Still Got Milk?

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A couple of weeks ago I posted about how limiting dairy has significantly improved our health as a family, and I got some push-back from folks. I welcome the dialog... as I said in that post, I think everything is born out in experience. I'm confident that if you experience joint pain, regular congestion, skin issues, and various forms of bloating and gut discomfort, try eliminating dairy from your diet for 4 - 6 weeks and see if you benefit. I know we do.

The same friend who was part of the original dialog on dairy, sent me an email this week admitting that maybe I wasn't as off-my-nut as he thought. It turns out The New York Times ran a piece saying that milk may not be good for us after all. Check out what the NYT says...

Milk Might Not Be Doing You Much Good

My post on the ills of dairy was on 11/6, a full 11 days earlier than the NYT piece, and yet it looks like we're singing from the same song book. I don't feel so off my nut after all.

I like to think of it this way: if this was the 1840's and we lived on the plains of Kansas, we'd be very glad for a cow and several chickens, and we'd definitely eat the eggs, and drink the cow's milk, and probably make cheese and butter. The alternative is to eat prairie grass or die, so getting some daily allowance of calories, protein and fats was obviously welcomed.


But we don't live in the 1840's and we don't even live on farms any longer. We have more and better food products and abundant nutritional choices than at any time in our history, and yet we continue to be brainwashed into a lower standard of health and vitality by an out-of-date industry (namely dairy). (I know... there I go again sounding like I'm some vegan extremist... which I'm not.) We can truly create a power pantry, filled with nutritionally dense, fiber-rich, plant-based foods. It simply takes the choice to move in that direction a step at a time.

I'll give the whole dairy debate a rest for a while after this post. Jen and I aren't militant about our wellness choices, and we'll go with the flow in almost any instance. When it comes to the opportunity to make a simple choice that yields superior health over time, though, I'm in.

By the Way

A main culprit in dairy is casein - the protein which causes inflammation and ill-health in our bodies. Casein was studied extensively in The China Study (see my Food Is Medicine post here for more information.) There are many dairy alternatives which provide better nutrition without the casein; you might try almond or soy milk, for example. Here's to better pantry choices and better health...