Got milk? Taylor Swift with a milky moustache? Pretty sure she’s not chug-a-lugging conventional milk between sets. Mucus much? Will somebody please explain to me why they try to stuff the number one food allergen down kids throats, glass after glass. And not just kids, adults too. Let’s clear up the milk mess.
So if I ask you, what is the number one food that supplies calcium, what would you say? Probably milk, or dairy, cheese, yogurt, ice cream if you’re cheeky. Would you be right? No. Don’t feel bad, you and everyone else, including me up until not too long ago, have been fed endless half truths and lies about dairy thanks to major marketing campaigns and an uber-strong milk lobby that tells us, “Drink milk to make your bones strong.”
The reality is much different. But first I need to back up, because nothing is ever that simple. Let’s clarify raw milk versus pasteurized milk. Raw milk, unaltered milk, is full of enzymes, in fact the enzymes you need to digest milk proteins, like lactose, are within the milk, called lactase. However, when you cook the milk at 300 degrees, those enzymes are killed. People can no longer digest the protein; we call them lactose intolerant. When really, if they had milk raw, with live enzymes, they might just be fine. So, just know that raw milk has live enzymes that make milk digestible by humans.
However, we can’t get raw milk. It’s illegal to buy raw milk in Canada. What a shame. Can you believe that? In the US, it’s only illegal in about three states– so they are ahead of us on that front. Personally, I would only drink raw milk. If I’m in a bind and need it for a recipe, I’ll use grass fed organic non-homogenized, but it is still pasteurized as it has to be because of current laws. I’m in the process of joining a group to help change that. More on that later.
So raw milk is digestible. Pasteurized is not. Here’s why. So from here on, for the purposes of today, we’re talking pasteurized milk. And here’s why milk doesn’t do a body good:
1) Milk is the number one allergenic food. It contains more then 25 different proteins that may induce an allergic reaction. That’s because of the enzymes I mentioned before. If a food cannot be digested, its nutrients cannot be absorbed and utilized.
2) Milk may create a calcium deficiency. If you are not digesting milk properly, then it may ferment in the intestine and create lactic acid, which gets absorbed into the blood and binds with calcium and magnesium making these minerals unavailable to the tissues. This is a really key fact because your body uses calcium to buffer acidity, and to protect you when you consume acid foods like coffee, sugar, alcohol and everything refined. And if there’s not enough calcium in your system, your body will pull calcium from bones and teeth. Not good! Hence brittle bones and osteoporosis and the like. Which brings me to…
3) Milk does not prevent osteoporosis. Fact: countries with the highest consumption of milk, have the highest fracture rates and highest rates of osteoporosis. Milk loses 50% of its available calcium during pasteurization. Low fat versions strip the fat which is exactly what transports the calcium to tissues. Not to mention the vitamins they add back into the milk are typically synthetic versions of key vitamins like D3, they give us in D2 form, hard for the body to absorb, and Vitamin A, C or E. Did you know vegetarians have higher bone density then meat eaters of the same age?
4) Milk requires your body to give up an enormous amount of enzymes to digest it. And if you saw my raw food vs cooked episode you’ll know we need those enzymes for all sorts of other processes, not for processing denatured foods.
So that’s why got milk should be NOT MILK. It just isn’t good for you. It’s denatured, even organic. Much better is to get your calcium from vegetable, nut or seed sources. And instead of worrying about getting enough calcium, concern yourself with keeping the calcium you have.
How? Well consider all the things that drain calcium from your bones: coffee, tea, soda, pop and chocolate. These foods create increased calcium loss in the urine –they are acidic and calcium is a buffer, recall? Refined sugar decreases absorption of calcium. Kids have gotten rickets consuming sweetened condensed milk. Then there’s meat, grain and soft drinks with high phosphorous content – phosphorous binds with calcium, when the balance is off, phosphorous drains calcium. Salt increases urinary calcium excretion. Fiber, believe it or not, some fibers can decrease calcium absorption because minerals tend to bind to fiber – note: this is a very good thing when we’re detoxing unwanted and heavy minerals, which we get from bad foods and environmental toxins.
So what’s the answer? Got nuts? Or got veggies. That should be the campaign. Nuts do a body good. Veggies do a body good! Milk contains 288 mgs per cup. Almonds which are highest in Calcium contain 600 mg. Filberts 424 mg. Sesame seeds a whopping 2200 mgs. Then there’s greens: collard greens, kale, chard, turnip greens, artichoke, broccoli, all high in calcium. Almost every veg has some calcium. Molasses, organic please, has 137 mg. Hang tight for my molasses recipes come xmas time. Garbanzo beans are loaded, as are navy beans. Ah, just eat the plant food spectrum and you’ll get what you need without the leaky calcium drain.
I hope this helps convince you that milk is not the answer. Please help me fight for raw milk products in CANADA because there is a lot about milk that IS good. We’re not really meant to keep drinking “milk” once we’re weaned, especially not from another animal, but raw kefir, butter, yogurt, cheese and the like can be amazingly delicious and good for your with active cultures and enzymes. If you’re interested in getting involved in the raw food campaign please email me directly. Happy healthy eating!
xo Shannon