Monday, August 15, 2011

Rethinking Skim Milk



I went to college when “fat free” was all the rage.  Snackwells, skim milk and fro-yo were in. Avocado was out. As absurd as it sounds to recount this now, it’s even funnier to think that I was in New Orleans, land of beignets and muffaletas. Little did I know that my eating regime was as off-kilter as the city’s cuisine.  Aside from improved nutrition knowledge and time to “mature” what strikes me about this type of eating is how poorly it must’ve tasted. How many cups of greyish coffee did it take to prove this point?  A few too many.  I write this to show you how easy it is to get swept up in an eating trend or prevailing nutrition advice.

You will not find skim milk in my refrigerator today and I’m proud to say my day starts with coffee and a splash (or 2 splashes) of  delicious half and half. (currently Sky Top farms grass-fed, non-homogenized, adore it). I also didn’t switch my kids to  1%  at 2 years old as the current advice from the AAP suggests. After my brief “blue period” I went back to how I was raised. A little bit of the real thing is best.

I’ve posted before about organic milk and ultra pasteurization but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago  that I realized the potential problems with skim milk. My interest was first piqued reading Walter Willet’s Fertility Foods. We have many clients trying to conceive and the research about skim dairy and infertility floored me. Low-fat dairy contributed to infertility (when issues are based on anovulatory failure) and full-fat dairy increased fertility.  What really turned me off was the proposed reasoning. When the fat is removed from milk, the portion that’s not fat contains more androgens and other hormones that may not be conducive to fertility.  The androgen argument may explain why another Harvard study found that teenage boys drinking skim milk had a higher incidence of acne.  Again, what’s in the fat or skimmed out seemed to help.

Last week, I read an article posted by my colleague Julie Negrin entitled “Is Skim Milk Making You Fat”. The article challenges the traditional “low fat dairy for health and wellness” dogma.   They write:
It’s becoming widely accepted that fats actually curb your appetite, by triggering the release of the hormone cholecystokinin, which causes fullness. Fats also slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, reducing the amount that can be stored as fat.
I find this so interesting as we have a country that's watching dietary fat and getting fatter.  It always seems to me that children have the best innate sense of calorie regulation. An Australian study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that children’s calorie intake did not change when they were switched to low-fat milk. Children replaced the calories with other energy sources and did not lose weight.  Another large study tracked the habits of 19,252 Swedish women for 9 years. Women increasing their whole milk consumption the most lost 9% of their body weight, on average. Women who increased their low-fat dairy the most gained 10%.

Anecdotally, I am also concerned about skim milk and bone health. Fat in milk can help us assimilate vitamin D. I have not found a tremendous about of research on this but have seen many 30-something clients who grew up on low-fat milk now with osteopenia and fractures. I’d be curious to see if the very thing we think is helping us may not be.  This whole debate reminds me of the whole butter versus margarine debate. On that subject, the great Joan Gussow said “I trust cows more than chemists.” The more I read about the processing involved in making skim milk palatable, I think this applies here too.  If you eat dairy, I would suggest a little bit of the real thing.
Do you purchase milk? What type do you buy? Are you skeptical of skim milk?


54 comments:

  1. ugh...my 6 yr old son is the only remaining person in our family who actually "drinks" milk on a regular basis and he drinks 1%...will be rethinking everything! thanks for being so thought-provoking as always. What are your thoughts on plastic containers versus cartons? And, I drink lactaid.....should I be concerned....i never read the label...just look for "lactose-reduced" wording.

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  2. I just wanted to put the information out there and then everyone needs to make their decisions. Containers are a whole other issue. Many areas do not recycle milk cartons (and as a country we use a lot of milk). For plastics, the worst have the #7 recycling code, 1,2 and 4 are generally safe. Cloudy colored plastic is generally ok though there are exceptions to this too. I don't think lactaid is organic.

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  3. Thanks for this post - I totally agree! I try to always choose whole foods - whole milk products, whole eggs, etc. It makes sense to me that the package that nature created (ie. yolks + whites) is the best package and that the parts of a whole food all serve a purpose.

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  4. I am with you Justine. Gets even more icky when what you tamper with has hormones. Even if not a wild amount of processing throwing off the balance of a whole food can change a lot especially with a food like milk and other nonfat dairy that people consume a lot of.

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  5. Looking at the issues my family members had/have, this article makes so much sense. I need to go and read your article on organic milk because I'm suspicious of ultra-pasteurization.

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  6. Thank you so much for this post! Lately I have been frustrated with what people write about theirs diets....it seems fat gets forgotten. I am thankful everyday for my Nutritional Science background. I just recently discovered I am sensitive to milk, basically lactose intolerant. My mother in-law asked if I could drink skim, but I am not a fan of it...so I love almond milk now. I definitely buy half-an-half for hubby's coffee still though, a couple table spoons will be just fine. Again, thank you, I have always loved your blog! Take care, Terra

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  7. I have ostepenia and have experienced numerous fractures and make it a point to drink 2% (and now even whole, at times) milk. I agree with what you said about kids being the best at calorie regulation, and if they drink a glass of whole milk the chances of them being significantly fuller than had they consumed skim are much greater. I'd rather have the extra milk fat and save my bones than opt for a lower fat version of something. But again, I have special health needs and would probably reach for skim out of habit (or at least, the way my mind has been trained...) if things were different.

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  8. Thanks Terra. You bring up a good point regarding alternative milks. Sofia, I am curious whether someone suggested a higher fat content milk due to your osteopenia or if you just thought that made sense based on your own research.

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  9. I just sent this to my Hubs because he insists on drinking skim milk. He doesn't like the thickness of the regular milk... but he could water it down.

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  10. As the client who requested the blog post on salt (BTW, hubby read the blog and argued that it favored his interpretation that no salt added to anything is the way to go because you said we already get our daily salt intake from other foods- sigh), you've just hit on a second of our debates. As someone who was allergic to milk as a child (but grew out of it at about age 3 or 4), I don't enjoy the taste of milk, but enjoy whole milk in my coffee to make it creamier. Hubby insists we buy skim because it is "better for you." (FYI, I'm not giving on this one... we're sending this post to our internist to settle the debate.) Since you're batting 1000, the third and final food debate that rages in our household is whether it is bad to eat seafoods high in cholesterol - octopus, calamari, and sea scallops (which I've bought fresh and will be grilling tomorrow!).

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  11. so happy to read this! I stick to half and half too, and have to admit I've always felt slightly guilty about loathing flavorless skim milk in my coffee. No more of that! Outside of coffee though, i'm not much of a cow's milk drinker; figure i eat enough yogurt.. into almond and coconut milks right now. Do you have the same thoughts on fat % in yogurt?

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  12. Interesting! I hadn't actually thought about higher-fat milk before. I actually like to drink milk, and have been buying organic skim milk for as long as I can remember. I'm not a fan of the thickness of fattier milks, but this makes a lot of sense and the fertility issue definitely grabbed me. Looks like I'll be buying organic 1% next and gradually adjusting to 2% from there (and maybe to whole milk from there...). And I will no longer feel guilty about using organic half-and-half in my coffee :)

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  13. Oh yes! I second Carolyn's question - do you have the same feelings about fat in yogurt?

    (Also glad to hear I wasn't the only one feeling guilty about hating skim milk in coffee!)

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  14. great post lauren! I just read the book REAL FOOD by Nina PLanck and she discusses this issue (in a round about way). For awhile I was turned off by dairy but after reading her book, it's not the dairy we should be turned off by, it's the way the cow that produced the milk was raised. Grass-fed is the best choice, organic second best! I buy organic bc I have never seen grass fed milk in stores.

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  15. oh and whole milk dairy is what I choose to buy!

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  16. Yes, same issues with yogurt or any nonfat dairy. Erin, the truth is I don't eat a ton of dairy but feel grass fed, organic, not UHT and not lowfat is the way to go, such a mouthful.

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  17. Interesting! I don't drink milk. In fact, I avoid dairy altogether. But my husband drinks milk. He used to drink 2%, but I convinced him to switch to skim. Hmmm...maybe that was a mistake. I'll have to do some more reading about this!

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  18. I thought of you when I walked by the Snackwells at Kroger (not my usual store) yesterday. The 1990s were great for a lot, but not the fat-phobia that we developed. I tend to avoid dairy, except cheese (and FF cheese is NOT cheese), but Colin is adamantly opposed to any milk that's not skim. This will make for an interesting conversation tonight.

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  19. There a lot of research out there Stephanie, I would start with the links I included and then go from there.

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  20. I purchase full fat milk for Ali and Maya and I used to drink it too! But then I realized that dairy makes my skin break out so I haven't had it in ... forever. But I used to go to college when Snackwells were in too so I understand those confusing days. I'm glad that full fat products aren't considered the devil anymore!

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  21. Marie- skim for health purposes or taste? The funny thing is some people are so used to egg whites and skim milk that fat tastes funny to them. Ameena, nothing that's a whole food is the devil. Processed fats are still pretty nasty.

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  22. You hit the nail on the head Lauren! If you eat "fat-free" you will make up the calories elsewhere. I think that's why diet sodas don't work for weight loss.
    I sadly grew up on skim milk too?? What was up with the era of trans fat margarine, skim milk, froot loops, and square (fake) cheese? That was my diet as a kid.
    I drink almond milk now and give my kids full-fat organic milk. They only drink a little though because it's so filling. Not like the days when you could drink a whole gallon of skim milk because it never satisfied you.

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  23. YES! My family grew up drinking whole milk, "2 cups a day before you're allowed to play" my parents would say haha. As a result, we're all at a healthy weight and in spite of how much we work out and beat our bodies up, we still have strong bones and have yet to deal with injuries. My parents are also in their late fifties and as a post menopausal Asian woman my mom is more at risk for osteoporosis yet she's still thriving and working out at a harder intensity than I do. We attribute whole milk as one of the biggest reasons why her body remains so strong and healthy. And because we lived overseas, we were never concerned about the quality of milk as we do here. Thanks for this post, I've been saying this stuff this whole time and none of my friends believe me haha! Fat isn't the enemy here.

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  24. Lisa, I use unsweetened almond milk for smoothies and my 1/2 1/2 splash in my morning coffee. Maria- 2 cups a day before you can play, wow. Where were you overseas?

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  25. Great post, as always! This hit super close to home - growing up, my aunt (my mom's youngest sister) was in her late teens/early 20s in the 80s so I was surrounded by talk of stair climbers, step-aerobics, rice cakes and low-fat/no-fat EVERYTHING. Growing up, my Grandparents (who raised me) got their nutrition education from my aunt - so skim milk was a staple in our house for years... and it just stuck.

    It was only until a few years ago that I figured out fat wasn't the enemy and that *still* didn't translate to my morning cereal (while I mostly drink almond milk now anyway). Whole milk gives me a stomach ache so I just stayed away from it - but it's the only dairy that makes me feel that way. Your blog post is the final push I needed to stop averting my eyes and whistling a pleasant tune every time I buy 1/2% milk even though I know it's not the best choice. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction! :)

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  26. Thank you for this post. I first started thinking along the lines of “a little bit of the real thing” while doing research on diet and fertility for an acupuncturist who specialized in women’s health. I don’t regularly buy cow’s milk, but when I do, I reach for 2 percent, mostly because it feels like a good middle ground. Your point about vitamin D and milk fat is intriguing—I haven’t read much about that but it seems to make perfect sense. I have to admit, after several years without regularly drinking skim milk, it just tastes watery and strange to me now. I still buy nonfat or low-fat yogurt because I prefer the taste, but if it were easy to find buffalo-milk yogurt like I had in Italy, I’d definitely stock up on that

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  27. This was an interesting post - thanks. I have been a skim milk drinker for many years, and other types (even lowfat) are just too thick for me now - I really do prefer the texture of skim. My son, on the other hand, usually drinks 2% (he's 5) and will gladly drink whole but cannot handle even 1% (too watery). I do agree that lowfat cheese or ice cream, etc is just not worth it most of the time. If I'm eating a small piece of good cheese, I'd rather fully enjoy it and lowfat cheddar is not going to cut it. I do sometimes use lowfat ricotta or lowfat sour cream when I cook, to cut down on the fat, but given this research, maybe I'm not doing myself or my family any favors. Something to think about!

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  28. Colin does the skim to avoid the fat, but he also finds the thickness of the full fat kind of gross. I just don't like how dairy makes my tummy feel.

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  29. Brilliant blog! I'm from the UK, and I 100% agree with you on drinking 'the real stuff' or in fact, eating it! If it's not naturally low fat, then someone has tampered with it, and thus it is far more of a processed food than it's full fat original. Of course, it all comes down to personal choice and taste too, however, for me, it's "keep it as natural as possible"

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  30. I was always raised on low fat milk so it is what I ended up buying. I am all for eating the real thing (yogurt, cheese, butter), but for some silly reason, never thought about it with milk. It's silly this never crossed my mind. I don't know if I can handle whole milk, but might have to give 1% a try.

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  31. Kristen, try 1 or 2% and see how you do, even if you have to water it down.

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  32. Fascinating post. Currently, I'm a drink non-dairy milk except for half & half in my coffee. There was a time after college when I met with a nutritionist and stopped drinking skim milk and other low-fat milk products and switched to fuller fat versions based off of what I had learned from her.

    So glad to hear you say the same things she said many years ago. People including other r.d.'s always balked at this idea when I told them.

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  33. I love milk. When I was in college, I became lactose-intolerant. That's what the doctor said it was. But then she told me to stay home and start drinking milk. She said my body would get used to it again and she was right. It's been years and it has never happened again. I grew up on whole milk. When we lived in Germany (I was a teen), my mom tried the shelf-stable milk there (UHT)and we wouldn't touch it. I was at a store last summer in Montana and NOT ONE CARTON of milk being sold was regular pasteurization. ALL of it was UHT. I was floored and wonder if the government will soon come up with some ridiculous store of how the only legal milk is UHT milk. Here in Iowa I can get organic, non-homogenized milk pasteurized at very-low temperatures (as low as the law allows). The taste is noticeably better!

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  34. I've noticed this a few times in your blog - which I read daily! So, I just wanted to give you a friendly pointer. You use the word 'peaked' to express your interest or curiosity is stimulated but the correct term would be 'piqued'. Just wanted to get that out there because I enjoy reading your blog but that is just a peeve.

    Thanks!!

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  35. Ooh now my interested is "piqued". I think you can say peaked as in climaxed/heightened but I could be wrong. I know nutrition better than grammar apparently. Glad you read daily, feel free to point anything out.

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  36. Have to say that I did not know this about you, but agree with the points you make. If you're not having a ton of dairy, or just a splash in coffee, it makes sense to go for the real deal. What kind of milk (if any) do you usually use in smoothies? I've gotten into rice milk and almond milk in smoothies thanks to Liquiteria

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  37. wow so interesting I have 2 % and toddler has everything full fat, love your points,

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  38. Thanks Rebecca and soon there will be a new milk drinker, yes?

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  39. Great post Lauren. You know I have some opinions on this :) Actually, I do agree that skim milk is not necessary. I typically recommend 1% to my clients, unless that are really stuck in their weight loss and they drink a lot of milk....this is rare. The idea that fat decreases appetite, however, has recently been disputed in several articles I've read lately;

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/The-Marijauna-Munchies-can-come-just-from-eating-foods-like-Pizza-Report-125193579.html

    I personally stick with fat free milks, but then full fat yogurts. I don't mind "watered down" milks, but I HATE watered down yogurts, I like mine think and creamy! IN fact, right now I'm enjoying full fat, whole milk yogurt with my granola. Yum.

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  40. Thanks Gina, I wonder if you'll change your mind when you want little Gina's running around. The fertility information is really staggering. Taste is one thing but I also think the processing that goes into making skim milk palatable (it isn't just adding water) and the concentration of androgens with the fat removal is worrisome. That "yum" from your yogurt is exactly the satiety-inducing feeling that I feel reduces appetite. Of course, not everyone listens to their appetite.

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  41. really though provoking info....kind of like the sugar free thing too. maybe better to eat the real thing just less of it....

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  42. so interesting! I am generally a 1 or 2% for coffee and whole milk for cooking kind of girl; I use almond milk too sometimes (mostly for coffee and frozen pops). I use all of the above for the boys (but they are not huge milk drinkers). We have always bought organic, and more recently made a point of not getting UHT milk, but I haven't focused much on % versus whole. It was more habit than anything else; I will likely switch to whole now for everything. Thanks!

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  43. Very interesting. Just read a study by Penn State University that tested organic and conventional milk products (skim, 1%, 2%, whole, cream, half and half and butter) and found the fat content significantly affected the estrogen concentrations. Since most hormones are fat soluble, they are found in highest concentrations in products with higher fat (whole milk, cream and butter) for example.

    J. Dairy Sci 93:2533-2540 2010

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  44. Thanks for the comment, it is the androgens that are concentrated in the nonfat milk (and affecting fertility, acne). The estrogen-like hormones are in the fat portion. I will read the link you provided.

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  45. Great post, Lauren! You are giving people crucial information. I hadn't heard about the connection between fertility issues and low-fat dairy products but it makes sense. And thanks for the shout out! Best, Julie

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  46. Wow! I'm late to reading this great post! I was not aware of the fertility studies and the associating w/ skim milk. Very interesting! Like other, I was brought up on Skim Milk. Today we have 1 % in the house along w/ goat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, and soymilk. Right now I'm drinking my coffee w/ goat milk in it, but my kids usually drink the 1 % or have other types in smoothies. That's my only nod to low fat...everything else is full fat cheese/butter/ice cream/yogurt. I do avoid ultra pasteurized though. I think I buy the 1 % out of habit. Maybe well try the whole milk challenge :-)

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  47. wow...how enlightening...but I am so used to the taste of Skim I feel the whole mile will taste too rich! Hmmmm??? In fact...it is kinda scary to switch back...

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  48. Try to keep slim by drinking donkey milk regularly.....
    Donkey milk is also good for the heart and helps maintain the body's energy levels because it contains Omega-3 oils and calcium are high.

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  49. I've never paid much attention to the origins of my milk, I was too busy reading carbs (diabetic) & calories. I still take a glance at those numbers but find myself mixing up my selection without any strong loyalty. Regular milk, soy milk, coconut milk, fat-free milk...any variety. Rice milk is the only one I skip because of the high carbs. I was always the "coffee with extra skim milk & splenda" orderer. Now I realize that I would end up pouring MORE skim milk than I would regular or even 1/2 & 1/2.

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  50. thank you! I never bought into it when my nutritionists were telling me that whole milk or just straight up milk was bad. I just couldn't see the reason for it. The more natural the food, the better! It's all about balance...

    I used to be on a protein and fat diet and yes, the fat intake did slow down the digestion. Either, whenever I would stick to a high protein/low carbs diet, my metabolism would speed up like crazy and then I would feel faint after 1h30. With the good fat, I was intaking with the oils, I was able to keep a regular metabolism... I would only feel faint 3hrs after eating lol

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  51. I buy Whole Fat Milk and Cheese and most of the time yogurts, sometimes it is hard to find full fat dairy of my favorite kinds, and I am more satisfied and understand the fat content so portion size is controlled. I am also an RD though so may be more mindful of it. I actually and finishing my MS at NYU and did my thesis on obese infertile women and diet/exercise, focusing on dairy fat. All of the obese infertile women who did eat dairy consumed low-fat, a significant association when compared to those who were not obese but still infertile. It was a small sample size, but I do think recommendations should be tailored to the individual and low-fat dairy should not be pushed on everyone...great topic to read about!

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  52. Please just listen to your doctors and biochemists....

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  53. It shocks me when people can think that something re-formulated by chemists can be so much better for you. Naturally derived, and organic, is healthier--period. With how much information is coming out about how ridiculous it is to count calories, and how a balanced diet and some exercise is much better and long lasting for weight management, I can't see why people would stick to these ridiculous diet fads!

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