Is Dairy Making You Fat?

Is Dairy Making You Fat? 

 

The biggest advice I can give in regards to a healthy diet is to listen to your body. While I will never give a blanket statement that says everyone needs to cut out gluten or avoid dairy to lose weight, I will say you need to listen to what these foods are doing to your body.


Part of any healthy eating plan involves listening to your body and eating foods that make you feel satisfied, nourished and light. It is equally as important that you avoid all foods that make you feel heavy, bloated and unwell. For many people gluten and dairy products do exactly that.

We are led to believe that milk and other dairy products are an essential and healthy part of a balanced diet. After all if we don’t get calcium from drinking our milk then our bones will crumble into a big pile of dust, right? Wrong! What a lot of cows fodder!

Over 5,000 years ago milk was consumed fresh, raw and unpasteurized the way it is today. Once fed lush green grass, dairy cows are now fed a high protein, soy-based diet. Why, you may ask? Purely to produce bigger pituitary glands so that each cow can produce three times more milk than those of old. Soy meal has the wrong kind of protein profile for cows and is less nutritious. This not only cuts the cows life short, but also means that milk is more likely to cause a reaction in allergy sensitive individuals.

Thanks to good old Louie Pasteur modern day milk is now pasteurized. Pasteurization destroys valuable enzymes, diminishes vitamin content denatures milk proteins, kills off good bacteria and is linked with allergies and numerous health concerns. When Washington DC based Pediatrician Russell Bunai was asked what single change the American diet would produce the greatest health benefit he said: “Eliminating dairy products”. Even
calves cannot survive on pasteurized milk and those who are will die before maturity.

What about skim milk, you may ask? As with most of Nature’s creations there is a reason why it’s there. Milk fats were put there for good reason, we actually need the fat-soluble vitamins A and D found in milk to help absorb the water-soluble nutrients such as calcium.

Dairy products don't have to produce obvious side effects to be causing harm to your body. Food sensitivities to dairy products affect millions of people each day, many of whom don't even know it. In fact around 60% of adults are intolerant to dairy.

Dairy sensitivities can have a huge negative impact on your health, your weight and the quality of your life.

What are Dairy Food Sensitivities?

 

Food intolerance or sensitivity is a term given to any adverse or unpleasant reaction to a food, food additive or ingredient. Unlike an allergy, a food intolerance or sensitivity does not produce an immune response, but rather an inflammatory response.

Most food sensitivities have a delayed onset during which you will feel fine. It can take hours or days for symptoms to show, which is why it is so difficult to determine what is making you feel so ill. You could have a glass of milk today and get a headache tomorrow—would you make the connection on your own?

Dairy Sensitivity Explained 

 

Lactose intolerance is a general description used for people who cannot easily digest lactose, a sugar found naturally in milk. Lactase, the enzyme in the digestive system that helps break down lactose, declines from the age of two. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, gas, cramping, bloating, diarrhoea or constipation.

One of the biggest problems with cow's milk comes from the protein casein. Strangely enough we are not cows and as such our digestive system is simply not well equipped to break down the large amount of protein found in cow's milk. Casein is the main protein in cow's milk and constitutes about 3 per cent. Human milk, on the other hand, has only 0.5 per cent casein. The high casein content of cow's milk causes it to form a very tough, rubbery curd in the stomach which is extremely difficult to digest. As a result some of the undigested protein makes its way into your bloodstream and causes an allergic or inflammatory reaction, resulting in many snotty nosed kids ... and overweight adults.

What are the Symptoms of Dairy Sensitivity

 

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Gas
• Bloating
• Stomach ache
• Acid Reflux/GERD
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Blood in the stool
• Chronic pain/Arthritis
• Dark circles under the eyes
• Anxiety
• Nausea/Vomiting
• Eczema/Psoriasis/Rashes/Hives
• Sinus problems
• Anemia
• Seizures 

Longer term effects of dairy sensitivity include:

 

• Weight gain
• Leaky gut
• Inflammation of the organs and tissues

So How Is Dairy Making You Fat?

 

Remember me mentioning that food sensitivities are not an allergic response, they are an inflammatory one?

Several studies have shown that inflammation causes weight gain. Overweight kids were found to have a three-fold higher level of CRP (a marker of inflammation) and a two and a half fold higher level of allergy related IgG antibodies. This is astounding, since in most medical studies a difference of 20 to 30 percent is considered significant. And in this case, the differences were over 250 percent.

Damage to the gut can lead to a leaky gut, which allows food particles into the blood stream to be exposed to the body’s immune system. This triggers a system-wide immune response that causes systemic inflammation in the tissues throughout the entire body.

Chronic inflammation is a known cause of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition in which cells fail to respond to the hormone insulin. The body produces insulin, but the cells become resistant to insulin and are unable to use it efficiently. To compensate for this perceived lack, beta cells in the pancreas increase their production of insulin which causes excess insulin levels in the blood. Since insulin is a fat storage hormone, the more insulin you have the more fat you store.

Simply by eliminating the foods that you are sensitive to can help you lose weight and turn this all around.

What About Calcium?

 

Yeah, well what about my calcium you may cry! There's no doubt that calcium is an essential mineral and you may be wondering how you will be able get your calcium without dairy milk.

Never fear, just look at the elephant with its big, strong healthy bones. You can bet he hasn’t touched a drop of milk from the day he was weaned as a baby. In fact human beings are the only mammals that continues to consume milk after being weaned. No, like all animals, the elephant gets his calcium from eating his greens. It is absolutely possible to get your calcium requirements from dark green vegetables and the darker the better.

Other alternative sources of dietary calcium include figs, Chinese cabbage, oranges, fish, almonds, tahini, canned sardines or mackerel eaten with bones, and all dark green leafy vegetables.

I certainly don’t think there is any reason to cry over spilt milk. Instead of using dairy milk why not try substituting with rice milk? Or for a truly fresh alternative blend your own nut milk. Check out my recipe blogs for a delicious Almond Milk recipe.