Why Dairy is a Bad Idea [Video]

Hello, Dr. Vicky Peterson here. I want to talk to you today about a topic that is not going to be very popular, I am sure, and that is dairy products. I speak a lot about this in passing in my blog and in my videos, and I’m not a fan of the cow juice. But I wanted to substantiate why that was, and there are several reasons.

Starting with just drinking the milk of another mammal, it’s not really what we were designed for. We are designed to ingest our own mother’s milk, but only for a period of time. In the US, infants have the enzyme to properly digest and really absorb nutrients from their mother’s milk for about two, two and a half years. In other cultures where children are typically nursed longer, interestingly, the enzymes last longer because that’s what happens in those societies. But here in the US, typically two, two and a half years. After that point, even if a child was given mother’s milk, it’s no longer good for them because they can’t digest it.

Similarly, with cow’s milk, about 75% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant, meaning they don’t make the enzyme to digest the milk of a cow. So, first of all, you’re not a baby cow, and second, we really don’t properly digest it. It’s kind of similar to gluten in that way. We’ve looked at the fact that humans don’t really have the wherewithal, as far as our enzymes or our protein-chopping equipment, to digest gluten. Similarly, we don’t have the equipment, as far as enzymes are concerned, to really efficiently digest dairy products. So, at the face of it, is it really a food or not? Probably not.

So, that’s number one. Then, number two, you have the fact that our cows and how they’re treated is fairly horrific. There are a lot of different movies out there, like “Food, Inc.,” that you can look at to really find out how various products that we eat come to market, how they’re treated beforehand, etc. There’s a lot of information on our dairy cows. Number one, they’re given a lot of antibiotics. When they’re given that, it comes through in their milk. They’re given a lot of hormones, estrogen in particular, so that men and women alike are getting this hormone when they consume the dairy product.

Also, there’s actually, it’s a little bit gross, but there is a pus factor that is allowed in milk by law. So much pus per kind of cubic weight, and this pus is infection, of course. This is why your milk, after a period of time, goes bad with the bacteria reproducing itself. That’s always in the milk. It’s just that, as time goes on, it reproduces more, and then you have the spoiled milk that we all like to avoid. But that’s always there to a degree, and pasteurization does not really eliminate that as we’ve been led to believe.

So we have these factors. Estrogen in excess is absolutely terrible for men, and there is a link to more infertility associated with higher estrogen levels coming from dairy products, as well as our meat that is also fed estrogen. Estrogen is a plumping hormone, so an animal will produce more milk and also get to market faster because they’ve plumped faster. That’s why that hormone is used. It’s terrible for men, and it’s equally terrible for women with too much estrogen. Women have an imbalance of their estrogen and progesterone. This leads to PMS, heavy periods, irritability, a long list of symptoms.

In addition to that, if I asked why you drink milk, probably the first thing you would say is calcium, right? It’s a great source of calcium. Turns out it’s not. The calcium in milk is not very absorbable. The cultures that consume the highest amount of dairy products and therefore the calcium associated with it, like our country and other countries in Europe, have the highest rate of osteoporosis or brittle bones and fractures as a result. Cultures that have the lowest intake of dairy products and calcium actually have stronger bones. So, research, a lot of research, supports the fact that the best way to get our calcium is from our dark green leafy vegetables, like kale, broccoli, and spinach, seaweed, sesame seeds, tahini. There’s also the bones of fish if you’re not a vegetarian. So those are good sources of natural calcium, not the kind found in dairy products that do not really translate into good bone health, which is probably the first thing you thought of, as I said, because it’s been ingrained in us.

And as far as better performance, you have athletes saying milk does a body good. Turns out there’s absolutely no support for that either. So, I know it’s hard. I can tell you I used to be a dairy lover myself. Ice cream was one of my very, very favorite foods. There is a new coconut ice cream out; it’s actually not that new, it’s been out a few years. It’s rather delicious. I would wager that you would enjoy it. But I can tell you this, while nobody wants to think about it or hear about it, what we find from our patients is, darn it, I feel so much better without those dairy products.

My daughter just last night said to me, “I’m so mad.” And I’m like, “Why are you so mad?” She said, “Because every time I cheat and I have a little bit of dairy, I get a headache and I just don’t feel well, and I’m just so mad.” And of course, I understand, but on the other hand, I’m thrilled that she sees what it’s doing to her. So try this: 30 days, absolutely no dairy, none. And then after 30 days, go have a bunch and see what happens. Alright, so I know maybe I’m not making any fans with this, but hopefully you rely on me to share with you the truth, and this is the truth about dairy products. Also, higher cancer risk, sorry, almost forgot that. Alright, well on that note, I wish you very good health.