Reasons Why Milk is NOT a Health Food

I hate to break it to you, but your beloved dairy may be causing all kinds of health issues in your body including acne, decreased immune function, premature puberty, and even osteoporosis.

What??? How can milk (and other dairy), sources super high in calcium, contribute to bone issues like osteoporosis? Dairy is a good source of calcium, but it also contains an amino acid called methionine, which leaves your body more acidic than it likes. When the body becomes overly acidic, it uses calcium to restore the pH balance. So all that wonderful calcium you have just ingested has just been used to correct your pH balance.

But wait. That milk you drank didn’t have enough calcium to balance your pH, so now it has to pull calcium FROM your bones to rectify the problem. So now, instead of adding all that wonderful calcium to your bones, you have just released stored calcium back into the blood stream, which ultimately gets used up and you have a net negative calcium intake from drinking milk.

Milk is a processed food. It is not as nature made it, raw from a cow. There are places where you can buy raw milk, but it is illegal in many states, unless you purchase it directly from a farm. Raw milk has less of an acidic effect on the body, but I still am under the opinion that even raw milk has its drawbacks.

There have been many MANY studies showing that the countries with the lowest occurence of osteoporosis also have the lowest consumption of dairy products, and conversely, the higher the diary intake, the higher the risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture.

Interestingly, consumption of meat, which is also acidic, does not lead to osteoporosis. High alcohol intake, high caffeine intake (including that coffee, peeps), aluminum from antacids, soft drinks (which are high in phosphorus) and smoking disrupt calcium intake and lead to the leaching of calcium from the bones.

So where do you get calcium from? Let’s compare kale to milk. Milk has about 275 mg of Caclium per 8 oz. serving, and a cup of cooked kale has 94 mg. Since kale is not a highly acidic food, you will be absorbing more calcium from kale than milk. (Remember, vitamin D helps with absorption of calcium, so make sure you are getting enough D.)  So when people look at you like you are nuts for not drinking milk, you can say, “I’m not nuts, but nuts do contain calcium!” (Almond butter contains 43 mg per tbsp).

So why on earth do we continue to recommend milk in this country for calcium??? I’m not entirely sure, but I have a feeling dollar signs are the reason.  The dairy industry would certainly take a large hit if people knew the truth and chose different sources for calcium.

More tomorrow on why milk is not a health food.

Shared with The Better Mom, Teach Me Tuesday, Allergy Free Wednesday.

Sources: http://saveourbones.com/osteoporosis-milk-myth/

http://optimumnutrition.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/do-high-protein-diets-cause-bone-loss/

http://huhs.harvard.edu/assets/File/OurServices/Service_Nutrition_CalciumContentOfCommonFoods.pdf