Nothingseen

Alright. I've never heard that drinking milk(injected hormones nonwithstanding) is bad untill now. My friend's health teacher has him convinced that milk is bad for you, and that drinking it is a cultural phenomenon that should be stopped.
I don't know all the points(because he didn't remember them all exactly), but here's what he gave me.

1: Too much fat.
2: Not a good source of calcium.
3: Few people can digest the lactose.

Yes. 3 points. He has a sheet that his teaher gave him, but I didn't see it yet. I'm sure there's more on that.
Personally, I don't think milk has caused a great amount of problems. Most people drink milk, and as far as I can tell, most people don't have problems digesting it. There is alot of fat in milk, but, we always knew that, and that's sort of the point. Obviously, we shouldn't drink whole milk all the time, but nobody advocates that.

I've never heard this before, though. Has this been a movement that I missed?

Mad Kally

She sounds like one of those food police people. In college I took "Nutrition for the Health Care Professional". She said children two and under should not even be given anything but full milk. She said milk is good for us, but drinking 1 or 2% is better for adults. (even skim ewww)

Another thing she told us was that if you are healthy and have normal blood pressure, sodium is just excreted through the kidneys like other things. They don't know for SURE if decreasing sodium intake will really help anyone. She said out of 80% of people with High BP, 9% may or may not retain fluids from too much sodium. She was a registered dietician with a doctorate. She said they tell everyone to lower sodium in their diets because who knows?

Who are we supposed to believe anymore? I pour salt on everything and have a problem with low blood pressure. Sometimes I stand up and get dizzy (Postural/orthostatic hypotension)

I drink lots of 2% milk. I love it.

Please keep in mind this is just off the top of my head from what I remember from college. I didn't do any research.... and things change every nanosecond.

Jackalope

On the other hand, if you regularly take anti-inflammitories like aspirin, ibuprofen, ketoprofen or naproxyn (or any of their Rx-only cousins), you should be careful about water retention. Prostaglandins help regulate the blood flow to the kidneys and also affect vasopressin levels. A much larger number of people who take anti-inflammitories will experience higher blood pressure and fluid retention. So a low-salt diet makes a certain amount of sense in that case.

The bitch-goddess of all the anti-inflammitories are of course the various synthetic versions of cortisone. But those mess with mulitple mineral and hormonal systems, not just prostaglandins. Patients on corticosteroids are usually told to keep a low-salt diet, and to consider taking potassium and calcium supplements to attempt to counter the nasty side effects. Sodium intake definitely has an effect in those cases.

As for milk, the most common problems are lactose intollerance (causes bowel problems) and caesin allergy (can cause anything from a runny nose to full-on anaphylatic shock). Lactose tollerance is more common in people with northern european ancestry. They tend to be the exception. This is why cheese, yogurt and other fermented forms of milk are used all over the world. Allergies tend to run in families, but I'm not aware of any particular distribution for caesin allergy.

john_e

Some theory a while back said that in the skimming process, the fat is chopped into such tiny segments that it actually causes more damage because it's easier for it to penetrate/clog up your heart.

It is true that we don't need milk in our diets: I think China/parts of Asia were quoted as having no milk in their diets yet being OK for calcium. But it's sure convenient for most people in the west. Jesus, we do actually need some fat in our diets, and a pint of milk having almost the full RDA for calcium isn't too shabby.

Take care all.

sakrilege

For an extreme view, you could always check out NotMilk.

john_e

Damn, it's all a dairy industry plot But that site does merit further investigation, given that it confirms what I've read about Asian diets...

Take care all.

avalanche:ix

an interesting phenomena is that the dutch population seems to have in general developed a lactose tolerance. i think the idea that milk is bad is just ridiculous, i drink nearly two litres of milk every day!

Duck!

I don't know about the fat content or the lactose thing, but the fact that milk may not be a good source of calcium doesn't make it bad per se. I'm sure there's plenty of food that's not a good source of calcium. Doesn't make it bad though, surely? I mean, is water a good source of calcium?

Having said that, I don't drink much milk. It drives my mucus membranes mad. So I try to avoid raw milk. Cheese doesn't bother me much though.


Duck!

Duck!

Actually I've heard something similar about the Irish population. Ireland is one of the biggest consumers per capita of milk and milk products in the world. I've heard some theory claiming that we've developed something of a tolerance for the supposed negative effects of milk. Lactose tolerance and what not.

Fuck all good it's done me personally though.


Duck!

simian

From what little I remember about lactose digestion:

Human children can digest lactose. That is a given - finding a lactose intolerant child should be fairly difficult.

Some humans have a mutation that allows them to digest lactose. Northern Europe is one of the locations where it is common. Over 95% of adults can consume lactose with no problems. Asia is the other extreme - only about 5% have the mutation.

I find #3 a really, really pathetic reason - many people are deathly allergic to fish, nuts, and other products - I find that to be a bigger concern that that some people knowing consume it get diarhea becuase their systems can't digest it so the bacteria have a growing spurt.

In my experience this is a PETA argument. One I strongly disagree with.

Simian