I have to congratulate the dairy industry on the spectacular marketing job they’ve done about consumption of milk and other dairy products. Most of the population is now convinced that they must eat dairy every day or their bones will crumble. I wish I could achieve the same level of population-wide compliance with legume consumption for healthy gut and hormones. Sigh.
Sometimes, when assessing a client’s symptoms, I can see that their diet contains way too much dairy, and could be contributing to their hormone imbalances, digestive problems or skin rashes. So I may request that they drop dairy from their diet for a while, to assess how their body reacts. Nine times out of 10 the reaction is shock: But I HAVE to eat dairy! Or…..or……
Well, you don’t – and I’m going to explain why.
Before you reach for your keyboard to write some outraged comments on this blog post, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that dairy is ‘bad’ for you; I’m suggesting that it’s time to review our love affair with this bovine food. Just hear me out (then please reach for the keyboard and add your comments to the discussion!)
WHAT WE DID BEFORE WE MILKED COWS
First, a trip back in time. Before we began gathering in small villages, our ancestors roamed the countryside as hunter-gatherers, living primarily on seafood, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and nuts. Some remote hunter-gatherer societies still live this way. We didn’t eat dairy because no wild cow would stand still long enough to be ‘milked’. Although our lifespan as hunter-gatherers wasn’t as long as it is now, it was a life free of many of the chronic diseases that afflict us with our modern diet. Our species managed to successfully evolve without the assistance of dairy food.
It was only once we learnt to tame and farm animals that our diet evolved to include dairy. And that was only 10,000 years ago, a mere blink of the eye in terms of human evolution.
Many cultures have healthy diets that doesn’t include dairy, and their populations are sometimes renowned for their long lives (like some Asian cultures)
HOW YOU CAN (OR CAN’T) ABSORB THAT CALCIUM IN YOUR FOOD
To be fair, the dairy industry has it right on one point – the calcium in dairy food is bundled with a phosphate molecule, making it very easy to absorb. Calcium in other foods, like fibre-rich vegetables, can sometimes be harder to absorb because the phytates, oxalates and fibre can get in the way. Fortunately your body has in-built mechanisms to help overcome this obstacle.
Once that calcium-rich food is in your gut (whether dairy based or not) there’s more potential hurdles to absorption:
- - Only 10-30% of the calcium you eat is absorbed.
- - If there’s a high concentration of calcium present (like in a calcium supplement), your body will automatically down-regulate calcium absorption to prevent too much getting in at once.
- - If there’s a low concentration of calcium present, your body will automatically up-regulate calcium absorption to ensure more gets absorbed.
- - Calcium is absorbed best in your upper duodenum, an area with an acidic pH, as food lands here right after it leaves your stomach. If your stomach wasn’t acidic enough (and that’s likely if you’ve been taking antacids or proton pump inhibitors to relieve heartburn), the pH in your duodenum won’t be acidic enough for the calcium to be absorbed. Alkaline gut contents will cause the calcium to precipitate into an insoluble form.
- - Vitamin D is needed to stimulate the production of calcium binding protein by your bowel lining. This handy protein ‘escorts’ calcium through your bowel wall into your bloodstream. Deficient in vitamin D? It’s affecting your calcium absorption.
THE FAT DILEMMA
Prior to the agricultural era, our intake of healthy omega-3 oils and omega-6 oils was roughly equal. A higher intake of omega-3 oils has an anti-inflammatory effect in your body, and promotes more flexible cell membranes – including brain cells. But once we started farming, the omega ratio in our diets began to change. Now, a person eating a modern western diet will ingest up to 10 times more omega 6 than omega 3. The result is a tendency to develop inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, and many skin disorders.
Full-fat dairy products are high in omega-6 oils. You could eat no-fat dairy, but that brings me to my next point –
IMMUNE INTOLERANCE
Some people have immune systems that react negatively to milk protein. Often they develop eczema as a result, and have to severely reduce or eliminate their exposure to dairy products to keep their skin healthy.
LACTOSE INTOLERANCE
Some people don’t have adequate amounts of the enzyme required (lactase) to break down the natural sugars in milk. Like the people suffering from immune reactions to the milk protein, they’re required to severely limit their intake of dairy, or switch to lactose-free milk products.
HORMONE HAVOC
My clinical experience is that women who eat large amounts of dairy often have hormone imbalances too, particularly oestrogen dominance, which can bring on PMT, mood swings and painful periods. Whether the dairy upregulates oestrogen receptors, or whether it’s the omega-6 oils I’m not sure. But removing dairy from the diet of a woman whose hormones are creating havoc can have some positive effects.
WHAT ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS? DON’T I NEED A CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT?
There are two other important factors in maintaining strong bones besides your calcium intake: the stimulation of weight bearing exercise (see my blog post about it here) and balanced hormones.
If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia, it’s even more important to check your gut acidity first (or that calcium supplement might not be absorbed). Get your hormone balance checked too, and make sure you’re participating in enough weight bearing exercise every day to make a difference.
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO CUT OUT DAIRY COMPLETELY!!
Don’t think that you must drop dairy out of your diet completely to be healthy. Like most foods, its fine in moderation. Use it as a condiment, to spice up dishes: Like sprinkling a little feta on your salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and olives; or slicing off one very delicious sliver of vintage cheese to enhance your glass of wine. But don’t think that you HAVE to have bucket loads of dairy every day to prevent your bones crumbling. It aint necessarily so.
So, that’s my argument – what do you think? Leave your comment below…
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