The Long Haul: Milk
Welcome to The Long Haul! Every week, I’ll explore a longevity topic and then give a roundup of the big news in longevity. This week I confirmed our bones won’t disintegrate if we don’t have 3 glasses of milk/day. (Were you forwarded this email? Please subscribe here.) Today's Topic: MilkLiving in California, it seems like everyone is terrified of dairy. But I felt like consistently drinking “non-dairy almond beverage” probably wasn’t great for me. So I looked and the Californians are right and almond milk is fine. Is dairy as important as we were told? Milk is touted as a source of vitamin D and calcium and it supposedly “builds strong bones”. We were told it’s important through campaigns like ‘Got milk?’, created by dairy lobbyists. And if there’s one lobby that works hard, it’s the dairy one. Here’s how much they spend on their efforts annually:
The millions of dollars of lobbying have led the US Department of Agriculture to say milk and milk products improve bone health, reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes, and lower blood pressure in adults. [1] But that’s not necessarily the case. Dairy isn’t shown to increase bone health and it also increases acne. Not to mention 68% of the world is lactose intolerant. [2] While milk is a good source of calcium and some other nutrients, other alternatives like leafy greens, meat, and legumes are better. For reference, 1 cup of 1% milk has 305mg of calcium but 1 cup of orange juice has 349mg of calcium. Safe to say the milk marketers did a great job making us believe we needed milk, but the jigs up. [3] Alternative “non-dairy” beverages Alternative milks have made a big splash in recent times. And for good reason, alternative milk options like almond, soy, rice, and oat are better for us:
And thanks to Big Dairy, alternative milk producers aren’t even allowed to call their products milk. Next time you go to the store, check out the oat & almond milk and notice the cartons never say milk – that's what lobbyist dollars can do! So I highly recommend alternative milks (the unsweetened, low-sugar versions) as they’re healthier and pose fewer health risks than regular milk. But there’s this other dairy movement that’s even worse… The Raw Milk movement Certain tin foil hats have convinced themselves that ‘raw milk’ is better. Raw milk is cow's unpasteurized milk. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to kill bacteria like salmonella, e.coli, and listeria. Most dairy products (including in Europe) go through this process and it keeps us safe. [5] Raw milk is banned in 20 states and is 150x more likely to cause foodborne illness. So the group that believes raw milk is better for our health is just plain wrong. [6] I’m certainly not giving up cheese and Ben and Jerry’s half-baked but dairy isn’t as important as we’ve all been led to believe. Fruits and vegetables have a much greater nutritional value and dairy isn’t even a great source of protein. The Haul: What you can’t miss in longevity this weekArticles Thanks for reading. – Robyn [1] https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-are-the-health-benefits-of-consuming-milk-and-milk-products [2] https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-are-the-health-benefits-of-consuming-milk-and-milk-products [3] https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/food-sources-calcium [4] https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/should-you-switch-to-plant-based-milk [5] https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/raw_milk_related/dangers_of_drinking_raw_milk [6] https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/milk/ |
