Dairy is for Baby Cows....
To many, the idea of eliminating dairy from their diet seems an impossible request. We love our dairy....we love our cheese! Many of us won't give it up without a fight, but once we do..we see clearly why dairy is just for baby cows!
Dairy is a very common allergen for many individuals. We do not make the lactase enzyme along our gastrointestinal tracts after childhood, and so many people experience gas, bloating, increased mucous production, indigestion, weight gain, fatigue, headaches, seasonal allergies , inflammatory conditions like arthritis and some autoimmune disorders from continued consumption into adulthood. Continuing research also shows links between dairy consumption and heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, prostate and breast cancers.
Dairy includes milk, cheese, half and half, cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, butter, and ice cream. Hidden sources include casein, whey, rennet, lactulose, lactalbumin, lactglobulin, and curd. Furthermore, dairy products such as "milk solids" are very widely used as an additive for numerous types of products. Whether these products need to be avoided depends on the reason for the dairy-free diet. Some products that often contain milk solids or other dairy items include: Breads, margarine, muesli bars, processed meats, soy cheese.
Milk Alternatives: Oat milk, Rice Milk, Hemp Milk, and Almond Milk. Soy milk is not recommended for everyone (ask your doctor if it is a good alternative for you).
Take the Dairy-Free Challenge and see for yourself what it can do for you and your health!
Lakeshore Wellness Center: Naturopathic Holistic Medicine and Acupuncture in Chicago.
http://www.lakeshorewellnesscenter.com
http://www.rxacupuncture.com
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I agree with this--I do not have a problem going without dairy, especially milk. Gah, it tastes soo bad to me.
When I was a kid people always said "drink your milk, it will make you grow" I have never had a glass of milk at night or for breakfast and I am 5'7" and healthy.
The only thing is that eliminating it completely is seemingly impossible for the majority of people-- cows milk is in lots of foods and it takes a lot of effort to cut out entirely--especially when you have a family or husband who are used to the consumption of dairy.
It is very much possible, but only realistic for the percentage of the population who are either lactose intolerant or have been raised this way.
A troublesome thing is that lots of foods have hidden milk ingredients - e.g. McDonald's fries have milk in their coating. It took me a long time to realize what was effecting me when I would go their in my late teens.
Anon, are you serious about the milk coating?? Disqusting!!!! I haven't (knowingly) had dairy of an kind since I was about 18 years old. I am in my thirties now. I have always found it repulsive to say the least. My mother said that I completely rejected bottle milk at 18 months of age and wouldn't touch it after that! I was past weaning, I guess.
It is difficult, indeed, to always be label reading and paranoid about injesting any dairy but I manage it.
I am super healthy. I don't eat meat either. I do like occasional seafood but am getting closer and closer to vegan and even raw vegan living.
For me, not only do I dislike the taste, texture and smell of dairy products, but I am also psychologically repulsed by it for some strange reason. I could not sit next to someone who was drinking a big glass of milk, for example or eat a salad on which a single drop of milk had fallen! LOL!
While I agree that eating dairy is not necessary for human beings, we have been consuming it for 9000+ years. It's not something that we suddenly introduced to our systems a few hundred years ago and there is nothing "western" about it.
Being lactose intolerant is quite common! Our bodies still remain true in many ways to how we were tens of thousands of years ago - meaning we're made for human milk until the age of 3 or 4 and then our older bodies don't have a tolerance for lactose. many of us now do but some don't and never will.
But our bodies have adapted to new diets, new ways of eating (we are no longer vegetarian, for example, like we were for thousands of years save for the occasional hunting trip) and as we went from horticultural life to agricultural life, we began to eat meat on a regular basis.
So eating meat or dairy is not "weird" unless we want to go back 5000 or 10000 years and call our ancestors weird! As humans, we adapt! We progress! If we ate what we ate 20,000 years ago and had no mainstream medicine, we'd be dead by the age of 30. Just like dogs and cats and birds and fish (and on) - they have adapted too! They don't eat or live like they did 20000 years ago and much of it has nothing to do with pollution or human causes.
Like the French and Dutch, we eat cheese and many kinds of it. The French and Dutch live better than the Irish or Americans. How? With all that wine and gasp!!! - evil cheese and dairy! We're perfectly healthy too. Everything in moderation. While our "new" way of living has brought new problems (certain cancers, obesity, AIDS and many others) we are also living longer and better. We need a broader perspective on things. Deciding that a certain food lifestyle is gross for ourselves is fine. Deciding it's gross for the whole world is not.
Edam, anyone? Or a slice of Havarti?
:)
What she said. I don't know that dairy is the healthiest thing for us, but we've been eating it for thousands of years. If modern humans are having health problems, dairy isn't the problem. It's more likely our lack of exercise and general sedentary lifestyle.