as iron deficiencies, cramps, bloating, arthritis and even some types of cancer. There are also theories that milk does not help to prevent osteoporosis, since the condition does not signal a calcium deficiency but rather the body’s inability to process it. To read more from the sceptics, visit www.notmilk.com.