We’ve all been taught since we were little that we need to drink at least a glass of milk a day complete with a nice milk moustache, to maintain healthy, strong bones. Seeing all of those national TV commercials featuring professional athletes drinking milk and getting a silky, white milk moustaches after they finished drinking made milk seem “cool.” I mean, those athletes didn’t look ridiculous with milk all over there faces? Did they?
The government-recommended myplate.gov suggests having around 3 cups of “low fat” or “fat free” dairy products a day. Milk has always had a halo around its head when it came to healthy living. But wait, lets look at the true health benefits of dairy before we make any final decisions on the calcium-rich, good old white stuff.
Lets start with nutrition. 1 cup of whole milk gives you:
- a good source of protein
- a good source of calcium
- a few carbohydrates
- good source of saturated fats
- good source of vitamins D, B12, & Riboflavin
- even more protein
- even more good fats and saturated fats
- good calcium
- more sodium (not so great)
- a lot more minerals than milk
- a few less vitamins
- a few less grams of carbs
Well first thing’s first, human beings are the only animals in the world who consume the breast milk of other post-partum animals (other than themsleves). As JYI says: “humans place themselves in the odd position of being the only animals that consume milk after weaning. Moreover, humans do not drink human milk, but drink the milk of other species, and do so commonly throughout their adult lives“. So, why did we start using other animals’ dairy in the first place? Well, the answer unfortunately is, we just don’t know. There is a lack of archaeological evidence explaining when cow or any other animal’s milk was originally consumed by humans. Some researchers say milk entered the human diet only around 9,000 years ago when everyone on the planet was lactose intolerant, which means those neolithic dairy farmers made things that were lactose-free (yogurts, cheeses, ghee).
Lactose was originally only broken down in small quantities during the first couple of years of a humans life. However, due to a genetic mutation, some middle eastern neolithic agricultural communities were able to make a small change on chromosome 2 to allow them to consume lactose products in their lifetime without diarrhea, nausea, flatulence, stomach cramps, etc. These communities eventually migrated to Europe where they introduced this phenomenon with Europeans, who now a days “many people” carry the change to chromosome 2.
HOWEVER, according to a study published in 2006, “An estimated 30 million to 50 million American adults are lactose intolerant.” The pattern of primary lactose intolerance appears to have a genetic component, and specific populations show high levels of intolerance, including approximately: 95 percent of Asians, 60 percent to 80 percent of African Americans and Ashkenazi Jews, 80 percent to 100 percent of American Indians, and 50 percent to 80 percent of Hispanics. Lactose intolerance is least common among people of northern European origin, who have a lactose intolerance prevalence of only about 2 percent.”
Which means, YOU yes, YOU could be lactose intolerant and not even know it.
When I started my primal lifestyle, I did a little self-experimentation to test my lactose tolerance which I encourage you to do, as well: Completely stop eating any and all dairy products for anywhere between 3 days to 2 weeks. Once you have completely given up dairy for that time period, drink a glass of milk, wait a little while, and see how you feel. If you end up on the crapper, shitting out your insides . . . well then you’re probably lactose intolerant and you should cut non-fermented dairy out of your diet (cheese, yogurt, and ghee are all lower lactose dairy products that can similarly be tested for tolerance. Harder cheeses present less lactose than softer cheeses).*
However, if you feel fine than congratulations! You are a successful product of a genetic mutation! So, you can have any and all dairy, right?
Wrong. Low fat milk, surprisingly, does not come straight from the cow and is not just milk with the fat taken out. It has a number of additives to “enhance” the milk. Almost always, dairy producers add dried milk powder to skim milk to give it an extra protein boost so it will sell better and keep up with the competition (whole milk). Well, dry milk powders not only severely damage essential nutrients found in milk, but the process of drying milk also oxidizes the cholesterol in milk which, when consumed, cause risks for heart disease. But, don’t go looking on the ingredients of your skim milk for dried milk: “You won’t always find skim milk powder listed in the ingredients of your milk. Because it’s considered an industry standard to use milk powder, milk processors aren’t required to list it.”
Not to mention, skim milk eliminates all of the essential saturated fats that are present in whole milk. Saturated fats are essential to achieving “stable cell membranes and healthy brain, lung, and skin function.” Stay tuned for future posts on saturated fat.
Dairy can be implemented into your health plan in several ways if and only if you can tolerate it. Be it an everyday occurrence in your morning cup o’ joe (post on coffee coming soon!), in the occasional piece of good, hard cheese, or you could leave it off of your plate entirely, everyone will have different levels of tolerance when it comes to dairy. If you choose to partake in dairy, try and look for the cleanest dairy you can find (grass-fed, organic) for optimal health. That should be enough on dairy for a while. I should stop before I get too cheesy
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*If you think you’re lactose intolerant, you should see your physician to get the necessary tests to be absolutely sure.
And of course, the day we come out with the dairy post, this happens: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/tanker-spills_n_1601038.html?utm_hp_ref=dc
@daniel
Great post Max! Really interested to hear what you have to say about coffee.
Hey guys, I’ve been reading your posts for a while now, and, while I may not be able to go into great detail like Sammy did (see his comment in part 1), I can’t help but feel like you are giving some misinformation to the public, especially regarding the overconsumption of saturated fats, which is not a good thing for you. While it is certainly true that fat is a great way to store energy, it is not the necessarily healthiest way to do so. I would suggest looking up some of your facts and talking to some other specialists in order to gain a complete perspective on the subject. I know for a fact that my parents (both nutrition specialists) would love to talk with both of you and give you more information.
Oh also, I’m pretty sure your comment about how plasma membranes are 50% saturated fat is just not true. I may be wrong – I would love to see where you got your information, and just let me know if you’d like to get in touch with my parents on the matter.
Keep up the posts!
Andrew,
Thank you for your comment. If we have misinformed someone with our blog posts, we apologize. However, almost, if not all, of our posts are backed up with sources that are linked to certain words or phrases within the post itself. To be clear: None of what we say on this blog is our own personal feeling towards dieting, it is all backed up through other peoples research, studies, and findings. Having said that, you are not the first person to think eating saturated fat is crazy and “unhealthy”. In fact, it is a very common understanding throughout average people, nutritionists and scientist that saturated fat is “the devil”. Then why, how can we and the paleo community say that saturated fat should nay be shunned in our diets, but is in fact a very standard nutrient with numerous health benefits that should be taken full advantage of? Well, it starts with a man named Ancel Keys.
Ancel Keys was a scientist who studied the effects of nutrition on our health. He conducted a very large study called the “Seven Countries Study”. This study consisted of 22 countries, however Keys decided to only look at the results of 7 specific countries. These countries were selected based on their ability, through collected data, to prove Keys’ hypothesis (that a low-fat diet was good for stopping heart disease) correct. Low and behold, after selecting the data he wanted to use for his published study, Keys found that there was a direct correlation between fat intake and heart disease. Keys, being a “politico” presented his cooked-down findings to respected scientists, politicians, nutritionist, and the public. Because of Keys’ great reputations amongst the health community, everyone took his word for it, and stopped eating Saturated fats and almost all dietary fats. This led to an overall fear of saturated fats by the public, scientists and nutritionists. However, if one were to look closer at ALL of the data collected from the 15 other countries in the Seven Countries Study, one would see that there is in fact no correlation whatsoever between fat intake and heart disease deaths. If you are interested in looking at these graphs, check out this link: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/02/cholesterol-presentation-between.html. If you would like to learn about the health benefits that saturated fats have in them, you will have to wait for the soon to come saturated fats post.
I would love to talk to your parents and see what they have to say about healthy living and nutrition. Have them email me at cavemancollege@gmail.com.
Also, as far as the cell membranes go; “Saturated fats play many important biologic roles. They are an integral component of cell membranes, which are 50 percent saturated fat. Lung surfactant is composed entirely, when available, of one particular saturated fat”- Donald Miller, a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He is a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness and writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com
Hope this was something you were looking for! Keep reading, commenting and spreading the word!
Sources:
• http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller33.1.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys
• http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/02/cholesterol-presentation-between.html
• http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/ancel-keys.html
• http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2007/11/professor-john-yudkin-and-dr-ancel-keys.html
Where do you get calcium then??
For the most part, we probably don’t need as much calcium as the government suggests. Bone density probably has more to do with vitamin D levels than with how much calcium we take in. However, you can get plenty of calcium from eating things like: leafy greens, broccoli, nuts, sweet potatoes and fish like salmon and sardines (eat the skin and bones too!). You could also eat some egg shells if you’re into that. Here is some further reading on calcium:http://www.marksdailyapple.com/calcium-for-women/#axzz23qBfwdm3
I’m somewhat torn in understanding your logic here. It seems the whole premise of the diet is to eat how our ancestors did in the most natural way possible. It seem almost contradictory that you are now saying that since humans have adapted to process lactose it is fine to consume it. If this is the case, why should we not be able to eat things such as grains that we may also have become genetically adapted to over the course of time.
Also as I side note: your statement of, “None of what we say on this blog is our own personal feeling towards dieting” is a bit ridiculous realistically speaking. Something being backed up by evidence does not counteract it being your personal opinion. Think about politics for example, what they say is backed up by their research and facts, but it is pretty agreed upon that the way in which they present them and the fact that they do present them constitutes their personal opinion and agenda. The same is true about this blog being your personal feelings and beliefs about dieting and nutrition.
Alex, I see why you are confused. We are not saying that it is fine to consume lactose. In fact, for a lot of people, maybe even most people, it is not fine. A lot of people do not even know that they cannot digest lactose (same with gluten). What we are saying, and I think we have mentioned this before with grains as well, is that you should try self experimentation, track how you feel, look and perform and make a real decision on whether or not you should be eating this stuff. I don’t think that we should and are able to digest lactose as a population whole, but I do think that some of us are better adapted than most of us when it comes to digesting lactose. There are also a number of dairy products out there that do not have, or have very limited lactose in them, and those are things that we believe can be beneficial to a healthy diet. Things such as: butter, cheese and raw milk (although it does have lactose, it also has lactase which is the enzyme that digests lactose). Hope this clears things up, sorry for the misunderstanding.
Max