Dairy: decrease or desist?

From Refinery29 article, link below

I was recently consulted for a Refinery29 article “No Whey: What Milk Really Does To Your Bod”. Dairy baffles many people that I thought I would review the dairy details.

Dairy Hierarchy

Not all dairy is the same. In any food category whether it’s carbs or soy sometimes you can tolerate or benefit from certain types versus others.  You probably know I’m anti skim milk; non-skim, fermented, organic dairy is very different from conventional, skimmed, subpar stuff. It’s important to be discriminatory with your dairy.

Fermented dairy is easier to digest and fermented foods can benefit you well beyond your immune system. Unlike Vegas, what happens in your gut doesn’t stay in your gut and probiotic foods have far reaching effects from your weight to your mood.

Additionally, goat and sheep dairy is often better tolerated. Anti dairy folks often point out that it’s unnatural for us to drink another animal’s milk.  In the case of goat and sheep’s milk it’s actually most similar to human breast milk in its makeup (I can’t decide if knowing this makes it more or less appealing). While lactose slightly lower in goat or sheep versus cow it’s really the casein content that makes the difference. Furthermore there are higher levels of MCTs (same type of fats in coconut milk) in goat and sheep versus cow milk. There’s a great sheep’s milk company called Old Chatham. Their ginger yogurt is amazing.

And unless you find antibiotics, added hormones and inferior nutrition appealing…if nothing else all dairy you purchase should be organic. You can make the argument that you can wash (not that this makes it pesticide free) an apple; you can’t wash your yogurt. A study on 3^rd graders in another country showed their hormone levels soared after a month on US, conventional milk, enough said.

Pro Dairy

A case can be made that dairy helps with PMS symptoms (do you recall the California Milk Board’s ad geared toward men “living with PMS”? oy those caused a little bit of a backlash). Full fat dairy is associated with less fat around the waist or midsection, decreased likelihood of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. This is due to a fatty acid called palmitoleic. I expect we’ll be hearing more about this. And men who strength train may be able to get more muscular with dairy in their diets.

Dairy Drawbacks

If you look up the important research from Dr Davaasambu (what a name), you will see studies linking milk consumption to a host of cancers. The proposed reasoning is that cows are being milked more days per year, often when pregnant when levels of certain hormones are higher.

In terms of digestion, while many point to lactose as a source of tummy troubles, there’s another potential covert culprit and that’s casein. Casein is a protein in milk (I mentioned it earlier with sheep/goat dairy) that many people, especially those who have problems with gluten, do not do well with.

If a client presents with sinus symptoms and allergies or certain skin conditions, I consider advising them to experiment with ditching dairy.

Bones When it comes to bone health, if you’re only keyed in on calcium you’re missing the “bone” boat. We need calcium but it doesn’t have to come from dairy think about sardines, greens and beans. Having enough Vitamin D seems to be way more important than supplementing calcium. Additionally there’s magnesium sort of a sly player in the osteoporosis game.

Alternatives

There are a host of “alternative” milks from almond to cashew to coconut and nut milk is very easy to make (and delicious).If you choose to purchase nut milk make sure there’s no carrageenan in the ingredient list. In NYC, OMilk makes fantastic small-batch nut milks in fun flavors.

I think it’s important to think about your diet, your goals and consider whether you need dairy and how much; there’s certainly no need to overload on it.  It’s no coincidence that as I googled dairy MyPlate and Dairy Counsels etc. came up. There’s this conventional “wisdom” or belief that we need lots of dairy to be a healthy and further that we should look for fat free and low fat sources. I would challenge both of those ideas. And our ability to digest dairy decreases with age so what worked at 20 may not at 50, reassess.

Do you eat dairy? How much and which types? Have you considered decreasing or desisting?

Foodtrainers Favorite Milk

For the most part, I’m not a fan of taxi TV.  On my way to or from work, after talking all day, I don’t want to hear anyone talking (and sorry drivers, I don’t want to talk to you either). I have approximately 7 precious minutes to chill before life’s soundtrack begins and so I generally hit the off button when the monitor automatically starts. One day though, a Lauren Glassberg segment was on. She does food and restaurant stories and was profiling a husband and wife team who produce artisanal nut milks. I entered the name in my Blackberry and placed an order as soon as I got to work because I’m compulsive like that.

The company is called OMilk. I love that Julie and Greg started it last summer while trying to get in “crazy shape” for their wedding.  I ordered their almond milk, cashew milk and a flavored milk I’ll tell you about in a bit. I received an email that my milk would be delivered Wednesday evening but completely forgot. Let’s just say Marc was more than a little confused when, during the Rangers playoff game, someone rang out doorbell and handed him some milk bottles.

The next morning I started experimenting. As much as I love dairy, I feel better when I limit it. I used the almond milk in a smoothie with hemp protein, avocado, frozen pineapple and fresh mint. I tried the cashew milk in a cappuccino. The one place most nut-milks do not cut it for me is in coffee and I must say this cashew milk is creamy stuff. These were nothing like the watery supermarket non-dairy milks I had tried. However, I didn’t try my favorite OMilk until Saturday. It was late afternoon and we had plans to go out that night. I poured a cup of this over ice for a little pick me up.

It was delicious. OMilk uses strong cold-brewed coffee, their almond milk and a touch of agave. I could see drinking a lot of it this summer. They also have Spicy Mexican Chocolate Almond Milk they concocted for Cinco de Mayo. OMilk is preservative free and available via delivery to the 5 boroughs, it’s also at Dean and Deluca and coming soon to Whole Foods Tribeca.

Coincidentally last week I received a Facebook message from an old camp friend. She had a nutrition question and randomly asked if I made my own almond milk. Sheepishly I admitted I hadn’t but was loving these local nut milks I had delivered.  She said:

Re: making almond milk. It's pretty cool to see the process you just soak 1 cup of almonds over night. Drain then purée in the blender with 2 cups water and whatever else you want (honey, dates, etc.) It turns white and frothy. Pour and press through a fine strainer. Voila. Almond milk! Try it once, then go back to your deliveries.
I would like to try my own one time but right now I'm fine outsourcing my milk to Julie and Greg.
Have you used almond or cashew milk? Every tried to make your own? Do you enjoy silence or do you prefer din and activity around you?

Boston (but no marathon)

Thank you for those who tweeted "are you running?" Um no.

I’m in Boston for Dr Weil’s Nutrition and Health Conference. This is a conference I look forward to and have attended twice before in New York and also San Diego. Presenters, at any event,  are always a mixed bag and sometimes the sessions you expect to be best are not the highlights. Dr Robert Lustig opened the morning yesterday. His name may sound familiar as he figured prominently in 60 Minutes sugar segment; he’s also the endocrinologist quoted in the NYT early puberty article. Dr Lustig presented on fructose. I was really excited but not for the biochemistry lesson he started in with. There were two fun facts, after 45 minutes, first that 80% (wow) of supermarket items have some sugar. And second, Lustig’s “4 foods of the apocalypse”

Trans fats

Corn Fed Beef

Ethanol (alcohol)

Fructose

No surprises on the list but imagine if America worked on decreasing all of these…

The highlight of the day was a seminar on food and fertility by Dr Victoria Maizes who works with Dr Weil at the University of Arizona and I’ve seen present on diet and cancer before.  She is a fantastic speaker and offers suggestions versus mandates.  It startling when you look at the fertility data. Many women postpone having children to focus on work while fertility starts to decline in our 30s. As far as diet, it matters more vis-à-vis fertility as we get older, if that makes sense. So what’s been associated with decreased fertility?

1. Cereal- many foods were tested and cold cereal, likely because of glycemic index, decreased fertility more than most others
2. Nonfat milk- you know, if you read regularly, I’m not a skim fat but while nonfat milk decreases fertility whole dairy improves it.
3. Trans fats – a 2% increase in trans fats was associated with a 73% increase in infertility, think packaged products and read labels for hydrogenation. Trans fats were on Lustig’s list above and they really are about as bad for us as we thought, it not worse
4. Soda but not necessarily all caffeine

What foods improve fertility?

1. Whole Dairy
2. Fish/omega 3's- many women cut out fish due to mercury phobia and this is a mistake. Omega 3’s decrease miscarriage risk, postpartum depression and certain pediatric cancers.
3. Prenatal vitamins- I am not such a multivitamin all in one fan but feel strongly, after this presentation, that both men and women trying to conceive should be taking one (though not the same one).

What happens in utero and what women do before they conceive really, as Dr Maizes said “wires you for the rest of your life”. So I can focus on my mother and how screwed I am or I can try to pass this information on.  And finally, infertility isn’t always discussed and has to be one of the hardest things to go through. I have a sister to struggled with IVF and I tried for a long time with my older son. Dr Maizes reminded us of the compassion needed. I also think “tools” are helpful so please, if appropriate, pass this information along. And congratulations to all the Boston runners, well done.

 I have to get over to the Westin for today’s sessions. I’ll tweet @Foodtrainers about  them if you want to hear more.

Are you eating much of the apocalyptic foods? Or are you limiting fish due to mercury concerns? What do you think makes a good speaker or presentation?

Foodtrainers' Favorite Probiotic

At Foodtrainers, we love delicious food but we love a good story even more (truth be told we would rather not chose between great food and great stories). Siggi's yogurt or “skyr” has a great story behind it. I first met Siggi about two years ago. After inquiring about the delicious, agave-sweetened, beautifully packaged, orange ginger creation I was obsessed with, we set up a meeting. It was then I heard this story that started with Siggi’s dislike for the yogurts here in the U.S. when he came from Iceland. He started testing his family recipes for “skyr” and went into Whole Foods with a backpack of product and well...the rest is history.

Siggi’s skyr is a huge success and they have a new product, a probiotic drink. I adore the plain but there are fruit flavors too. I asked Siggi a few questions about these little bottles. It's hard to tell in the photo but these cute bottles are a couple of inches tall, shot glass size. They are low in calories and fantastic for you.

How did the drinkable probiotic come about? 

Our skyr yogurt had been on the market for a while when our customers started asking for a probiotic drink. We looked around us and didn’t see any products of this type that were low in sugar and without artificial sweeteners so we decided to go for it!

How can you tell a good probiotic product from an imposter? 

The best probiotic products give you full information about not only the type but also the particular strain of probiotic cultures they use. They also guarantee you a certain number of these strains per serving. This way there is full transparency about what you are getting. To put it simply, you can Google the probiotic strain and find all the information you can about it.

What does “10 billion” on your label tell us? 

It tells us that each serving of the product has at least 10 billion of the good bacteria, Lactobacillus Acidophilus per serving. This is an important number since most of the time these types of cultures only exert their positive effective if they are present and consumed in sufficient numbers.

Anything we should know about specific cultures in the probiotic shot? 

Siggi’s drinkable yogurts contain a well-documented strain of Lactobacillus Acidophilus, called NCFM, which was discovered 30 years ago by researchers at North Carolina State University.  It is one of the best-known and most researched strains of probiotics. Research indicates that consuming it in sufficient doses, regularly, may help digestion and improve immunity.

Who should drink this? Any specific populations?

Anybody really…although if anyone should look into it more than others it should be people who have been taking antibiotics since antibiotics kill not only the bad bacteria in the body but also the good one so they need to refresh the flora of good bacteria.

Can this be blended in a smoothie? 

Of course. Our drinkable yogurts make a great addition to any smoothie; here at our office we sometimes make one that has mango, pineapple, 1 plain Siggi’s drinkable probiotic yogurt, one cup plain Siggi’s skyr and ginger.

Some people who don't digest dairy well can eat yogurt, why is this? 

This can be true for yogurt that contains live active cultures. When yogurt with live active cultures is digested, the cultures convert lactose to lactic acid; hence the yogurt might be better tolerated due to lower lactose content than milk or yogurt without live cultures.

Have you tried Siggi’s? Do you consume probiotics via yogurt or a supplement? What’s your favorite new food or food product?