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Why is milk white? |
Dairy & Protein
Juices are usually the same color as the fruit or vegetable they came from – orange juice is orange, lemonade is yellow, tomato juice is red. So why is milk white? Is it because cows are white? If so, why doesn’t milk have big black spots like cows also have??
Milk gets its white color because of the nutrients it’s made up of! Among the many proteins in milk is one known as casein, which is full of good-for-you calcium that helps keep your bones strong and your teeth healthy. It’s these little units of casein as well as the fat found naturally in milk that give it that recognizable color!
If milk did not have all of these nutrients, it might be a different color. Can you imagine drinking pink or blue or purple milk??!
The reason that casein and fat make milk white has to do with the way they reflect light! Light contains a huge spectrum of colors that it shines onto every object that it reaches. When light touches an object, the energies of some of these colors are absorbed (taken in) by it, and others are reflected (cast back). – It’s the energies that are reflected which your eyes collect and then interpret as a specific color.
Objects that are white (like milk!) are those that have reflected ALL the colors contained within light. Even though it’s confusing to think about, it’s the combination of all the colors being reflected together that make up white! (Black, on the other hand, reflects none of them at all, so it’s the absence of any of them!)
Udder-ly good trivia!
- How much milk do you think a cow can produce in a day? – The answer is anywhere from about 50-100 glasses!
- In order to produce so much milk, cows have to drink lots and lots of water! Cows can drink 25-50 gallons in just one day. Take a look at how big a gallon is – that’s a lot!
- Most Americans drink about 21 gallons of milk in a year! Go Calcium!
- Mauk, Ben. “Why is Cow’s Milk White?” Life’s Little Mysteries. Livescience.com. 18 May 2010
- “Why Milk is White.” Straus Family Creamery. 18 May 2010
- “Fun Facts for Kids.” Mobile Dairy Classroom. Southwest Dairy Farmers. 18 May 2010
- “How Do Cows Make Milk?” U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center. USDA Agricultural Research Service. 18 May 2010
- “What is color?” Crayola. 18 May 2010.
- “Care About Your Calcium.” Family Nutrition. AskDrSears.com. 18 May 2010
WOW. We each drink 21 GALLONS of milk per year? That's cool. I'm gonna collect 21 of my empty jugs so my duaghter can see how much that is. She'l think that's really neat~