Are Malted Milk Drinks Really Healthy?

Malted milk drinks have a huge market in India. We are one of the leading consumers of malted milk drinks. If you don't understand that term, maybe you would recognize the products Boost, Horlicks, Complan, Bournvita, etc.

All of the brands above go by the name malted milk powders or malt-based or cereal-based beverages. If you are anything like me, you grew up drinking these. The flavor and aroma of these drinks might remind you of memories of waking up early and going to school, and coming back in the evening and having your mother fix you up a hot glass of this malted beverage that gave you enough energy to play cricket outside.........and later I grew up and discovered coffee. Now my life is worse.

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What are Malted Drinks exactly?

According to Wikipedia, Malted milk powder or malt powder is a powdered gruel made from a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated whole milk powder. Malt is a powder made from barley or any other grain that has been steeped in water, dried, and germinated. It is then pulverized into a powder and is used in baking mostly to give color to baked goods and also acts as food for yeast in fermented products.

The man who was responsible for making malt powder was William Horlick. He successfully made a combination of dried malt extract and wheat extract in a vacuum. Los Angeles Times states that in the late 19th century in America, cow milk was considered unwholesome and milk was commonly infected with diseases. So, William Horlick invented a way to make dried milk powder along with wheat and malt and sold it off as Horlick's Food. It was convenient as well as healthy. Travelers have taken it with them to the tropics, the Himalayas, and even the Poles. He was also one of the principal backers of the expedition to find the South Pole. If you look at the map of Antarctica you will find "Horlick Mountains" about 200 km from the pole.

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Are these "Health drinks" really healthy?

Malted Milk drinks such as Bournvita, Boost, Horlicks, etc. have been given to kids as a "Health drink" during their developing years in childhood. The drinks are aimed at children and claim to have different kinds of health benefits. Horlicks claims that your kids will become taller, stronger, and sharper; Complan claims to develop growth in kids, and Boost claims to make your child a cricketer. You know the drill...

Recently, there was a controversy with the famous household malted milk drink- Bournvita. Revant Himatsingka, a health influencer, posted a video on Instagram debunking the health benefits of Bournvita. Bournvita filed a case against him saying that their product is under regulations set by the FSSAI and that Revant is trying to defame the company. Soon, the influencer took the video down and posted it on his Instagram about it.

(This news clipping by WION talks about the recent health controversy of Bournvita).

Although health influencers are not necessarily medical professionals, it is not advised to follow their advice blindly. But, the recent video after going viral sparked a lot of interesting debates. The label on Bourvita says that the product consists of 37.4 g of added sugars per 100 g. According to EIACP, Bournvita has the highest amount of sugar content while Horlick Original has the least, of all the malted milk brands in India. If a child drinks Bournvita twice a day, he meets half of his sugar requirement and kids eat all kinds of sugary-sweet candies, chocolates, sweets, etc.

FirstPost states that Bournvita contains 1.5 teaspoons of sugar per serving. The recommended sugar intake for children is 6 teaspoons. Malted milk drinks are given to kids from an early age and these drinks contain a lot of sugar and flavorings to make it easier and more addictive for kids to drink. One thing which we can all agree on is that sugar is considered to be a slow poison. Brands like Coca-cola, Pepsi, Sprite, etc. are just soft drinks with a lot of sugar in them. We don't consider them to be healthy in any way and they do not advertise themselves as drinks that provide any kind of health benefits.

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In the modern era, if our goal is to make kids eat healthy from a young age, is it a good idea to have them get used to these "health drinks" that are laden with sugar? We know that habits develop at an early age and become more ingrained as we grow up. I think it is better to let kids' nourishment rely on healthy food sources or sources that have the least amount of processing (aka homemade food). There are more malt-based beverages that have less to zero amounts of added sugar.

If any of your friends, relatives, colleagues, or anyone else who is a parent or they are about to be a parent, send them this and tell them to do some research and think twice before buying any of these healthy drinks. Ultimately, it's up to us. That's it for this week.

See you in the next one!