Fri, 6 Feb 2015

✨🐂✨MILK MYTHS✨🐂✨

Gonna stir some pots today by talking about milk and dairy! If there are two nutrition topics that I find people are extremely emotionally attached to it is milk and dairy consumption, and gluten consumption. People love nothing more than to argue with me, a qualified nutritionist, that it is good for your health to drink as much milk as possible, and to eat as much wheat as possible 😒 Strap yourselves in folks because this might take a while! 🐄

So milk and its dairy mates are often promoted as calcium and protein rich foods that you simply must eat/drink lest your bones wither to chalk by the time you are 35. Milk DOES contain a lot of calcium (about 300mg per cup of milk), but there are so many scientific studies that have shown the negative health effects of milk consumption, most overwhelmingly that we barely absorb the calcium in milk (especially when pasteurised, which is the only milk commercially available for consumption in Australia 😉) and in fact INCREASES calcium leaching from the bones. This is because animal proteins (ie the protein in milk) have an acidifying affect on the body, and calcium is a fantastic acid neutraliser. The biggest storage of calcium is of course the skeletal system, so the body pulls calcium from the bones to use as a neutraliser (it also does this to calcify and compartmentalise toxins and unrecognised materials within the body, all the more reason to eat and live organically 😊) and the calcium then leaves the body via urine. It is not coincidental that the countries that have the highest dairy consumption rates also have the highest incidence of osteoporotic fracture. 👴👵 It's also no coincidence that most of us will present with HIGH calcium on our blood tests but LOW bone density (we need that calcium in your blood to be in your bones!)

If you have ANY kind of inflammatory reaction or dysfunction, have skin, bone, neurotransmission, respiratory, digestive or mucosal/integumentary problems then I suggest you limit your intake of dairy. (Listen I know it's hard, the cheeeeseeee ALL OF THE LOVELY CHEESE but I said limit. Just cut down for the time being!) if you're looking for some beautiful ABSORBABLE calcium-rich foods (and there are many) then look at leafy green veg (mmmmmmbroccoli), nuts and seeds (almonds yo), tahini and sesame seeds 💀💪 my favourite coco quench is the best milk substitute!

ALSO ALSO I mean obviously dairy farming uses some super questionable farming practices (any mums out there keen on being pregnant continuously for your entire lifespan? Have your babies taken from you within 24 hours?) and there is nothing in milk that you can't get from other dietary sources. Our dairy-loving friends in countries other than Australia and New Zealand can look forward to the chemical shitstorm of bovine growth hormone and oestrogen used in most other dairy industries too 😳

ALSO ALSO ALSO (sorry, I promise I'll shut up after this) watch out for whey protein supplements (yuck, do not recommend) and check your medication as many Meds employ dairy/lactose as excipients... It's all dairy. Big big business is the dairy industry!