Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It at all Costs

[Applause] [Music] hi this is Dr Mark Hyman today I'm going to tell you six reasons why you should avoid Dairy got milk well these days it seems like almost everybody does celebrities athletes even former President Clinton's head of Health and Human Services Donna Shala are all proud to wear the white milk mustache after all everybody knows you need milk to be healthy right not necessarily sure Dairy is Nature's perfect food but only if you're a calf if that sounds shocking to you it's because very few people are willing to tell the truth about dairy in fact criticizing milk in America is like taking on motherhood apple pie or baseball but that's just what I'm about to do based on the research and my experiencing practicing medicine I typically advise most of my patients to avoid dairy products completely I like ice cream just as much as is the next person but as a scientist I have to look honestly at what we know in just a second I'll explore the many ill effects that are documented from eating dairy now that advice flies in the face of the new upto-date food pyramid from the United States Department of Agriculture now the usda's food pyramid recommends drinking three glasses of milk a day what's wrong with that well for one thing it's a recommendation that's not based on strict science and some of the experts who helped create the pyramid actually work for the industry which makes the US Department of Agriculture recommendations reflect industry interests not science or our best interest in fact Dr Walter Willet the second most cited scientist in all of clinical medicine and the head of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health is one of the most vocal critics of the US Food Pyramid he's even called its guidelines quote utterly ridiculous as in UD d d r l y ridiculous that's not something a Harvard scientist say says lightly but Dr Will's right the pyramid just isn't based on key scientific findings about health just take a look at some of the pyramid's recommendations and why I disagree with them one consume a variety of foods within and among the basic food groups while staying within your body's energy needs sounds sensible but which food groups if you choose Dairy meat fats and carbohydrates the perfect meal could be a cheeseburger milkshake fries with ketchup let's face it potatoes and tomatoes are vegetables right and they're the two top vegetables eat in America generic advice like that is pretty meaningless and potentially harmful the second bit of advice is control your cleric intake to manage your body weight again sounds pretty good but as I wrote in my book Ultram metabolism even the best trained nutritionists and dietitians cannot come close to correctly estimating their own caloric intake in a day and is it okay to consume all of my calories from Cola or ice cream as long as I stay within my caloric needs of course not so this is more useless advice number three they say increase intake of fruits and vegetables whole grains non-fat or low-fat milk products well fruits and veggies and whole grains are great milk not so much I'll get back to that in a minute choose carbohydrates wisely that's the next bit of advice from the food pyramid who could argue with that but how do they Define wisely the real advice here should be to cut down sugar intake from 185 lbs per person per year which is what we currently consume to less than a pound a year to avoid flour products except As a treat and stick to Whole Food carbohydrates like vegetables fruits whole grains beans nuts and seeds the next bit of advice is to choose to prepare foods with little salt not bad advice but what if most of the food you eat is packaged or processed foods that you don't actually prepare and are full of salt like most Americans we'd have their meals outside the homes this isn't helpful so a better recommendation would be to avoid package can process process prepared and fast foods unless you know exactly how they're made the next bit of advice was if you drink alcoholic beverages do so in moderation sounds good but if you're usually drinking two bottles of wine a night then one seems like moderation I don't think that's a good suggestion I think it's better to limit your alcohol consumption to half a drink a day or three glasses a week that seems to have the most benefit with the least risk the next tip is don't eat unsafe foods well of course you shouldn't leave your egg salad in the hot sun or toss your salad with hands that just handle raw chicken Co with salmonella but the food pyramid guidelines don't mention pesticides hormones antibiotics genetically modified foods despite scientific evidence of their harm shame on the USDA you can now see why I have a big problem with the food pyramid mostly its guidelines try to sound sensible while still protecting the interests of the food industry the agriculture industry and all the lobbyists paying for the elections of Congress everybody's happy right well I'm not and you shouldn't be either the public just isn't served by this water down confusing useless pyramid worse some of the recommendations are downright harmful like the one to drink more milk and dairy products according to Dr Walter Willet who has done many of the studies and review this topic extensively there are many reasons to pass up milk including one milk doesn't reduce bone fractures contrary to popular belief eating dairy has never been shown to reduce fracture risk but Dairy may actually increase the risk of fractures by 50% % according to the large nurses health study less Dairy equals better bones countries with the lowest rates of dairy and calcium consumption like those in Africa and Asia have the lowest rates of osteoporosis next thing is that calcium isn't as bone protective as we thought studies of calcium supplementation have showed no benefit in reducing fracture risk vitamin D on the other hand appears to be much more important than calcium in preventing fractures also calcium May raise cancer risk research shows that higher intakes of both calcium and dairy products may increase a man's risk of prostate cancer by 30 to 50% plus Dairy consumption increases the body's level of insulin-like growth factor one a known cancer promoter calcium has benefits that Dairy doesn't calcium supplements but not dairy products May reduce the risk of colon cancer and another problem with dairy is that not everyone can stomach Dairy about 75% or 3/4 of the world's population is genetically unable to properly digest milk and other dairy products a problem called lactose intolerance So based on such findings Dr Walter Willet has come to some important conclusions one everybody needs calcium but probably not as much as our government's recommended daily allowance of, 1500 milligrams a day two calcium probably doesn't prevent broken bones few people in this country are likely to reduce their fracture Risk by getting more calcium three men may not want to take calcium supplements supplements of calcium and vitamin may be reasonable for women and four Dairy may be unhealthy advocating Dairy consumption may have negative effects on health now this is from Dr Walter Willet not me so you should think about your next glass of milk if all that isn't enough to swear you off Milk there are a few other scientific findings worth noting first the Federal Trade Commission recently asked the USDA to look into the scientific basis of claims made in their milk mustache ads the panel of scientists stated the truth clearly number one milk doesn't benefit Sports Performance number two there's no evidence that Dairy is good for your bones and prevents osteoporosis in fact anal protein in it may actually help cause bone loss number three Dairy is linked to prostate cancer number four it's full of saturated fat and slink to heart disease number five Dairy causes digestive problems for 75% of people with lactose intolerance and number six Dairy aggravates irritable bowel syndrome simply put the FTC as the dairy industry got proof and the answer was no plus the dairy May contribute to even more health problems like allergies sinus issues ear infections type 1 diabetes chronic constipation and anemia in children but what about raw milk well isn't that healthier form of dairy well not really yes raw whole organic milk eliminates some of the concerns like pesticides hormones antibiotics the effects of homogeneization and pasteurization but to me these benefits don't outweigh dair's potential risks from an evolutionary point of view milk is a strange food for humans until 10,000 years ago we didn't domesticate animals and we weren't able to drink milk unless some Brave Hunter gather milk a wild tiger or Buffalo now most scientists agree that it's better for us to get calcium potassium protein and fats from other sources like whole plant Foods vegetables fruits beans whole grains nuts and seeds and seaweed great source of minerals convinced yet well here's my advice for dealing with dairy if you want healthy bones take vitamin D don't rely on Dairy get your calcium from dark green leaf vegetables Sesame tahini sea vegetables or sardines or salmon with the bones in it and try giving up all Dairy everything and see how you feel after a few weeks and if you can tolerate Dairy use only raw organic dairy products preferably fermented products like yogurt or kefir still got milk I hope not remember Dairy is not crucial for good health I encourage you to go dairyfree and see what it does for [Applause] you [Music]

Channel: Mark Hyman, MD

Views: 1,989,953

Keywords: Dairy, Dairy-free, Food Allergies, Mark Hyman MD, UltraWellness

Id: 0O-ehIkwGME

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2010