Why no dairy?

Recently, I have had a lot of people ask me questions about the Paleo Diet and why it excludes certain foods. I mean dairy doesn't seem that bad for you. Yogurt has bacteria that are good for your digestive tract and milk and cheese supply calcium, which strengthens bones and makes you less prone to stress fractures right? Most people can understand the aversion to grains. With gluten free diets becoming almost as popular as vegetarian and vegan diets, turning away from grains doesn't seem like such a radical step. Yet eliminating dairy seems absurd. And I will admit, before I researched the Paleo Diet, I was one of those people. Cereal used to be my favorite food, something I thought I would never, in a million years be able to give up. But I moved away from cereal even before I started the Paleo Diet. I think it was my husband telling me that a bowl of cereal was basically a bowl of sugar water. With the lactose present in our skim milk and then all the carbs in the cereal, this made sense - enough to turn me off from it. Well, I gave up cereal, but there was no way I was going to cut out yogurt and cheese. Or so I thought.

Apparently, dairy products, which for the record were completely unavailable to our stone age ancestors, have a slew of negative qualities. Not only negative, but harmful to our bodies. According to Dr. Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes, dairy is almost completely devoid of vitamins and minerals (hence enriched dairy products). They are one of the greatest sources of saturated fats in the American diet and cheeses have the highest acidic load of any food. What does this mean for you? Well, saturated fats contribute to the clogging of heart arteries and therefore are closely tied to heart disease. The Paleo Diet does not eliminate the consumption of saturated fats, but it significantly decreases them. And our Paleolithic ancestors consumed animal fat, they had to in order to survive. In terms of the high acidity of dairy products, all food reports to the kidneys as either an acid or a base. Our body has to work to maintain the acid/base balance, and sometimes it pulls nutrients out of the bones and tissues to be used in the neutralization process. By consuming more base producing foods than acid producing foods, the body leaves all those nutrients in place and they benefit bodily function. Cutting out dairy eliminated one of the largest sources of acid producing foods from your diet. A recent study also revealed that dairy products spike blood insulin levels, similar to white bread. This study would therefore support my husband's theory that a bowl of cereal is basically a bowl of sugar water. 

Alright, so dairy might not be the best for you. But what about all the benefits of eating dairy? Like I stated earlier, our bones need calcium, which is abundant in dairy products. It would seem that the American society has been conned into believing that milk holds the golden key to beating diseases like osteoporosis. Ever heard of calcium balance? Sure you take calcium in through dairy, but what about the calcium that leaves the body in urine? You will be calcium deficient if more calcium leaves the body than comes in, no matter how much milk you drink. What needs the most attention is the calcium that is leaving our bodies. And we are back to the acid/base balance. Acid producing foods cause the body to excrete calcium. Thus, most American's who think they are consuming ample amounts of calcium are actually doing more harm to their bodies through processed, salty foods, and even some dairy products themselves! 

So where can you get calcium, if not from dairy? I read an article that claims fresh fruits and vegetables contain plenty of calcium to promote healthy bones, as do the books by Dr. Cordain. Research has found that those who follow heavy in fruits and vegetables have the most dense bones, compared with typical American diets. It also finds that not only are fruits and vegetables rich in calcium, but because they are not acid producing, they do not induce urinary calcium loss. Moral of the story, you will get all the calcium you need as long as you eat a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables and low in acid producing foods. You save yourself the saturated fat and sugar intake. I have found with the Paleo Diet, that even if not every single food it eliminates has been proven to be absolutely detrimental to your health, there are BETTER things you can be putting in your body. And if you want to maximize your athletic performance, then you should be fueling you body with upmost care. For me, I don't want to put anything in that is going not going to benefit me in some way, and even less things that are going to take a negative toll on performance. That's all I got for now folks!

e.