MILK
‘Milk does a body good’ is a slogan most of us have heard. It’s used by the American Dairy Association to promote cow’s milk. Raw milk has some great benefits, but processed milk as we get it from the store does not do our bodies good.
I grew up on cow’s milk, believed the hype and have been told that milk is our best source of calcium. I grew up in an area where dairy was big business – lots of dairy farms. I was taught that homogenization and pasteurization were very good for the milk. I have found that they are simply ways to mass produce dairy milk without strict standards for large production facilities. Pasteurization, heating/cooking of the milk to destroy any bacteria, actually makes calcium less bio-available, less digestible and actually denatures some of the proteins in milk.
Milk neutralizes hydrochloric acid in the stomach, making it much harder for the body to digest. Studies show that the people who drink more milk have the lowest calcium levels in their bodies. It is just not useable by the body in its grocery store form. If you can get your hands on certified raw milk, that does have benefits. Drinking processed milk actually makes the body less efficient at absorbing nutrients, not just from milk, but from all foods. This is caused by the mucous layer milk leaves on our stomach and intestines. That’s why we are often told to drink milk for an upset stomach or to prevent absorption for some poisons.
Another problem with milk is its high protein content. Our bodies make 70% of what we need and get the rest from plant-based foods. Animal-based proteins found in milk are harder for the body to process and cause calcium leaching to try and rid the excess from our blood. Remember, calcium is used to maintain pH. Excess protein in the blood makes the blood more acidic and the body has to remove it.
Cow’s milk is for calves.
SUGAR
Sugar is good for metabolism and is the first source of energy in our bodies. It is this source we need for instant energy. We get what we need from fruits and vegetable. Sugars from fruits, called fructose, are broken down by the body slowly and are converted into glucose and glycogen, energy sources for the cells. Glycogen is stored in the muscles for quick energy, while glucose is metabolized by the cells for their energy needs. Unlike table sugar your body can’t use fructose until it is converted by the liver, usually into glycogen. Sucrose (table sugar) is instantly available and spikes blood sugar levels, which can overtax an overworked pancreas.
Processed sugar comes from sugar beets and sugar cane, with an end product of processed sugars (white sugar, brown sugar, etc) and molasses, while yet another sugar is produced from corn, making corn syrup. These sugars are so refined that they are readily digested and absorbed into our systems, often in greater quantities than our bodies need. They are acidic in nature and tax our body’s pH maintenance systems.
Food manufacturers like to use corn syrup instead of sugar because it is less expensive. The problem is it is not as sweet. So they add fructose (fruit sugar) resulting in high fructose corn syrup. The body can only store so much glycogen, which is produced from fructose. The rest is stored by the liver as fat. The sucrose from the corn syrup is readily available to the cells, but unless you are burning it up exercising at the time, it cannot utilize it. Insulin spikes to process the sugar. If it can’t be immediately used it creates an acid environment and the body triggers fat storage to equalize the acidic build-up. That is why high fructose corn syrup is not good for you. High fructose corn syrup is found in many of our processed foods today. The resulting health epidemic is already here with people consuming large quantities. Our bodies were never intended to process such high sugar content.