Low Fat/No Fat Dairy- A Slow Poison

There are conflicting popular opinions about dairy consumption. How much do you need every day, what kind of dairy is good for you? You need the calcium to build strong bones and teeth, right? But fat is bad for you, and will make you fat, raising your cholesterol and leading to heart disease. Every single one of these statements is completely wrong, but everyone from our regulatory agencies to our own personal physicians still perpetuate these myths. Is dairy good for you or not? Which is it? Is it part of a natural human diet? How much do we need?

Milk Adaptation- Human History

The first evidence of humans using cow milk comes from Anatolia (Turkey) about 9,000 years ago. Humans domesticated farm animals 10,000-11,000 years ago along with the development of farming, so milk usage may have been earlier than 9,000 years ago, but not much. It is hypothesized that early milk usage was in the form of fermented products like yogurt or cottage cheese because these products have little to no lactose. Mammals loose their ability to digest lactose at the age where they can hunt and fend for themselves and humans are no different. At some point in fairly recent history though, some populations developed a certain gene mutations that allowed them to digest lactose into adulthood. This is known as lactose persistence and is the result of different gene mutations in different populations leading to the same results- known as Convergent Evolution.

Despite the domestication of cows roughly 10,000 years ago, we only have hard genetic evidence that populations in Europe and Africa developed gene mutations allowing lactose persistence about 6,000 years ago. To this day about 70% of the Earth's population is lactose intolerant. More so, many people are intolerant to some of the proteins found in milk, casein. American cows, known for their ability to produce a lot of milk, in particular have a protein known as casien A1, which many people are sensitive to. People who think they are lactose intolerant can find casien A2 dairy from Southern Europe and Asia, which some people can digest easier. Either way though, mammal milk is very species specific and many well intending people have killed other baby mammals with cow milk trying to "rescue" them, so it is best to check with an animal rescue before attempting to give an abandoned mammal cow milk.

A Mother Cow With Her Calves

Fat and Cholesterol

Fat and Cholesterol phobia began in America in the 1950's after President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a severe heart attack while visiting Denver, CO. The search for the cause of heart disease began and Ancel Keys found a boogeyman while conducting population studies in Europe. Through conducting many personal diet surveys and comparing the frequency of heart attacks in a given region, he was sure he had found the culprit, FAT. Keys was quite sure he had found a link between the consumption of saturated fat and heart disease, in fact he was so sure that he left out any data that conflicted with this belief. The study was known as the 7 countries study, but he surveyed 22 countries, and there were regions that ate a diet high in saturated fat with a low frequency of heart attacks, with a low early mortality rate, like the French. Keys found any data that disagreed with his hypothesis inconvenient and excluded it from the study, he was, after all a vegetarian and obviously wanted meat and fat to be the bad guy. Critics of Keys poorly conducted epidemiological study's call this The French Paradox.

Keys pursued this with an almost religious fervor, eventually gaining the support of the American Heart Association, which in turn gained the support of the U.S. Congress, now with all the financial and political support he needed, his hypothesis became holy writ. Right along side the newly formed fat phobia came another fear, Cholesterol. Often found in the arteries of people with heart disease, it was believed that cholesterol clogged up the arteries like bacon fat down a cold drain, so how do we prevent this? Lower cholesterol! Studies were conducted on rabbits to see if feeding them a high fat diet raised the cholesterol in their blood, and it did. There is only one problem with this, a high fat diet is not a species appropriate diet for a rabbit, and scientist jumped to the conclusion that eating a high cholesterol diet will cause high cholesterol in a human's blood. The problem is, this does not appear to be true. It was too late though, the war on cholesterol had begun. The food industry got wind of the headlines and found out that the biggest market now was Low Fat Everything!

This was a convenient self perpetuating situation for the food industry. As everything became low fat, the American diet became higher in carbohydrates. A high carb diet, especially with a rise in processed food, led to a rise in obesity, diabetes, and ironically Heart Disease. So what was their message, Eat Even Less Fat to avoid all of these problems, Buy Our Low Fat Products and you will be healthy. The dairy industry jumped on the the band wagon, managing to fight for an undeserved large spot in the "food pyramid", later to be slightly reformed into "my plate". With this message the diary industry has perpetuated multiple lies all in the same message, you need multiple servings of dairy per day, but fat is bad for you. The solution is to buy low-fat dairy, and this is the best you can do for your health. Nothing could be further from the truth, remember that 70% of the Earth's population is lactose intolerant. Tell me again how everyone on Earth requires multiple servings of dairy every day?!

On a positive note, there has been some change of heart about cholesterol- pun intended. In 2015 the American Heart Association made a quiet public statement that Cholesterol is no longer a nutrient of concern. The fat phobia continues but the cholesterol fervor has died down. Eggs are safe again, even the yolks, and it is even recognized as a necessary nutrient. So is fat though, as every cell membrane, all of the nerves in your nervous system and your entire brain depends on it. Our brains are about 75% fat. Do you have a cat that eats mouse heads and leaves the body behind? This is why, the brain is the most nutritious part. A low fat diet not only starves the body of necessary nutrients, in particular it starves the brain.

Calcium

We all know that milk supports strong bones and teeth right? How do we know this? From the dairy industry of course! All of us grew up thinking that everyone needs milk to be healthy, and if you don't drink it you won't grow properly, and when you are older you will develop osteoporosis. We have all been bombarded with aggressive advertising since childhood. I would like to bring up two previous points again, 70% of the world is lactose intolerant, even some near entire populations are largely lactose intolerant. The other, also previously mentioned, is that we only developed lactose persistence about 6,000 years ago. More so, milk is actually a very poor source of calcium and not very bio-available. Most of it will wash out in your urine. Even more so, there is no study that shows that drinking milk makes your bones stronger, there absolutely no correlation. Some studies have shown that populations who drink milk have a higher rate of hip fractures, and those studies have also shown that individuals who drink a lot of milk are more likely to fracture bones later in life, and die earlier than populations that don't drink milk. It sounds unbelievable, but it appears to be true from the current perspective of science. A much better source of calcium is leafy greens, broccoli, and fish, especially sardines with their bones in.

The Lower the Fat- the Worse it is for you

Just as we have been raised with the idea firmly implanted that milk builds strong bones and teeth, we have also been raised to fear whole milk and whole milk products, but in support of milk I would like to state that the fat is one of the only healthy things about dairy! Milk is not only a poor source of calcium, it has very little nutritional value. The process of pasteurization destroys most of its inherent nutritional value. The vitamin D you see advertised on the carton is added and is only enough vitamin D to prevent rickets, not a major contribution to your daily need for vitamin D. What do you have when you take fat out of milk? You have a concentration of milk sugars, and the inflammatory proteins in the milk. This sugar, like nearly all sugar added or inherent, will spike your blood sugar triggering your insulin response, and cause you to lay down everything that is not immediately burned as fat. Yes, it is true, low-fat milk, especially skim milk, will make you fat!

Processed Dairy is Better

A lot of this article is to dissuade the individual from drinking milk, but there are healthier options when it comes to dairy. Naturally processed dairy, milk that undergoes bacterial fermentation, is a much healthier option. This is because the bacteria eats most of the sugar and breaks down the proteins. Yogurt, cheese (especially hard cheese), and butter have very little lactose and a lower amount of casein, the potentially inflammatory protein that many people are sensitive to. Ghee, ultra clarified butter, has the lowest amount of these harmful components, so many who are sensitive to dairy will find that butter, ghee, and hard cheeses might be easier to digest. People are generally sensitive to the casein found in American and Northern European dairy, Casein A1. The protein found in Southern European and Asian cow milk, Casein A2, is easier for many people to digest. If you believe you are lactose intolerant and you go to Italy and suddenly dairy is fine, you are probably sensitive to Casein A1, not lactose. There are many A2 milk products coming out currently as people begin to realize this.

How Much Dairy do you Need?

Store Margarine Properly- In The Trash

There have been many products formulated in laboratories to replace products that are high in fat. Almost all of these do more harm to your health than good. Vegetable oils, which are actually industrial seed oils, were believed to give you a low fat alternative to the oils and fats that humans have been using for thousands of years. These oils go through an aggressive chemical process using high temperatures, and are then hydrogenated to stabilize them. The result is Trans fats. The negative effects of trans fats has been recognized, and have been made illegal in some states, at least in the fast food industry. Unfortunately, if the serving size of an oil contains less than half a gram of trans fat, they don't have to declare it on the label, and the food industry is good at manipulating the "serving size" of these products to they don't need to declare them. Aside from most popular cooking oils, the other offender is margarine, extracted through an aggressive chemical process, naturally foul order, taste and color, it needs to be died and flavored to be the least bit palatable, also containing trans fats like vegetable oils. Of all the fats studied in a controlled environment, trans fats are the only fats that have been scientifically proven to be associated with heart disease. So do yourself a favor, reach for the butter, and store your vegetable oils and margarine properly. That storage place is the TRASH!

Butter is Better

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