Got milk?
That simple, two-word advertising slogan is instantly recognizable. For years, it was hard to open a magazine without seeing a celebrity or athlete sporting a milk moustache, with “Got Milk?” as the caption. The text of the ad usually mentioned all the benefits a person can get from drinking milk. The ads continue today. I just saw one with several cast members from the TV show “Modern Family”. All had the moustaches, and the text spoke of how good parents are sure to give their children plenty of milk.
So: who do you think pays for those ads? The government? The American Medical Association? Maybe a health and nutrition lobby group?
Nope. All those “Got Milk?” ads are brought to you by people who sell milk. Fact is, those ads are no different than car adverts. We are told a product is worth buying by the people who are selling it. The problem is that, unlike cars or computers or golf clubs, the dairy industry really has no competition. The claims they make are treated like gospel truth by generations of customers. Of course milk is good for you. It has calcium. It helps build strong bones and teeth. Of course you should drink it. How many times have you heard those very claims, and just accepted them as obvious truths?
If Ford told you they had the only car on the road that could protect your family, would you assume that is true and run out to buy one? Probably not. You’d evaluate their claim, compare their product to competitors’, and make an informed decision. With dairy products, we’ve been trained through generations of loyal purchases not to question any health claim related to milk, cheese, or yogurt. And we’re not talking about some consumer product you’ll eventually throw away or outgrow; this is a substance we are putting in our bodies and our children’s bodies every day, sometimes several times a day. Why do we not question whether or not dairy is all it’s cracked up to be?
The answer is simple: fantastic marketing coupled with government support. This private/public partnership is a one-two punch that keeps customers in line. More than that, if someone even tries to question claims made by the dairy industry, customers automatically view those people as heretics who don’t love their children. Customer loyalty to the dairy industry is unrivalled. To keep it that way, the industry can’t afford to have anyone asking serious questions. If someone does, they have to be dismissed as uninformed and misguided.
The thing is, those questions need to be asked. Are dairy products good for you? Do we even need them in the first place? Can we get the nutrients found in milk, etc. from other, better sources? Can dairy actually be harmful?
I’m not here to do your thinking for you, but based on everything I’ve read on the subject, the answers to the above questions are: No, dairy products are not good for you. No, we don’t need them. Yes, we can get all of milk’s nutrients in healthier, more usable forms elsewhere. And yes, dairy can be very harmful to some people. Here’s why I say you do not need milk and its by-products in your diet:
Fat, Sugar and Sodium
Whole milk (or “homo milk” here in Canada) is packed with saturated fat. A one-cup serving has 5.4g of saturated fat. Remember that saturated fat is the one that will clog your arteries and cause heart disease. That cup also has 157 calories and 12g of sugar (Did you know milk is high in sugar? The ads forgot to mention that, I guess.). Switch to 2% and you still get 3.1g of saturated fat. Skim milk has almost no fat, but still maintains more than three teaspoons of sugar per cup. And no, that’s not chocolate milk. That’s the regular stuff.
Another popular dairy product, especially in the rush to embrace all things low-carb, is cottage cheese. Here are the numbers on that, per one-cup serving: 2% cottage cheese has 220 calories per cup, with 12g of sugar and 3g of saturated fat. It also boasts 920mg of sodium. That’s more than a third of your daily sodium in one little cup of cottage cheese. One percent cottage cheese has nearly the same numbers, but actually has more sugar: 200 calories, 14g of sugar, 2g of saturated fat, and 860mg sodium.
Saturated fat intake has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, obesity, diabetes, and a host of other fatal and entirely preventable ailments. Sugar increases your risks as well. High sodium can increase your blood pressure, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. With dairy, you get to combine all three into one powerful assault on your health.
Calcium, Vitamin D, Protein
Ok, so maybe dairy has some bad stuff in it, but it has to be offset by all the good stuff, right? While there are some beneficial nutrients in dairy, the cost to get them is just too high. And, as far as calcium goes, we’ve fallen victim to more slick marketing.
Calcium
Bones are made partly from calcium. Dairy products have calcium. Consuming dairy is good for your bones. Makes sense.
Unfortunately, science doesn’t back up this oft-repeated claim made by the people who sell dairy.
North Americans consume more dairy products than just about anyone on earth. It would stand to reason, then, if the above claims are true, that we’d also have some of the lowest rates of bone fractures in the world. We don’t. The incidence of hip fracture in American women, per 100,000 population, is currently 101.6. For men, it’s 50.5 in 100,000. For women and men in Singapore, however, where almost no dairy is consumed, the numbers are 15.3 and 26.5, respectively. Consuming more dairy correlates to more than six times the risk of hip fracture for American women, and to nearly double the risk for American men.
The Harvard Nurses Study, which monitored the health of some 78,000 women, yielded similar results: those who drank the most milk were at greater risk of bone fracture than those who drank little or no milk. Yet we continue to accept the dairy industry’s claim that if only we bought more of their product, we’d be fine.
Vitamin D
Recently, vitamin D has come in for all sorts of praise. It improves bone and dental health, boosts immunity, can protect against some types of cancer…it really has the appearance of a wonder vitamin. We should remember, though, that a lot of these fantastic claims are not very well substantiated (yet, at least). While there is certainly nothing wrong with Vitamin D, we just don’t know yet if it’s the magic bullet it’s being made out to be.
Still, though, if you want to increase your intake of Vitamin D, you don’t even need to go to the kitchen. Just head outside on a sunny day for about ten minutes, and your body will actually convert sunlight into an abundance of Vitamin D! During the winter months, supplementing with 1,000 to 2,000 IU of D3 will give you enough to reap whatever benefits the vitamin really brings. All without touching dairy.
Protein
Yes, dairy has protein. This is so that the baby cows meant to consume it will grow big and strong. But do humans need to use it as a protein source? Protein is so ubiquitous in nearly all foods that you’d have to go out of your way to avoid it. You could follow an entirely plant-based diet and get more than enough protein from beans, nuts, grains and vegetables.
Another note on dairy protein: like all animal products, dairy is acid-forming in the body. This throws off your body’s pH balance. An acidic body pH is a very dangerous thing for your health, so your body works hard to restore an alkaline (non-acidic) state. How does it do this? By taking calcium out of your bones and putting it in your bloodstream! Yes, the more animal protein you consume, the less calcium left in your bones. Guess they forgot to mention that in the ads, too.
The Animal Cost
There is a whole other aspect to dairy consumption that will resonate with some people, while just making others roll their eyes. I understand that, but I still think this is useful information so I’m including it here.
The life of a dairy cow isn’t very pleasant. Like humans, cows only lactate (produce milk) after giving birth. To run a profitable dairy operation, this means that dairy cows are kept pregnant most of the year. They give birth, the milk is taken, and when milk production naturally drops off, they are inseminated again to start the process over. This goes on until the cow’s body cannot bear the stress any longer. At that point (usually after 3 to 4 years), the cow is sent to slaughter.
You may be wondering what happens to all those calves that the dairy cow gives birth to. The females become dairy cows themselves, while the males are sold to veal producers.
The short answer is that no one wins in the dairy equation, except for the producers.
Finally, a large portion of the world’s population simply can’t digest dairy products. When we’re born, our bodies produce an enzyme called lactase. This enzyme breaks down the sugar found in milk. As we leave infancy (and stop nursing), many people stop producing it. Without it, dairy can cause bloating, nausea, gas, diarrhea, and other discomfort. Approximately 75% of African Americans do not produce lactase, nor do approximately 90% of Asians. This results in the “lactose intolerance” we hear about so frequently.
Ok, if we are to give up dairy, what do we replace it with? There are many superior sources of usable calcium and protein readily available to us. Leafy green vegetables, like spinach, kale and chard are packed with calcium. Black beans, kidney beans and chickpeas are great sources of both calcium and protein. Just 100g of white beans will give you 23g of protein, 15g of fibre, and 24% of your daily calcium requirement. I honestly don’t know why you’d want to put dairy products in your body when it is so completely unnecessary. If you need something you can swap out your milk and cheese for, I’d suggest almond milk, rice milk, or coconut milk, and trying Daiya non-dairy cheese. All lower in calories and fat than their dairy counterparts. Yes, I know coconut milk has saturated fat, but it’s a different kind of saturated fat. The benefits of coconuts will be a whole other blog entry…
And this isn’t just me talking. Many, many studies have shown that milk does not improve bone health. That saturated fat, sugar and sodium can be detrimental to our health is really not even in dispute any longer. Many establishments, like Starbucks, offer non-dairy milk alternatives. Even Beachbody, the company that created P90X, TurboJam and Insanity is now recommending avoiding dairy in its latest product, Insanity Asylum. The program’s food plan clearly states that Shaun Thompson, the creator of Insanity and Asylum, does not consume dairy. Alternatives are recommended, and it’s strongly suggested that users of the program completely eliminate dairy from their diet for 14 days. The next generation of P90X, due out later this year, will include vegan options in its meal plan.
I know we’ve all been told throughout our entire lives that dairy products are good, wholesome, and nutritious. Like I said, I’m not here to do your thinking for you. Please look into this on your own. Do some reading. Ask some questions. Learn for yourself. Don’t blindly accept what people who want your money are telling you. Then, make an informed choice that is right for you and your family.
I hope to hear some feedback on this issue. Let me know what you think!
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