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Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Released Monday, 10th June 2024
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Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Ditch Dairy Now: The Surprising Science

Monday, 10th June 2024
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's

0:02

Pharmacy. There is no

0:04

evidence basis for all adults

0:06

eating three servings of dairy

0:09

a day, milk or milk equivalents.

0:13

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. As functional medicine

0:16

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1:57

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1:59

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2:01

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2:33

I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, a practicing physician and

2:35

proponent of systems medicine, a framework to help

2:37

you understand the why or the root cause

2:39

of your symptoms. Welcome to the doctor's pharmacy.

2:41

Every week I bring on interesting guests to

2:43

discuss the latest topics in the field of

2:45

functional medicine and do a deep dive on

2:47

how these topics pertain to your health. In

2:49

today's episode, I have some interesting discussions with

2:51

other experts in the field. So let's just

2:53

jump right in. Today,

2:55

David, we're going to talk about milk. And

2:59

you always have been an iconoclast, breaking

3:02

apart notions, for example, that calories are

3:04

all equal, which is pretty much still

3:06

in play right now that

3:08

everybody thinks calories are equal except a few

3:11

rogue scientists like you, although it's becoming more

3:13

accepted. But milk, God, milk

3:15

is nature's perfect food. It's what we

3:17

should all be drinking three glasses a

3:19

day of according to our government policy

3:21

and kids at least two glasses a

3:23

day if they're under nine. And

3:26

it's supposed to be great for your bones.

3:28

It's supposed to help you grow big and

3:30

strong. It's supposed to help prevent disease. And

3:34

somehow it

3:37

doesn't seem like that's actually what the science

3:39

shows. When we take a good look at

3:41

it, it's a different story. And you and

3:43

your colleague, Walter Willett at Harvard, one

3:46

of the most renowned nutrition scientists along with you,

3:49

recently published a paper in the New England Journal

3:51

of Medicine called Milk and Health, which I encourage

3:53

everybody to read if they're a nerd like me

3:55

or if you want the easy version, go to

3:57

Medium and there's a fabulous article there. and

4:00

medium about the question

4:03

about milk. Is milk truly healthy?

4:06

Time to question everything you know about milk. So I encourage

4:08

you to check that out. Now,

4:10

David, what inspired you

4:12

to write this article? Well,

4:17

people drink a lot of milk. And

4:20

even though we're consuming a great deal of

4:23

it, if

4:26

we were to comply with USDA

4:28

recommendations, three servings a day for

4:30

virtually everybody, we would have

4:32

to double our consumption,

4:35

which we're talking about billions

4:37

of gallons of milk produced

4:39

more every year, which

4:42

would have a massive impact on

4:44

the food supply. And

4:46

the question is what impact would that

4:49

have on health? And remarkably, there are

4:52

astoundingly few clinical trials

4:54

that have examined the impact

4:56

of those

4:58

recommendations on

5:01

diseases today, obesity, type

5:03

2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease.

5:06

So maybe a place to start is like,

5:08

where did we get these recommendations? Yeah, I

5:10

mean, you reviewed over a hundred papers. So

5:12

you got these recommendations that our government gives

5:14

us, but yeah, how do we get them?

5:18

Some of these recommendations to consume

5:20

a minimum amount of things. Way

5:22

back to

5:24

a different era, like 100 years ago, at

5:28

least the philosophy

5:30

did. When the big

5:32

concern for many, much of the

5:34

American public was not too much

5:36

like we have today, obesity, but too

5:38

little. Diseases

5:41

of deficiency, vitamin C

5:43

deficiency, vitamin A, vitamin

5:45

D deficiency, protein

5:47

deficiency, and in some cases, calorie deficiency.

5:50

People weren't getting enough food. So

5:52

the questions became, what was the minimum amount

5:55

that we needed to assure the health of

5:57

the population? Now

5:59

we're in a very. different era and that

6:01

mindset of minimum recommended amount

6:03

hasn't necessarily caught up because

6:05

so many diseases today, it's

6:07

not that we're completely free

6:09

of deficiency syndromes and things

6:12

like rickets, vitamin D deficiency is

6:14

beginning to come back, especially in children amidst

6:18

the obesity epidemic. But so

6:20

we still of course need to pay attention

6:22

to what the minimum amount of vitamins,

6:25

minerals, other nutrients

6:27

might be. But when we start thinking

6:29

about foods like dairy,

6:32

the question is shouldn't be what is the

6:35

minimum amount based

6:37

on these old notions of

6:39

nutrients, but what amounts

6:41

are optimal for the

6:44

population today, given the

6:46

prevalence of high prevalence of obesity,

6:48

diabetes, and heart disease? Yeah.

6:51

So back then, you know, I remember reading

6:53

about the development of the four food groups,

6:55

like milk was one of them, dairy is

6:57

one of the four food groups, but that

7:00

was a constructive industry, not science, where big

7:03

industrial producers of these products, you know, meat,

7:05

milk, produce and grains basically got together and

7:07

said, well, how do we sell more of

7:09

our stuff? Let's make the four food groups.

7:12

And it really had nothing to do with

7:14

science. And at the same

7:16

time, we also have to understand that milk

7:18

is something that most of the world's population

7:20

doesn't tolerate, 75% or 70%

7:22

are lactose intolerant. Most

7:25

populations around the world don't consume milk

7:27

on a regular basis, like China

7:29

and Asia, most Asian countries, Africa.

7:32

There are some exceptions, obviously, in the

7:34

side, but I think that for the

7:36

most part, it's not a staple food

7:38

after weaning. And yet, somehow

7:40

in the West, we've come to think about

7:42

it as, you know, just American as apple

7:45

pie and, you know, and the

7:47

American flag. And so, and

7:49

in fact, you can't even get a school lunch authorized

7:52

unless milk is included in the school lunch. But

7:54

you really question that. I think, you know, you

7:56

wrote an article a number of years ago, which

7:58

was sort of a pre-learn. to this one that was

8:00

in, I think, JAMA, also with Walter Willett,

8:03

where you sort of questioned the guidelines and brought

8:05

up some of this data. And I

8:07

wrote an article that sort of kind

8:09

of derived from that called Got Proof,

8:11

which essentially was a spoof

8:13

on the whole Got Milk campaign, which, by

8:15

the way, people don't understand that the Got

8:18

Milk campaign wasn't an

8:20

industry effort solely, that it was part

8:22

of a government program called the Check-Off Program,

8:24

which is where the United States Department

8:26

of Agriculture supports industry to

8:28

sell more of its products. It's supposed to

8:31

help with research, right? The money is tied

8:33

to the government by the industry, apparently to

8:35

support research, but it actually went to marketing

8:37

of these ads called Got Proof, and they

8:39

were literally taken down by the Federal Trade

8:42

Commission because there was no evidence for the

8:44

claims we're making. Can you talk about that?

8:46

And then how do we get to these

8:48

three glasses? Right.

8:51

Well, so we began

8:53

by looking at the mindset,

8:55

the philosophy that gave

8:57

rise to these minimum recommendations. And

8:59

you point out that it's not

9:01

just science, but it's also food

9:05

politics, that the USDA, which

9:08

has conventionally overseen

9:10

these recommendations, has

9:12

a dual message, dual mission. One

9:15

is promotion of public health, but

9:17

the other is to advance the financial

9:20

interests of the big food

9:23

commodity producers, and dairy is

9:25

absolutely very, very powerful.

9:28

So you

9:30

made another very important point that

9:33

really cuts to the chase, that

9:35

much, that at least half of

9:37

the world's population doesn't consume milk

9:41

products on a regular basis, and

9:43

yet the children seem to

9:45

be able to grow up

9:47

without suffering continuous bone fractures

9:49

or have short stature

9:52

or other problems. So we know

9:54

that milk is

9:56

not required to

9:59

be a healthy bones.

14:01

But what it's basically doing is filling

14:03

up temporary spaces

14:05

in bones. They don't stay

14:07

there. And so if you did longer term

14:10

studies, you would see that adding more and

14:12

more calcium doesn't keep building up

14:14

bone. You have this short term

14:16

boost in bone calcium, but then

14:18

you fill up all these little,

14:20

you know, temporary niches and

14:23

nothing, there's no more benefits. The

14:25

thing is those transient

14:28

spaces don't stay there. You don't have

14:30

a calcium bank for life

14:32

by consuming a lot of milk

14:34

as a kid. And we can talk

14:37

more about that. So I

14:39

mean, I was, I had to get to confess

14:41

here. I mean, I hope it doesn't let it

14:43

bias my opinion about milk is more hopefully medical

14:45

and scientific. But when I was a kid, I

14:47

hated milk and I just didn't like the

14:49

taste of it. My mother's like, how are you going to grow

14:51

up? You're going to be big and strong. If you don't drink

14:54

milk. Well, I never drank milk and I'm six foot three. And

14:56

maybe I want to be an NBA player instead of a doctor.

14:58

If I did drink milk, who knows? I

15:00

really never did. And my bone density is great. And I think that

15:02

it is a bit of a mythology

15:04

about that. And then we do so. So

15:06

we do need calcium. There's no question. The

15:09

bones are made primarily of calcium and phosphate,

15:12

but how much calcium and

15:14

the minimum requirement to be

15:18

perfectly healthy bones, probably at most

15:20

a half of what

15:23

has been traditionally viewed as

15:25

necessary in the United States in the

15:27

UK, their minimum calcium requirements are about

15:29

a half of what they are here.

15:31

And in some populations like in South

15:34

America, the adults do perfectly

15:36

well, getting even

15:39

a third or a quarter of the amount

15:41

of calcium, like 300 milligrams a day. So

15:44

you mentioned that level of

15:46

calcium can be obtained from. So if you're

15:48

going to get a gram or more a

15:50

day of calcium, milk is sort of the

15:53

obvious source. But if you, if you

15:55

accept that we don't need that much, the

15:57

500, 600 milligrams a day. or

16:00

probably more than sufficient,

16:02

well, that's easily obtained from just

16:05

a basic diet. A serving of

16:07

kale is gonna get you a

16:10

third to a half way there. A serving

16:12

of sardines, nuts, seeds.

16:15

Yeah. Chia seed, stahini, those

16:17

are my favorite. I mean, one

16:19

of the things you said that I just wanna come back to,

16:21

which is really important, is this whole idea of calcium balance. And

16:24

when you look at countries like Sweden that you wrote

16:27

about in your paper, they have the

16:29

highest intakes of calcium and the highest

16:31

risk of fractures. And countries like Indonesia

16:33

and China have the lowest

16:35

intakes of calcium and the lowest

16:37

risk of fractures. So one

16:39

of the things I remember when I was medical

16:41

director at Kenney Ranch, I often talked about was

16:44

osteoporosis. And it was really clear that there are

16:46

a lot of things in our culture that drove

16:48

calcium loss. So it's not just about

16:50

how much you take in, it's how much you pee

16:52

out, right? So

16:54

caffeine, alcohol, sugar, phosphoric acid

16:57

from sodas, too much

16:59

meat, perhaps. I don't know if that's true, but

17:01

that's what it seemed to be, the high protein

17:03

acid load. All

17:05

these things, stress, all these things cause bone loss.

17:07

And if you mitigate those, in other words, you

17:09

cut those out of your diet or you reduce

17:11

them and you deal with stress and

17:14

you deal with the fact of how you're losing calcium,

17:16

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17:18

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17:20

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19:50

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19:52

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19:55

They're drinking milk. They're drinking three

19:57

servings a day. For a little

19:59

bit. and then they don't and they're

20:01

getting it from grass. So why not? Why

20:04

get that in calcium? So green leafy vegetables

20:06

are actually a very good source of calcium.

20:11

A serving of kale has almost as much

20:13

calcium as a serving of

20:15

milk and you get many fewer total calories

20:17

that way but let's go back to these

20:19

ecological comparisons. Those are the comparisons where you

20:22

look at different countries and see

20:24

different risks. It's

20:26

important to understand that those are, there

20:29

are limitations to those kinds of analyses. What

20:32

they do convincingly tell us is

20:34

that you can, it's possible to

20:36

be a human being, consume no

20:39

milk, relatively

20:41

low levels of calcium and

20:43

have low fracture risk. The

20:45

problem with these studies is that they're very

20:48

compounded. So when you look compared the swede

20:50

to the Filipino, there's

20:53

a big difference in height and height

20:55

is a major risk factor for

20:57

bone fracture. So ironically,

20:59

it may

21:02

be that milk consumption in

21:04

childhood and adolescence actually

21:07

increases risk for fracture in adulthood. So

21:09

how could that be? We've

21:12

talked about that you don't really

21:14

put away a calcium bank in

21:17

childhood. You don't get that benefit. But the

21:19

one thing that is pretty clear that milk

21:22

does in childhood is accelerate growth. Hugely,

21:25

it's not gonna turn a horse racing

21:28

jockey into

21:32

a baseball

21:34

player, but you get about an

21:37

extra centimeter for every

21:39

additional serving glass of

21:41

milk a day. So maybe, and this

21:43

is a population average, but so maybe

21:45

for comparing low and high consumers, you

21:47

grow an extra inch. But on a

21:49

population basis, that

21:52

increased height is

21:54

one of the major risk factors of having

21:56

a fracture. Simply put, the bigger

21:58

they come, I'm just kind

22:00

of screwed. I'm like six foot three. I

22:04

would just advise you don't fall. Well, I'm going

22:06

to I'm working on my core strength and muscle

22:09

mass and that also helps mitigate. But

22:13

this is a big you know, this is one of

22:16

the first myths to go that drinking a lot

22:18

of milk as a kid is going to

22:20

reduce your risk of getting a fracture in

22:23

his adulthood. And if

22:25

anything, it's the opposite. So

22:28

these are the big this is the basis

22:30

for our recommendations, which is you need calcium

22:32

preventoster process. And that's why our guidelines

22:35

tell us to have three glasses of milk a day. Yeah,

22:38

well, you do need calcium, you just don't

22:40

need that much and the amount that you

22:42

need can be obtained from other sources. And

22:46

so what about the idea of weight

22:49

because it's not to say that

22:51

milk is inherently bad or toxic. We

22:55

talked about one situation where it

22:57

could be helpful. People with borderline

22:59

nutritional status, when they drink milk,

23:02

they're drinking, you know, you're drinking

23:04

a like a glass of milk.

23:06

And maybe you just have two cookies after school

23:08

as a kid, instead of having the whole package

23:11

without milk or with fat free milk, which doesn't

23:13

taste very good. And isn't very sat satiating. Yeah,

23:15

I want to get into the fat free thing

23:17

in a minute. They know that's

23:19

your favorite topic. But I just want to sort

23:21

of sort of summarize here about the calcium store

23:24

because you're saying essentially is that all the data and there

23:26

were over 100 papers you reviewed all the data really didn't

23:28

point to a benefit of

23:30

increased calcium intake through supplements or through

23:33

dairy, and that there was potential

23:36

risks as well. And then it wasn't just a

23:38

benign intervention that there may be

23:41

increased risks with increased calcium intake

23:43

in different situations, whether it's cancer

23:45

or whether it's from from

23:48

perhaps the the high levels of calcium causing

23:50

greater growth and fracture risk, we don't know,

23:53

but it's not a slam dunk. So you

23:55

think you think based on the current data

23:57

that you reviewed, that in the new

23:59

ones, medical medicine study, you think that the

24:01

government should change its dietary guidelines? Let

24:06

me just say, so we talked about the trade-offs.

24:11

Milk, so one downside

24:13

of extra growth we talked about was

24:16

fracture risk, but another downside

24:18

of being tall is cancer

24:20

risk. Being the taller you

24:22

are, the higher your risk of cancer.

24:24

Maybe partly it's more cell. You're

24:27

okay, you're taking good care of yourself.

24:29

But first of all, you've got a

24:31

bigger body. But the other

24:33

thing about milk is to think,

24:35

to consider why, how milk has evolved.

24:37

I mean milk, the purpose of

24:39

milk is to help grazing

24:42

animals on like plains

24:44

of Africa, you know,

24:46

the infants that are at high risk of being eaten

24:50

by the local carnivores grow

24:53

rapidly so they can be

24:55

strong enough and fast enough to

24:57

be free of predation. So that's a very strong

25:00

selective, you know, fitness factor,

25:03

evolutionary drive to get these

25:05

baby ruminants, you

25:07

know, the gazelles and the

25:11

other grazing animals to grow very quickly. So

25:13

that's a good thing, except

25:15

if you're consuming these

25:17

foods that stimulate growth, you know,

25:20

in children, but in adults, these

25:22

growth factors that may be stimulating

25:25

biological systems that relate to cancer.

25:29

And while the data are definitely

25:33

not clear yet, there seems

25:35

to be evidence of cancer of

25:38

high levels of dairy consumption

25:40

causing prostate cancer in men,

25:43

especially aggressive forms of prostate

25:45

cancer and endometrial cancer. Although,

25:47

interestingly, milk

25:50

intake may protect against colorectal cancer

25:52

and that may be an

25:54

effect of the calcium. You know,

25:56

the issue around growth is very

25:58

interesting because there There are

26:00

60 different naturally occurring hormones

26:03

in milk, not including the

26:05

ones that they pump into the cows or

26:07

that they milk them all pregnant or that

26:10

they give them for growth factors. So these

26:12

are just naturally occurring. And the purpose of

26:14

these is to grow a little baby calf

26:16

into a big cow very rapidly, like you

26:18

said. So I think that

26:20

might be good for infants, but it's probably not good for

26:23

long-term health. And

26:25

it's worse now because of modern industrial

26:27

farming, because 100 years ago, you'd send

26:32

the cows out, they'd get pregnant, and

26:36

you wouldn't be milking them during

26:39

pregnancy. The baby

26:41

cow would be born, would feed a little bit,

26:44

and then you'd milk for a while until the

26:46

next cycle. But now in hyper-efficient

26:51

industrial agriculture, cows

26:53

are being milked throughout

26:56

their pregnancy. And so

26:58

those hormones that would be normally

27:00

present in pregnancy,

27:03

estrogens and progesterones and other hormones,

27:05

get dumped into milk. So the milk supply

27:08

is, even though milk normally

27:11

has many growth-promoting factors, it has

27:13

even more so today. So that's

27:16

something to bear in mind. And even

27:18

if you're having organic milk, it could

27:20

still be this case where you're milking it. Organic

27:23

milk, unless you're getting it from a local

27:26

farm that's using more traditional

27:29

low-intensity dairy agricultural

27:31

practices, organic milk's not going to be

27:33

any different in that regard. So

27:36

David, in terms of the recommendations, I'm going to sort

27:38

of pressure a little bit on that, because I think

27:40

we have a government that's telling us we should be

27:42

having three glasses of milk a day, and we can't

27:44

have school lunches without milk. Do you think that's the

27:46

right policy? Do you think it needs to be modified?

27:48

What should we do? It's

27:52

wrong. We came

27:54

forth in our paper, at least

27:57

in our opinion, quite clearly,

27:59

the... who

30:01

we don't think that there's gonna be much harm

30:04

from consuming one or two servings a day, but

30:06

for people who are not

30:08

consuming any dairy products and eating a

30:10

high quality diet, they shouldn't feel badly

30:13

about that choice. There's no reason to

30:15

suddenly dump in a lot of dairy.

30:18

Historically, humans just never drank

30:20

milk. I mean, were you gonna milk a

30:22

saber-toot tiger, a buffalo, probably not, right? So

30:25

we just never consumed it until that event

30:27

of modern agriculture. And

30:29

we're the only species, period, that

30:33

consume milk after weaning. So

30:36

what we eat now is milk is quite different.

30:38

And what we drink is quite different than the

30:40

dairy even a hundred years ago or 500 years

30:42

ago, because that was all from weird

30:45

heirloom looking cows, which

30:48

had a very different form of

30:50

casein, which wasn't inflammatory, called A2

30:52

casein. It wasn't

30:54

fed antibiotics. It wasn't grown in

30:58

CAFOs, or confined animal feeding operations

31:00

under horrible conditions, and fed all

31:02

kinds of horrible things, including

31:04

ground up animal parts, skittles, and

31:06

corn, and all things that are

31:08

not a natural diet. And

31:11

they give them antibiotics, which gets

31:13

in the milk, and they give

31:15

them growth factors, literally growth hormones

31:18

to stimulate the production of milk, estrogens

31:20

and so forth, like DES, which is

31:22

actually banned in humans because

31:24

it caused all kinds of cervical

31:27

cancer and fetal abnormalities, and women who took it, it

31:29

was supposed to be sort of helping prevent miscarriage, but

31:31

it didn't do that. They still

31:33

give that to cows. So when you're also

31:37

having convention, like even organic milk, they're often milking them

31:39

when they're pregnant. So you get all this flood of

31:41

hormones, you get inflammatory

31:43

casein, you get animals that are living in

31:45

horrible conditions, fed all kinds of weird stuff.

31:48

And so basically it's

31:50

not the dairy it used to

31:52

be. So while maybe you could tolerate dairy

31:55

if you're having it from some heirloom cow, raised on

31:58

grass and not fed all this weird stuff period

38:02

that consumed milk after weaning. So

38:06

what we eat now is milk is quite different.

38:08

And what we drink is quite different than the

38:10

dairy even 100 years ago or 500 years ago

38:13

because that was all from weird heirloom

38:16

looking cows which had

38:18

a very different form of casein

38:20

which was an inflammatory called A2

38:22

casein. It wasn't

38:24

fed antibiotics, it wasn't grown

38:27

in CAFOs or confined animal

38:29

feeding operations under horrible conditions and

38:31

fed all kinds of horrible things

38:34

including ground up animal parts, skittles

38:36

and corn and all things that

38:38

are not a natural diet. And

38:41

they give them antibiotics which gets in

38:43

the milk and they give them growth

38:46

factors, literally growth hormones to

38:48

stimulate the production of milk, estrogens and

38:50

so forth. Like DES which is actually

38:52

banned in humans because

38:54

it caused all kinds of cervical

38:57

cancer and fetal abnormalities and women who took it, it

38:59

was supposed to be sort of helping prevent miscarriage but

39:01

it didn't do that. They still

39:03

give that to cows. So when you're also

39:06

having convention like even organic milk, they're often milking them

39:09

when they're pregnant. So you get all this flood of

39:11

hormones, you get inflammatory

39:13

casein, you get animals that are living in horrible

39:15

conditions, fed all kinds of weird stuff. So

39:19

basically it's not the dairy it

39:21

used to be. So maybe you

39:23

could tolerate dairy if you're having it from some

39:25

heirloom cow raised on grass

39:28

and not fed all this weird stuff and antibiotics

39:30

and hormones might be okay. And

39:32

I think we kind of have to take a big

39:34

broad look at the whole history of dairy production and

39:36

see how much has changed in the last 50 years

39:38

and how dangerous that is for us, for the animals

39:40

and the planet. So you've talked

39:43

about how our dairy has changed but how

39:45

does the dairy that is not grown in

39:47

these great conditions and

39:49

not produced in these great conditions, what

39:51

impact and what mechanisms does it hijack

39:54

in our body to create the

39:56

whole list of things that you mentioned in the opening? So

39:58

first I want to say look, this is not my And

46:00

let's talk about it. Grass

46:02

fed is really important and the reason

46:04

is because one, it

46:07

doesn't have the antibiotics, the hormones

46:10

and it has

46:12

higher levels of phytochemicals in it,

46:15

better fatty acid composition, more

46:18

antioxidant. So, you know, it's not only what you

46:20

eat that matters, it's what you're

46:23

eating has eaten. So

46:25

cows graze on the natural diet of grass,

46:27

they produce milk and meat with better fat

46:30

composition and nutrients than those fed corn and

46:32

grain and soy. So if you're going to

46:34

consume butter and dairy products, remember that grass

46:36

fed is important or

46:38

regenerative even better. Organic dairy is

46:40

somewhere in the middle, right? Because organic could be not

46:43

grass fed, they could just feed it organic corn

46:45

or organic soy and also

46:47

they might have some pasture

46:49

in their diet, but basically most of their diet

46:51

comes from organic grains and feed that are, you

46:53

know, better because they're free of pesticides or besides

46:56

antibiotics and has more

46:58

omega, better six to three ratio,

47:00

but it's still not great

47:03

because they can actually milk organic cows

47:05

while they're, while

47:07

they're pregnant, which adds way more hormones and all

47:09

the natural hormones that are in milk. There's,

47:12

you know, things you can actually

47:15

use like probiotic rich dairy, kefir, yogurt,

47:17

they're better, they're better actually tolerance

47:22

and digestion. So you

47:24

can use ghee or clarified butter, which basically

47:26

takes all the milk solids, all the casein,

47:28

all the way and it

47:30

can be used by people who are even allergic to dairy. So

47:33

organic grass fed ghee is great. It's basically

47:35

like the Indian form of butter and

47:37

has lots of nutrients, higher smoke point and it's great

47:40

for high heat cooking. Now

47:43

I don't really recommend eating that much cow dairy.

47:45

Now there's an important thing to recognize. There's

47:48

different kinds of casein

47:51

in dairy products. There's

47:54

A1 casein, A2 casein. Now A1 casein

47:56

is what most modern cows have. This

47:58

is an inflammatory form of casein. the

48:00

protein in milk and that tends

48:02

to be linked to more of the issues around milk. A2

48:05

casein is for more of the heirloom

48:07

cows. I think Jersey cows, Guernsey cows

48:09

have more A2 casein and there are

48:11

dairy products like ice creams and others

48:13

you can get from A2 cows

48:16

but they're really hard to find and

48:18

that's better for you. But goat and sheep dairy

48:21

products are far better tolerated,

48:23

have less inflammatory potential and

48:26

have primarily A2 casein. So

48:29

I'd encourage people to switch over and I,

48:31

for example, I can't tolerate regular dairy because

48:33

I get congested, stomach issues. If I have

48:35

goat or sheep, I'm fine. Goat cheese, sheep

48:38

cheese, goat yogurt, no problem. So

48:41

cow's milk can be very inflammatory,

48:43

it can cause eczema, allergies, gut

48:45

issues, acne because

48:47

of this A1 casein. But

48:50

if you switch to goat and dairy, it's

48:52

better and it's better tolerated. And also the

48:55

goat's milk has high levels of medium chain triglycerides

48:57

which help metabolism, brain function has high levels of

48:59

vitamin A which is great for your skin. And

49:02

people who have more A2 casein tend

49:04

to not have as much of the

49:06

GI symptoms, have less inflammatory biomarkers, they

49:08

have better cognitive function. So

49:10

goat or sheep milk can be a great alternative. So

49:13

what should you look for when you're buying dairy? Well,

49:16

make sure you look for certain certifications that

49:18

make sure the animals are produced in an

49:20

ethical manner, right? Animal welfare approved,

49:22

certified humane, American humane certified, food

49:24

alliance certified, global animal partnership. These

49:26

are ways to sort of find

49:30

sources of dairy that are better for you. So

49:34

what is possible to eat for dairy?

49:36

Well, I recommend that people avoid

49:38

for the most part cow dairy

49:40

unless it's A2 cows that are

49:43

regenerally raised. And even then,

49:45

some people still have trouble with cow dairy. But

49:47

a little bit here and there is fine. If

49:50

you want to have grass fed, full fat, unsweetened

49:52

yogurt, that's okay. Ideally,

49:54

sheep or goat is better. Kiefer

49:57

is another way to have a dairy product, you

49:59

can get a goat. or sheep kefir, whole

50:02

milk, grass-fed cheese, again, better

50:04

go to sheep with no additives, grass-fed ghee

50:06

or butter is fine. If

50:09

you can get them, go to sheep,

50:11

I would highly recommend that. What should you avoid? Well,

50:14

dairy from convention-raised cows, skim

50:17

milk, 2% milk, low-fat

50:19

milk, low-fat yogurt, nonfat

50:22

yogurt, yogurt that has fruit sweetener

50:24

additives or anything extra. In fact, Yoplait,

50:26

which is one of the sweetened yogurts,

50:28

that has more sugar per ounce than

50:30

a can of Coca-Cola. It's

50:33

really bad for you. Don't have that thing you

50:36

think is healthy, which is your sweetened yogurt in

50:38

the morning. Avoid

50:40

the cheeses and so forth made with skim or reduced-fat

50:42

milk. The fat is actually the good part. Also,

50:45

no-process cheese. I mean, it's not even called

50:47

cheese. There's something called

50:49

Kraft American Slices. They can't call it cheese

50:52

because it's less than 50% cheese. It's

50:54

a cheese-like substance. And

50:58

obviously, don't eat cheese that comes in a

51:00

spray can or a squeezed bottle or

51:02

some weird industrial cheese product. So anyway,

51:04

that's the story on dairy. Definitely

51:07

don't eat it. If you want to consume it, try

51:09

sheep or goat. Realize

51:12

it's not nature's perfect food. It doesn't help your bones.

51:14

It may cause cancer. And there's a lot of

51:16

reasons to just avoid it. So again, sheep or goat

51:18

is fine. Try it. See how

51:20

you feel. Your body is the best indicator

51:22

of what works and what doesn't. Your body

51:24

is the smartest doctor in the room. Thanks

51:26

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