| Hi Friend,
Eating healthy has become complicated. Browse your local bookstore and prepare to be bamboozled by all the conflicting advice you’ll find there.
And things get even worse online. The rise of health and wellness bloggers means messages about how and what to eat have become even more confusing: “Don’t eat this, don’t eat that!” the food faddists cry — but are they right?
One particular food group that is commonly vilified, are dairy foods. Like some scary pantomime villain, dairy foods constantly finds themselves at the mercy of the media.
Receiving their share of negative press, you’ll often hear how dairy is bad for you and why consuming cow’s milk is damaging your health. The increasing availability — and popularity — of alternative plant-based milks go some way to back up these claims. So it’s therefore no surprise when the health and wellness community are quick to demonise the “white stuff”.
And their arguments sound so convincing…until you stop to examine the facts.
Just the Facts, Ma’m
The thing is, if you find yourself on a dairy-free diet, chances are your body is deficient in certain key nutrients.
For example, calcium requirements are critical to rude health (and muscle building) but suffer badly when you cut out the dairy.
By waving goodbye to milk, yoghurt and cheese, you suddenly raise the risk of weaker bones and boost the possibility of developing osteoporosis.
And don’t go thinking this bone-wasting disease is something that just afflicts older folks. Recent studies by public health bodies warn under-30s are at high risk of developing osteoporosis due to the popularity of so-called dairy-free diets.
And here is the critical point that often goes overlooked: dairy doesn’t cause adverse effects on your health unless you are intolerant to it. In fact, dairy can become your best ally when you’re looking to build your body — a fact that is clearly corroborated by the “squats and milk” programs that grew to such prominence in the 1950s and 60s and continue to work today.
So don’t go ditching the dairy. Instead, do like the strongmen of yesteryear and make this delicious foodstuff part of a healthy diet.
Until next time,
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