Nutrition – what I know so far (Part 1 – Milk & Dairy)

Health and fitness is a very big learning curve, with so many schools of thought, so many different views, so many ways to work towards our goals. That is why I have titled this post about nutrition, ‘what I know so far’ – I accept that I have much to learn, there are lots of knowledgable people I need to listen to, and there are lots of books (and blog posts) I need to read.

However, when it comes to the nutrition part of health & fitness, although there is always lots to learn (especially on the scientific side), I really do believe that most of us instinctively know the basic truths. We may not know the science behind those truths, but if we stop and ask ourselves the question, “What should I be eating for a healthy body?”, most of us will give similar answers, and I’m willing to bet that all of us will suggest increasing our intake of fresh fruit & veg, whilst reducing our intake of ‘fast-food’ or ‘junk-food’.

So, if we all know the basics, why are a growing number of people becoming overweight or obese? I think you only have to look in your local supermarket to work out the answer – in the UK a typical supermarket will usually have two isles for fresh fruit & veg (probably less than 10% of the floor space), with the rest of the store largely devoted to a huge variety of processed foods and drinks. So, if you were to ‘balance’ your diet according to the layout of a supermarket, less than 10% of your food intake would be made up from fruit and vegetables, and you would probably eat more biscuits than you would apples.

This type of eating pattern describes quite well what my diet was like up until fairly recently. I knew what I should have been eating, but I would eat half a packet of cookies with a cup of coffee, rather than an apple with a glass of water, and my evening meal would often come out of the freezer (pizza & chips anyone?). I wasn’t massively overweight and wouldn’t have put myself in the obese category (I probably got to approx 180 lbs at my heaviest), but I didn’t feel healthy and I would often say that I needed to ‘lose a bit’. My weight management regime for the last few years had consisted of eating whatever I liked, and then taking up running for a month or two when I felt a little too heavy – in fact I completed a marathon 18 months ago (4 hours 23 min’s – I think?) and was probably down to 168 lbs at that point, but it didn’t take long after that to pile on the pounds again. I also love cycling, and for a period of time I cycled most days to the office (I work from home now), but the more cycling I did, the more I ate (and it was usually the wrong stuff – pastries, cookies, doughnuts, etc).

What has changed this time around? How have I managed to get in shape (I was 150 lbs when I weighed-in this morning), stay in shape, and get the feeling that this is now forever rather than a fad that will fade away? The answer is, I have made an effort to educate myself about why we should eat certain foods and not others – I’ve learned what actually happens inside our bodies when we eat certain things, and I’ve discovered what ingredients go into processed foods. I think I’m the type of person who needs to know how things work, rather than just accepting it, and once I start to understand how something works I feel compelled to delve further. I still have a lot to learn, but even the basics that I’ve picked up so far have both amazed and shocked me – I’m shocked at what goes into processed foods, and I’m amazed at how the human body works, how it derives its energy from food, and what a finely balanced system it is. It is this awakening that has made it ‘easy’ for me this time around – now I know what goes into certain foods and exactly how they harm my body, why would I regularly eat them?

‘But what about the cravings?’, I here you say – ‘how can you resist?’

 My answer is, “What cravings?”. This is the beauty of eating the right foods and cutting out the wrong foods – the body gets back into balance and the cravings disappear. I should know that this is true – it’s not that long ago I could eat a full packet of chocolate biscuits over the course of a single morning, and now I could easily sit and watch someone else do that and not even feel the urge to join in.

So, what have I learned so far?

I intend to summarise the basic knowledge I have discovered so far – there is quite a lot to cover, therefore I will split it up in ‘parts’ and hopefully post the whole series over the course of the next couple of weeks

So, here is ‘Part 1’:

Milk & Dairy

Dairy products are full of high levels of saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugars – basically the things associated with obesity, yet  the average American consumes approximately 600 pounds of dairy products every year (that’s 5 times more dairy than fruit!!) – see Tony Robbins’s Ten Day Challenge. The mass consumption of dairy products is a relatively recent development in the history of the human diet, since it is only in the last 10,000 years that humans changed from hunter-gatherers to farmers, and so for the majority of human existence we haven’t eaten cheese or drunk the milk of another animal.

If you think about it rationally, it makes sense that we shouldn’t be drinking milk or eating dairy products – milk is what a mammal produces to feed its young; an easy and convenient way to give the baby all the nutrients it needs to grow. Humans produce their own milk to feed their own young – nature has provided for us. Why then, do we consume cow’s milk throughout adulthood? Milk from different species of mammals differs according to the specific job it has to do – for example, cows milk is ideal for calves (funny that) and the brain of a cow is only a tiny fraction of its body weight, therefore cows’ milk is low in nutrients for healthy brain development (such as omega 3 fats) – but humans have very big brains – see Introduction to the Paleolithic Diet.  According to Patrick Holford (The Holford Diet), 25% of the human brain is made up of omega 3 fats (excluding water), and it is this fat (and to a lesser extent omega 6 & omega 9) that our bodies are instinctively searching for – yet many of us are obtaining much of our fat intake from milk & dairy (as well as processed foods) which are high in bad saturated fats! (NB: fats and omega 3 will be the next ‘part’ in the series)

Holford also explains that an allergy to cow’s milk is the most common food allergy – he states that this isn’t surprising since cow’s milk contains many hormones designed for the first few months of a calf’s life, not to nourish the human body. It is the milk protein that causes the allergy, and this is found in many different foods such as cheeses, cream, yoghurt, butter, and lots of different processed foods. Food allergies have many symptoms, common ones being indigestion, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, cramps, tiredness, depression, increased appetite, sleepiness after meals, rashes, sinus problems, etc, etc.

But, what about all that calcium, I hear you say – surely we need milk & dairy for healthy bones, don’t we?

The thing is, milk and dairy is NOT the only source of calcium – the dairy industry shout so loud with their lobbying that we are never told about the other foods we can obtain our calcium from. We require between 500 mg to 1,500 mg of calcium per day, and we also need vitamin D to help us absorb the calcium. Foods such as: Sardines with bones (560 mg of calcium per 120 gram tin) and broccoli (180 mg of calcium per cup) are great sources of both calcium AND vitamin D. Broccoli doesn’t contain dangerous fats (unlike milk & dairy) and sardines are a great source of the essential fat, omega 3!! (NB: the most readily available source of vitamin D is sunlight – so get out of the gyms and exercise outside a few days a week).

Other sources of calcium are: Oranges (52 mg per medium orange), Beans (50 mg per 240 ml), Almonds (92 mg per 240 ml), Canned Salmon with bones (185 mg per 75 grams), Rhubarb (348 mg per cup), Spinach (276 mg per cup). Google ‘calcium rich foods’ to look into alternatives.

So, you see, nature has provided sources of calcium for us that are very low in saturated fats, and also some that are actually high in essential fats. Therefore why fill up with bad dairy fat and sugar just to get calcium?

My experience since giving up milk and dairy is that I feel less ‘gunky’ around the throat, nose and sinus area (therefore I probably have a mild allergy), I feel less tired, and I don’t miss it. I am sure it helped with my weight-loss, and I am sure it helps with my subsequent weight management. The other benefit is that I eat a lot of sardines, oranges, almonds, and broccoli for my calcium sources, and these foods are full of lots of other vital nutrients (unlike milk and dairy).

NB: My children still have milk – they are very young and it is an easy way to get calcium into their systems. Also, I sometimes still consume milk on my treat day (usually Saturday) as I will often have milk chocolate and a cup of tea – perhaps I should get to like dark chocolate more!