I thought a good post would be to talk about the laundry list of problems that dairy products (i.e. cow’s milk, cow’s milk based yogurt and cheese) can cause . Before I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (“T1D”) in 2014, dairy products were staple of my diet including cow’s milk in my cereal for breakfast, a yogurt everyday and cheese sprinkled throughout my diet whenever possible.

1st Realization Dairy was Bad News

During my first meeting with my nutritionist post-diagnosis, I was amazed to hear of the harmful effects that dairy can have on your body. I mean “Milk does a body good”, right? Why would society market a product so heavily that is so bad for you?

As my eyes have been opened over the past few years, I realize marketing harmful products to consumers at grocery stores is standard these days. There is a large and growing variety of cancer causing and auto-immune disease triggering products located in every isle!

Dairy – Evidence of Association with T1D

After my research, I personally think dairy consumption is associated with acquiring T1D, or at least an enabler. It triggers auto-immune disorders and it’s just straight up weird that we are drinking the milk of a different species (we are the only mammal to do this), so I’m not surprised that our bodies get thrown out of whack when we intake dairy products.

Dairy Alternatives

I know cutting out dairy from one’s diet is very difficult. The hardest for me was cheese. Not necessarily because it takes so good, but it’s on everything. It was easy to swap out cow’s milk for almond milk and you can find nut-based yogurts in the stores too. You can also use nuts like cashews for a base to make cashew cheese, so there are alternatives.

What Ever Happened to Those “Got Milk” Commercials?

I always remembered milk promotions when I was growing up as a kid, but when is the last time you saw a commercial promoting milk? At least for me it’s been a while. Probably tough to promote a product that has been proven so unhealthy.

Global Dairy Demand Way Down

Also, dairy milk demand has been in a free fall for decades. Most likely because people realize how unhealthy it is, but also because there are many more alternatives these days. Check out some of these articles talking about the demise of dairy demand. As always with my anti-mainstream articles, they take a whole 5 minutes worth of googling to uncover, yet a majority of the population remains in the dark about things like this.

Got Milk – More Americans Aren’t Bothering

Why is the U.S. Bailing out Another Big Polluter?  It’s Time to Cut the Cheese

It’s a Demographic Time Bomb: Dairy Farms Crisis Youngsters Shun Milk Because Health Professionals Treat it as the Enemy

The Potential Negative Side Effects of Dairy

So, the next time you crush a big glass of cow’s milk (aka liquid meat as I like to call it) please keep in mind the following lovely health consequences that may be lurking around the corner.  For the full article that I mainly reference for this info, please click here. I got this from a great plant-based diet nutritionist located in Pittsburgh.

1. It has been found that infants exposed to cow’s milk early in life may be at risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Incompletely digested dairy proteins that enter the bloodstream in infants with a compromised gut barrier (also known as leaky gut), may trigger an autoimmune response. In a misguided attempt to destroy what the body sees as a foreign invader, the partially undigested cow’s milk proteins, it mistakenly destroys the cells of the pancreas rendering the infant unable to produce insulin for the rest of his or her life.
2. Dairy may increase the risk of kidney stones.
3. Consumption of dairy over time tends to weaken, not strengthen, our bones (contrary to popular belief).
4. We absorb a greater portion of the calcium found in kale, broccoli, or fortified orange juice than the calcium in cow’s milk.
5. Dairy can cause a substantial drop in the amount of activated vitamin D in the blood.
6. Dairy products are the number one source of saturated fat in the American diet.
7. Increased risk of cancer due to increased levels of IGF-1 in our blood.
8. Consumption of dairy products has been found to be one of the most consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer
9. The most comprehensive study on nutrition ever conducted, The China Study, found that casein, which makes up 87% of cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process, and according to traditional regulatory criteria, casein is the most significant chemical carcinogen ever discovered.
10. Other fun autoimmune diseases that have been tied to cow’s milk protein include: multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, nephritis, and arteritis.
11. It is also a factor in heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, macular degeneration, cataracts, and Alzheimer’s disease. Milk was found to have the highest statistical association with heart disease than any food.
12. Dairy consumption has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, chronic nasal congestion, fatigue, depression, chronic constipation, especially in children, diarrhea, arthritis, migraines, cataracts, Parkinson’s disease in men, menstrual cramps and heavier menstrual flow, recurrent vaginitis, fibroids, increased pain from endometriosis, and is the number one cause of food allergies.
13. In children, cow’s milk has been shown to cause or exacerbate asthma, colic, earaches, eczema, and intestinal obstruction.
14. Potential allergic reaction to cow’s milk may be a primary culprit in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in some cases.
15. Increased risk of children’s bed wetting due to compromising of the gut and bladder inflammation.
16. Dairy can also be contaminated with salmonella, listeria (which can cause miscarriages), tuberculosis, rabies, and paratuberculosis, which is believed to be involved in the development of Crohn’s Disease.
17. 14% of the animals slaughtered for food are found to be too diseased for human consumption. So instead, they are fed to herbivorous animals like cows to increase their milk production.

Really, the American Government Recommends Dairy for Our Children?!

The american government makes sure to note that dairy is an important part of the American Diet and recommends 2.5 servings per day (click here for link). Thanks for the advice Uncle Sam, but I’ll take my chances feeding my kids dairy alternatives that don’t have the laundry list of potential harmful effects. Unfortunately, their recommendation is not surprising considering most of what government and medical professionals recommend for the public from a disease prevention perspective is garbage and completely misguided.

Check out this quote from the article link above: “It’s startling to see that almost 90 percent of the population isn’t eating the recommended three servings of dairy daily.” Yeah, very startling. I’m sure any reader of this blog just couldn’t imagine why any american would want to cut back on their dairy intake.

It’s always the same message from the establishment, “Eat this unhealthy food, get sick, and then go to the doctor to become heavily medicated to temporarily fix your problem!” This is the norm after all, right? There is so much bureaucracy and lobbying money tied up in the government to promote poor health to society that I honestly believe about nothing they say at this point from a preventative health standpoint. The Man is more worried about his agenda than the health of the American people.

It’s almost comical how they come out with these health guidelines that are easily proven as unhealthy, but they dress it up so professionally and altruistically and distribute it through mainstream media in order for the masses to take it as gospel.

Conclusion

I can personally attest for the drop in my blood sugars once I cut dairy out of my diet so I do believe in many of the harmful effects it can cause.

Like me, I realize confronting dairy as a poor health choice is tough, but the global decrease in demand is obvious proof that consumers are seeking alternatives for a variety of reasons. Also, do your own research. This blog is just the tip of the iceberg.

I personally know many people who have cured or greatly alleviated their chronic conditions through the elimination of dairy from their diet. Some of the cured conditions include asthma, acne, Crohn’s Disease and even diabetes like me.