Ever wonder, how much calcium intake you have in your food? Is the calcium intake enough to meet your daily calcium requirement? That’s what I was about to find out at the Dutch Lady PureFarm milk latest campaign, titled Milk Mornings. The Milk Mornings campaign encourages us to drink milk in the morning or incorporate it in our breakfast to help us meet our daily calcium requirement.
An array of scrumptious food was displayed at several counters each highlighting the calcium intake, so instead of counting calories now I have to count calcium instead. What an inventive way to remind us the goodness of milk that works us a calcium booster to meet our body’s daily calcium requirement.
At the campaign launch, Jo-Anne Jayasiri, Marketing Manager at Dutch Lady Malaysia said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it provides energy and jump-start our daily nutrition intake. “Milk provides essential nutrients that our body cannot generate and is as such an ideal beverage and ingredient for breakfast to help Malaysian families meet their daily calcium requirement,” she said.
To give us further explanation on the goodness of milk at breakfast was Dr. Poh Bee Koon of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Faculty of Health Sciences, who lends her expertise at the launch. She highlights a local research indicates Malaysians’ low intake of calcium, starting with the South East Asian Nutrition Survey (SEANUTS) which she was the Principal Investigator. “49 percent of children studied in SEANUTS have calcium insufficiency**; and according to the Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey concluded in 2014, the average intake of calcium among grown-ups are below 50 percent of the Malaysian Recommended Nutrient Intake***,” she said.
The numbers are so shocking to hear that Malaysians adults and children are so ignorant of the importance of calcium. Prof.Poh hopes the Milk Mornings campaign will encourage Malaysian families to increase their consumption of calcium-packed drink, starting with breakfast. Sufficient intake of calcium is crucial to help children develop strong bones and teeth, as well as help adults maintain healthy bone mass for an active lifestyle. Our hearts, muscles and nerves also need calcium to function properly,” she further revealed.
Even Actor Aaron Aziz and his entrepreneur wife, Diyana Halik is lending their voice in support of the Milk Mornings campaign. Both are well-aware of the benefits of a healthy breakfast and they insists their children to have breakfast with milk before heading off to school.
After the launch, we were given the opportunity to watch a cooking demonstration by Actor Aaron Aziz as he prepares simple breakfast meals incorporating Dutch Lady PureFarm milk. Finishing the cooking demonstration, it was time for the media challenge where we’re divided into teams to create our very own smoothie. My team decided to do Hazelnut Chocolate Smoothie and it was so tasty.
From April onwards get your hands on wholesome, calcium-packed breakfast ideas by logging on to Dutch Lady Malaysia Facebook or Dutch Lady Official Website. Starting today, I’m going make it a life time habit to serve milk during breakfast and hope my kids will spread the goodness of milk to their friends too.