Chickens and Cows are Different

As a clinical nutritionist, one of the most common confusions that arise with patients is in the arena of what ‘dairy’ means. Dietary changes ‘go with the territory’ when trying to improve a patient’s health, but when I realized that the confusion regarding dairy was so widespread I was initially surprised. Why are so many people ‘convinced’ that if I tell them to avoid dairy products I mean that they should avoid eating eggs?

One doesn’t want to be rude, but when I nicely point out that we are speaking about the milk and milk products of mammals such as cows, goats, and sheep and not the eggs of chickens (a bird not a mammal), patients often look a little embarrassed.

To ease their embarrassment I quickly point out that the confusion is very widespread and frankly not their ‘fault’. Why?

You Learned in School that Eggs were Dairy – but it’s Still Wrong!

Look at the picture above. As most of us were growing up we were indoctrinated about what to eat by the ‘food pyramid’ put out by the USDA. (It is fairly obsolete now and newer pyramids don’t even include dairy products as recommended, but we’ll leave that for another time and another blog.) This food pyramid called that group of foods ‘dairy’. Feel better now?

On an amusing note, one of my employees who assists me in my filming and internet efforts, asked his 6-year-old son yesterday if eggs were dairy. His reply? “No Dad, they come from two different animals.” He is smart but he also hasn’t learned the food pyramid yet!

Why Avoid Dairy?

Reactions to dairy products and lactose intolerance are quite widespread across all cultures. The percentage of those who are lactose intolerant planet-wide is in excess of 70 percent. In some cultures, it is as high as 90 percent.

Simply stated, we don’t produce the proper enzymes to digest the milk of another mammal. Mammals produce milk to nourish their young and that is only for a relatively short amount of time – 2 to 5 years for humans, depending on the culture.

Even our own mother’s milk is no longer able to be digested by us after a certain age and the milk of another mammal was never designed to be ingested by humans. If it was, so many of us would not be intolerant to it.

Add the inability to complete digestion to the fact that our cows are fed an abundant amount of antibiotics and hormones and the ‘health’ value of dairy products really plummets.

If you start looking at how many cows are ill when lactating and the fact that our government actually allows a certain number of pus cells per liter of milk, and you’ll really begin to be turned off.

If you’d like, you can read more about children, dairy, and increased cancer risk here. Read more about dairy research and how it harms your health here. You can watch a YouTube video on dairy here. If you go to our Root Cause Medical Clinic channel on YouTube, there are more videos as well.

Should Some People Avoid Eggs?

Sensitivities and allergies to eggs do occur. Fortunately, they are not very common. Personally, I consider eggs to be good food. I recommend trying to get the eggs from free-running, hormone-free, organically fed hens whenever possible. But just because you are avoiding dairy products does not mean that you cannot enjoy eggs.

Ask Your Friends if Eggs are Dairy – then Ask Your Young Children

I would be curious to see if my employee's son is unique or if ‘pre-food pyramid’ education, our youngsters actually understand the difference between eggs and dairy better than most adults. If you have young children, let me know what you discover! I hope this was helpful. Please let me know if there’s any way I can assist you to achieve better health. We are here to help. Our destination clinic sees patients from across the country and internationally. Let us know if you would like a free health analysis.