Kick-ass milk with melatonin

American author Suzanne Somers takes it, actress Megan Fox does and popstar Justin Bieber takes it as well – the sleep hormone melatonin.

Many pilots and flight attendants swear by the hormone of the night. Although synthetic melatonin as a cure for jetlag, sleeping disorders and as an antiageing product has been on the rise for many years, naturally produced melatonin is relatively new. A Munich-based company has now started extracting the mysterious sleep hormone out of milk.

It is a white shiny crystalline powder with a slightly sweet taste that can be stirred into milk before going to bed.

For the milk to contain as much melatonin as possible, the cows have to be milked before sunrise. Moreover, they receive food containing tryptophan, the source material for melatonin production.

During the day, the cows get to soak up the sun for longer than usual. Even during winter. For them to get a little extra sun, the colors of the sunlight have to be simulated, including UVA and UVB spectra.

'The sunlight influences a lot more than we had thought so far,' says diploma biologist Stefan Axmann, who is responsible for the laboratory tests at Milchkristalle GmbH. 'With the patented light regime and special feeding, the cows produce a super-milk with a melatonin-kick,' he added.

This mysterious night milk is then dried by a gentle process at 30 degrees below zero. This ensures the conservation of melatonin with the valuable whey proteins. The result is a milk powder that contains more biologically available melatonin than many other foods. Pharmacists particularly value this new alternative product to meet the growing demand for melatonin as a remedy for sleeping disorders.

For additional information, visit www.milchkristalle.de.