According to FAO statistics, among the eight foods considered most allergic, the record is certainly given to milk, followed by soy, eggs, fish, peanuts / walnuts, molluscs, wheat and fruit (banana, kiwi, apple, strawberry, melon) .
Milk allergy: causes
Cow's milk allergy is widespread, especially among children: the organism manifests allergy after having taken milk, because the proteins present in it are considered foreign to the young organism, therefore potentially dangerous to health and worthy of an attack immune.
For a newborn, a milk-based diet is essential: if the maternal diet is not available and there is an allergy to cow's milk, the need to find a correct alternative to cow's milk, absolutely necessary to ensure the health of the child, is understandable .
Alternatives to cow's milk
See also: therapeutic or "special" milks
The market offers a wide range of milk-based formulations, which can be a valid alternative to cow's milk: unfortunately, however, it is not always easy to identify the most correct alternative, considering that these are "small patients".
Possible solutions can be summarized in:
- Heat-treated milk
- Partial hydrolysis of cow's milk proteins
- Milk other than cow's milk
- Vegetable milks
- Other formulations
We will now try to shed light on these possible alternatives to cow's milk.
Heat-treated milk
With heat sterilization (ie the cooking of milk at a temperature of 120 ° C for a time equal to 20-30 minutes) a partial denaturation of milk proteins is obtained: the results, however, are not exciting, because casein and serum protein, in this process, they lose many vitamins and sugars, despite the loss, albeit slight, of their allergic power. For these reasons, this process is generally not suitable for the production of a valid substitute to cow's milk.
Partial hydrolysis of cow's milk proteins
To understand the treatment that underlies this product, one must take a small step back and explain what is meant by "food antigen": all proteins with high molecular weight (5, 000-10, 000 Daltons) are potential food antigens. All other proteins with a molecular weight of less than 5, 000 Daltons cannot be considered allergens because their peptide chain is too short. So it is now understandable the importance of milk-based formulas with hydrolysed proteins: the goal is to "break" the proteins into small fragments of low molecular weight, in order to make milk more digestible. To hydrolyze proteins, you can use:
- proteolytic enzymes
- Ultrafiltration, which retains high molecular weight fragments
- boosted enzymatic hydrolysis: the best solution because it reduces protein to fragments of 1500 Daltons.
Milk other than cow's milk
Milks other than cow's milk can be used, such as goat's and sheep's milk: however, these milks often have amino acid sequences similar to cow's milk (cross-reactivity). Consequently, those who are allergic to cow's milk are also allergic to goat's and sheep's milk.
Donkey's milk is very similar to breast milk: the only drawback is that its availability is very difficult and its cost is very high.
Vegetable milks
In the vegetable world, legumes have proteins of the highest nutritional value: for this reason, many companies market vegetable milks. Among all, soy milk is remembered: the problem is that soy, like cow's milk, can create sensitization, therefore intolerances or allergies.
Recently, even rice milk has been marketed as a possible alternative to cow's milk: it is readily available and not very allergenic.
Other formulations
The elementary or semi-elementary milk is the "last resort", to be given to the child only if he is allergic to all the milks previously described. It is a drinking milk, made up of both vegetable proteins (soy) and animal proteins (in the past collagen was used), combined with mineral salts, vitamins and carbohydrates.
