Know your Milk you drink  Written by Dr Harold Gunatillake – Health writer Your super-market shelves will have a variety of milk options, but the classic cow’s milk is a good source of calcium, vitamin D and potassium. It has 3.5% milk fat and is best given to babies between 1 and 2 years old, for their growing brains. Adults who exercise and lead an active life also should drink classic cow’s milk for their energy. Sedentary people should avoid this natural high calorie product as it may increase your body weight leading to obesity. Children who drink whole milk are leaner and have higher vitamin D levels than those who drink low-fat or skim milk, new research suggests. Children who drank whole (3.25 per cent fat content) milk had a Body Mass Index score that was 0.72 units lower than those who drank 1 or 2 per cent milk ...

Drinking during the Festive Season & drug interactions Written by Dr Harold Gunatillake-health writer These days’ health conscious people go for organic foods. Let’s discuss whether it’s worth-wise and purse-wise the changeover. Organically grown foods are considered good for the environment, but for human consumption supposed to be questionable. The price of most organic foods is about 30% more than the conventional produce. Have you ever bought organic milk- oh! It is expensive, and you’ll invariably revert to your conventional low fat milk from your supermarket. ...

Why do we need Food when we are hungry? Written by Dr harold Gunatillake – Health writer We all love food whether we are in the hunger mode or not. Have you ever thought what mechanism works in the body to make you feel hungry? Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University in Philadelphia says this about hunger. “Feeling hungry can mean at least two things, and they are pretty different” ...

Is Ghee better than Butter? Written by Dr harold Gunatillake FRCS, FIACS, FICS, AM(Sing0, MBBS Health writer Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in ancient India and is commonly used in South Asian, Iranian and Arabic cuisines, traditional medicine, and religious rituals. In Hindi ghee is the word for fat. Sometimes they use the term ‘desi’ meaning real. It is an anhydrous milk fat prepared by heating butter or cream to just 100deg C to remove water content by boiling and evaporation and filtering out the precipitated milk solids. ...

Is Butter healthy for you? Written by Dr harold Gunatillake-Health writer There was butter always on the dining table the container immersed in another vessel with water to keep away the insects in the old days in our homes. That butter was golden yellow in colour and had a very special dairy taste, shipped from New-Zealand. ...