The Dairy Thing

I lied when I called this a vegan program. It's not. It's a starch based diet with fruits and veggies that is free of animals and oils. Oreos are vegan, and this is about health, not all of the stuff we can substitute just to end up with the same fats, salts, and sugars. With that, it's time to talk about dairy. Here are the basics of what McDougall lectured about this morning:

Why have we been told that we need dairy? Calcium, some protein maybe. But there is a lot to take into consideration. Do we feed human milk to cows? Of course not! The calves would die. Then why do we feed cow milk to humans? Here is a chart showing the protein content of animal milks vs. the animals growth rate.

There is about 3 times more protein in cow milk than there is in human milk. As you can see, the higher the protein content, the faster the animal growth rate is. When we start consuming cow milk, that makes us grow faster than nature intended us to, causing weight and health problems at an early age. This higher protein content can actually cause our bodies to leech calcium from our bones. Protein is made up of amino acids, and when our bodies get too acidic, they use buffers to balance out our acid content. They use the calcium from our bones to buffer these acids, causing bone loss which leads to osteoporosis.

Some great plant sources of calcium are kale, collard greens, and broccoli. The RDA for calcium for an adult ages 19-50 is 1000mg. Just 1 cup of cooked collard greens contains 357 mg of calcium.They also come without the cholesterol and saturated fat! These plants are also alkaline foods, meaning they keep our body's acid levels balanced.


If the calcium thing doesn't convince you, here's the rest. Dairy was the most recalled item between 1993-1998. Why is this? 9 out of 10 herds are infected with Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus (BIV,) and they're usually infected with Bovine Leukemia Virus due to needle/glove cross contamination. Both of these viruses can cross species lines. In the US annually, there are 45,000 cases of leukemia, and 74,000 cases of lymphoma diagnosed from "causes unknown."

So if you want to kick the liquid meat from your diet to support lower cholesterol, lower saturated fats, less acidity, and less disease, there are a lot of great alternatives on the market. My favorite is almond milk, but you can choose soy, oat, rice coconut, hemp, flax, and even quinoa milk. I always go for the unsweetened versions to kick out the excess sweeteners.

On a lighter note, we had an awesome cooking demonstration from Jeff Novick today showing how to make five dishes in 40 minutes. They are all under 5 ingredients, are all affordable, and all you need is a can opener and a pair of scissors. The meals included Curried Indian Potato Stew, Mexican Beans and Rice, Italian Pasta Primavera, Longevity Soup, and Veggie Burgers. It just goes to show that healthy eating is easy, affordable, and delicious!

I can't believe I only have three more days left here. The days are really long and packed with information, but the food and knowledge I'm gaining is honestly life changing.