So here we are with all the health gurus telling us that we should be eating all our foods in their natural forms aka un-processed. And yet when they talk about dairy, the majority of these people talk about drinking and consuming low fat milk, yogurt and cheeses. And of course, the same people talk about not using things like coconut milk or eating too many nuts or nut butters.

In fact I have seen articles talking about the Mediterranean diet and talking about how low fat dairy is part of that diet. This is strange to this daughter of Italian immigrants who on her travels from her teenage yrs to the present (59 yrs old) never saw her grandparents (who lived into their uppers 90’s) or the present 80 something’s in her father’ hometown eat anything low fat.

We have been so obsessed with the concept of low fat/saturated fat/no fat that for over 30 years we have poisoned ourselves by eating margarine and substituting trans fats for saturated fats and have added refined sugars (or worse high fructose corn syrup) to products like low fat or no fat yogurt and ice cream. And yet we are fatter and more important less healthy than we were thirty years ago.

One of our current epidemics is the low levels of Vitamin D in the general population and the fact that we are not consuming enough fat to help absorb fat soluble vitamins (the fat soluble vitamins are Vitamin A, D, E and K) could be playing a part in this besides not getting enough sun. Fat also help us absorb proteins and calcium.

Our brains also need fat; in fact our brains are mainly fat: http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html#fatsbuild. Could this obsession with low fat and 30 yrs of substituting trans fats be a factor in the rise of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s??

Are you taking turmeric as a natural inflammatory supplement; talk to an Ayurvedic healer and they will tell you that cooking turmeric in butter (ghee) or coconut oil potentates the effect of the turmeric.

We also know that whole fat dairy products (esp. from grass fed ruminants) contain more conjugated linoleic acid and has been shown to be possibly effective for preventing colon & rectal cancer, weight loss and atherosclerosis.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-826-CONJUGATED%...

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/582029

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjugated_linoleic_acid

And to be fair, some of the health gurus either do not demonize saturated fat or are starting to understand that it’s not fat but inflammation and the role that refined carbohydrates have in increasing the inflammation that has a bad effect on your heath.

Please read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676...

& http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/healthy-eating_b_629422.html

So what am I saying: if you can tolerate dairy products and enjoy them, try switching to quality whole milk products (organic, growth hormone & antibiotic free, non-homogenized, grass fed, etc.) eat them in moderation (maybe a few spoonfuls of yogurt a day or one pound of cheese consumed over 2 weeks), eat lots of sources of mono-unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids in addition, incorporate some nuts and seeds into your diet, eat lots of veggies, some fresh fruit and stay away from refined sugars and fake or trans fats.

Or enjoy your food in all its unprocessed glory, just be moderate in your intake.

Here are some studies comparing low fat milk to whole fat milk:

In a study in American Journal of Epidemiology 2007;166(11):1259-1269 entitled Calcium, Vitamin D, and Dairy Product Intake and Prostate Cancer Risk: The Multiethnic Cohort Study, no association of calcium or vitamin D intake was seen across racial/ethnic groups. In analyses of food groups, dairy product and total milk consumption were not associated with prostate cancer risk. However, low-/nonfat milk was related to an increased risk and whole milk to a decreased risk of total prostate cancer http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/567465

Eight-year-old children who drink full-fat milk every day have a lower BMI than those who seldom drink milk. This is not the case for children who often drink medium-fat or low-fat milk.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091103102347.htm

University of Gothenburg (2009, November 4). Children Who Often Drink Full-Fat Milk Weigh Less, Swedish Research Finds. ScienceDaily.

In a study of Effect of consumption of whole milk and skim milk on blood lipid profiles in healthy men, the drinkers of whole milk had low lipid profiles

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8116537

In a 16 yr. study of Dairy consumption and patterns of mortality of Australian adults: there was no consistent and significant association between total dairy intake and total or cause-specific mortality. However, compared with those with the lowest intake of full-fat dairy, participants with the highest intake (median intake 339 g/day) had reduced death due to CVD (HR: 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12–0.79; P for trend=0.04) after adjustment for calcium intake and other confounders. Intakes of low-fat dairy, specific dairy foods, calcium and vitamin D showed no consistent associations.

http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v64/n6/abs/ejcn201045a.html

© 2010-Dr. Vittoria Repetto