Milk is not a powder

I used to enjoy drinking my coffee with a little bit of cream or milk and a dash of raw sugar. Now I drink it black with sprinkling of cinnamon and pepper and a spoonful of honey. It's been so long since I have drunk anything but black coffee that my tastebuds would probably not enjoy the addition of milk anymore.

The lack of milk is not my fault.  Simply put there is no milk in the Philippines.  You can buy milk in a carton and you can find a limited selection in the refrigerated dairy section of the grocery store but it's just not the same.  

Milk in a carton does not keep and you have to drink it within a day or it starts to go sour.  

Warm milk in a carton

And there's something unsettling about the taste of milk from a carton.  Perhaps it absorbs some of the cardboard into its flavour? 

At least milk in a carton is liquid.  

Powdered.....milk......man!

For some reason Filipinos drink mostly powdered milk. All the television commercials for milk have mommy preparing a cup for her little child and then a voiceover touts all the health benefits of drinking powdered milk.

Health benefits? While it may be comparable to liquid milk in terms of nutrients it is not real liquid milk. Real liquid milk is healthy. Real liquid milk does not contain glucose syrup or any sort of vegetable oils. Real milk straight from the cow or goat is loaded with vitamins and minerals and has only one ingredient: milk.  The Bible is full of references to how nourishing milk is. "Land of milk and honey." "Sincere milk of the word."  Haven't these most superstitious and religious people read their Bible?

Real milk has only one ingredient: MILK!

Whatever health benefits powdered milk has brought to Filipino children it sure hasn't helped stem the plague of rotting teeth. Milk is loaded with calcium which is fundamental for bone and teeth health and yet so many children throughout the Philippines have serious dental problems.

The 2006 National Oral Health Survey (NOHS) revealed that 97.1% of six-year-old children suffer from tooth decay. More than four out of every five children of this subgroup manifested symptoms of dentinogenic infection. In addition, 78.4% of twelve-year-old children suffer from dental caries and 49.7% of the same age group manifested symptoms of dentinogenic infections. The severity of dental caries, expressed as the average number of decayed teeth indicated for filling/extraction or filled permanent teeth (DMFT) or temporary teeth (dmft), was 8.4 dmft for the six-year-old age group and 2.9 DMFT for the twelve-year-old age group (NOHS 2006). 

Filipinos bear the burden of gum diseases early in their childhood. According to NOHS, 74% of twelve-year-old children suffer from gingivitis (NOHS 2006). If not treated early, these children become susceptible to irreversible periodontal disease as they enter adolescence and approach adulthood.

http://www.doh.gov.ph/node/1303 

I do not want powdered milk anywhere near my coffee. It's not a real food. Powdered milk is liquid milk dried out and then all kinds of extras are added to preserve it and make it palatable. It's not milk.

Perhaps they would like some powdered toast to eat with their powdered milk?