The Food Pyramid tells us that we should consume 2-3 servings of dairy products each day. This of all recommendations, is one of the most detrimental to our health. I would delete this recommendation from the Food Pyramid altogether. Those who insist on needing dairy products, whether for health reasons or for enjoyment of the foods, should turn to raw dairy products, or to goat dairy. Pasteurized & homogenized dairy products from cows have numerous negative health effects.
If you think about it, we are the only mammals on this earth who drink milk after we are weaned from our mothers, and we are the only mammals who knowingly drink milk from another species (cats being fed cows milk are no better off than we are with this mix up).
That we need to drink milk after we are weaned, and that we should drink cow's milk, is one of the biggest myths ever taught to us. From asthma & allergies to cholesterol & heart disease, from indigestion & irritable bowel to osteoporosis & diabetes... the list of diseases and their relationship to milk & dairy products goes on and on.
Let's begin with the most common question I get when I say I don't eat dairy products - "Where do you get your calcium?"
We have been taught that diary products are the only true source of calcium, and that without it we would be susceptible to weakened bones and osteoporosis later in life.
But this reasoning has come into question. It is being made public knowledge that all that we have been taught concerning milk and our dire need for calcium in order to have strong bones was never based upon scientific research, but was instead a product of advertising by the Dairy Industry, and the things they have ingrained in us have been doing more harm than good.
As new research was coming to light, a medical doctor, Dr. D.M. Hegsted, made this comment, “The first rule in formulating public health policy should be the assurance that the recommendations are not detrimental. It will be embarrassing enough if the current calcium hype is simply useless; it will be immeasurably worse if the recommendations are actually detrimental to health.”
Let us first take a look at the subject of calcium. It is the belief that we need to take adequate calcium into our diet in order to have strong bones, and if people around us are breaking bones and showing up with osteoporosis, then the logical thing to do is to increase the amount of calcium we are taking into our diets. This is following the “more is better” theory, which as we are finding with most things in life, is not always true.
In Dr. Hegstead’s book, Calcium and Osteoporosis, it shows that there is a close relationship between osteoporosis and the consumption of dairy products. In fact, the United States and other countries who consume large amounts of dairy products have much higher rates of osteoporosis than countries who consume hardly any or no dairy products at all. It appears that as milk consumption increases, the amount of calcium loss increases right along with it.
This doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense unless you realize what the real culprit with milk is. And that is it’s high protein content. Another big trend in our society is that we need to consume large amounts of protein, but excessive protein, especially animal protein, causes an extreme loss of calcium. There were at least 60 studies done between 1974 and 1988 indicating a definite relationship between excess dietary protein and increased calcium loss.
What happens is that large amounts of animal protein turn the blood very acidic. The body is always trying to maintain a slightly alkaline state, so in order to counteract the acidity in the blood, the body pulls calcium from the bones. Calcium is an alkaline substance that can be used by the body, when necessary, to neutralize acid. Whatever calcium there is in the milk to begin with is also quickly used up in this neutralizing process. So no matter how much calcium a person thinks they are getting by drinking lots of milk, there is always more calcium lost than retained. And as we have seen, how much calcium we consume is not the issue when it comes to strong bones, it is how much calcium is retained. Therefore, the more important question is 'how can I retain the calcium I already have in my bones?' Dairy products, along with soda pop, sugar, and other acid-forming foods, each contribute to calcium loss, and are directly related to osteoporosis.
Countries who consume a small amount of calcium in their diet, as well as little or no animal protein, have strong bones that stay strong their entire lives. We as Americans could learn some things from those whose health is so much better than our own.
It is true that calcium is an important mineral, but even calcium supplements at the grocery store are not assimilable. Most of them come from rocks. If you want to truly increase the calcium level in your bones, plant sources of calcium are the best to use, and studies have shown an actual increase in bone mass using calcium from plant foods. Dark leafy green vegetables are one of the best sources of assimilable calcium. Almonds and sesame seeds are also good sources of calcium. Herbal sources of calcium include Horsetail & Oatstraw.
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