Truth or Dairy

Hello!

These days you hear a lot of conflicting advice about whether to eat dairy, so here are some dairy facts to help you decide how much to consume.

Reasons to LOVE dairy:

1. Dairy products are good sources of calcium, potassium, protein and, in the case of yogurt, beneficial probiotics.

2. Dairy is often a super-convenient snack, like yogurt, string cheese, cottage cheese, etc.

3. A recent study found that people who consume more calcium excrete more fat. That means they didn’t absorb it.

4. Another study found that low-fat milk is the best exercise recovery drink. It beat out fancy protein shakes (soy-based or whey-based) for building muscle and burning fat in heavy exercisers.

Reasons to AVOID dairy:

1. You may be lactose-intolerant, in which case you don’t digest it. You just become puffy, fluffy or stuffy (inflamed and gassy.) A full 70% of the world lacks the enzymes to fully digest dairy. People of Northern European descent are most likely to have the right enzymes and people of Asian and African descent are least likely. Of course, you can still do Lactose-free dairy.

2. Unless it is organic, many dairy products contain hormones, antibiotics and chemicals used on the farm. These have been blamed for acne and early puberty.

3. Regular (full-fat) dairy is loaded with saturated fat, which is thought to raise cholesterol, contribute to obesity and to not trigger leptin, the hormone that helps you feel full and satisfied. Fat-free dairy doesn’t have this problem.

My advice is to eat organic non-fat dairy if you can digest it well. If you can’t eat dairy, you can get your calcium from many other sources, like green veggies, tofu or calcium supplements. And if you don’t eat yogurt frequently, you might consider taking another source of probiotics.

Have a good week!

Jill