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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, what

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Speaker 1: is the big deal about milk and why do people

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Speaker 1: treat it like some kind of miracle drink? Milk is

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Speaker 1: the product of mammals. All female mammals make milk, and

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Speaker 1: all mammal babies drink it. That is the definition of

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Speaker 1: mammal nous. Milk is an amazing beverage. Human children routinely

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Speaker 1: live on nothing but mother's milk for six months to

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Speaker 1: a year, and many can go as long as two years.

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Speaker 1: When you consider that a two year old kid can

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Speaker 1: walk and talk and argue with you, that's a pretty

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Speaker 1: long period of time to go without ever touching solid food.

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Speaker 1: In order for milk to sustain a child for two years,

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Speaker 1: it has to be a perfect food. That is, it

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Speaker 1: has to provide the child with every single nutrient a

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Speaker 1: child needs in exactly the right proportions. Each mammal's milk

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Speaker 1: is tuned to the needs of it's young so that

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Speaker 1: it's perfect for that species. Milk can also provide all

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Speaker 1: the fluids of child needs. In environments where the water

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Speaker 1: quality is poor, the mother's body acts as a filter,

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Speaker 1: so the child receives germ free fluids. Take human milk

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Speaker 1: as an example. Human milk contains everything that a human

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Speaker 1: child needs. Human milk contains eight point five percent carbohydrates,

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Speaker 1: mostly in the form of lactose to sugar. Human milk

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Speaker 1: contains four point five percent fat. Human milk also contains

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Speaker 1: all the essential fatty acids of child needs. Human milk

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Speaker 1: contains one point one percent protein. Human milk contains all

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Speaker 1: the different amino acids that a child needs in the

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Speaker 1: right proportions. Human milk contains all of the vitamins and

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Speaker 1: minerals that the child needs. Minerals make up about point

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Speaker 1: two percent of milk. Human milk also contains antibodies and

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Speaker 1: other immune system components to protect the child whose immune

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Speaker 1: system is still developing from disease. Human milk is eight

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Speaker 1: seven percent water. The milks of different animals have different ratios.

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Speaker 1: For example, dolphin milk is fourteen percent fat and ten

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Speaker 1: percent protein. Whale and ant eater milk are both more

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Speaker 1: than twent fat. It turns out that cow's milk is

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Speaker 1: fairly close to human milk in terms of its percentages.

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Speaker 1: Cow's milk has a little less fat and a little

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Speaker 1: less sugar and about three times more protein than human

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Speaker 1: milk does. It's not perfect like human milk is in

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Speaker 1: terms of vitamins, minerals, and antibodies, but it certainly is

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Speaker 1: a good all around food for children to consume because

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Speaker 1: it is so balanced. Do you have any ideas or

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Speaker 1: suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an

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Speaker 1: email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For

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Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, go to

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

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