NutritionEd:

Over the years I’ve come across some people who feel milk and milk products have no place in our diet. Their argument seems logical in some ways. No other animal on earth (that I’m aware of) continues to drink milk, from any species, beyond infancy. Sure a surrogate hippo was in the news showing it breast feeding some piglets. But milk beyond infancy? We seem to be the only ones. All other animals get weaned and move on. If no other animal continues to drink milk beyond this time then why should we? Isn’t it unnatural? Abhorrent?

Well, on the flip side, no other animal has managed to walk on the moon either. Is that unnatural? And if you think so, who is to say you are right? Who is to say others are wrong? Fundamentally the questions becomes ‘should’ we embark on such fantastic endeavours? To me, that means one should objectively look at the question, its surroundings, the motives for the question, and the reasoning for or against it.

So along this vein of inquiry, ‘should’ we drink milk? Why or why not? If you dismiss, as I do, the answer, “Because our Palaeolithic forefathers didn’t drink milk” then the resulting assessment and ‘answer’ becomes rather obvious to me. Milk, and it’s associated products, offer a plethora of compounds and constituents which confer significant benefit to us. There can be no doubt that humans inherently require certain nutrients in order to survive. Water, high biological value protein, highly bioavailable minerals, essential vitamins, trace elements,… etc. Well, that’s basically the ingredient list of milk. If these fundamentally necessary nutrients are not only present but abundant in milk…. then why NOT take advantage of it? Is there harm in doing so? Are there other constituents that may negatively impact on our health?

I respect the philosophical question, “Just because we can do something does that mean we should?” As such I’m open to further arguments and reasoning which posit milk is not meant for human consumption beyond infancy. To keep the argument as basic as possible it should be implicit that “milk” be referred to as the unadulterated, unfortified, straight-from-the-cow milk. The dairy industry and the consumption of it’s products, I can well imagine, would spark a whole other debate.

Basically I like milk. I always have. And I can see no reason to avoid its consumption given the numerous and readily available benefits. If you’re curious as to what sparked my thoughts on this topic follow the link to the article below regarding blood pressure:

LINK

I had previously assumed that milk products might be good for managing blood pressure simply because of its high potassium content. I hadn’t heard of this study before and I certainly had never heard of bio-active peptides which act in a similar fashion to ACE inhibitors. That’s pretty freakin’ cool if you ask me. And I’ve always believed in the DASH diet. Now I believe in the “DASH+” diet.

Someone asked me the other day if I had heard of the Flat Belly Diet; a new diet book put out by the editors of Prevention magazine. I hadn’t heard of it before but could guess just from the title that it was likely another wanna-be fad diet. The person who asked me, of course, had a significant pot belly and so at least he has the motive to buy the book! I gave my usual spiel about how there is no strong research indicating that weight loss can be targeted and certainly not by following a “Flat Belly Diet”. I think I should have moderated the scorn in my voice because the person asking got a little defensive. But really, a diet whose ultimate design is to magically target belly fat? How do people fall for these things? Weight loss is weight loss. If you are going to lose weight, and a great proportion of that weight is around you abdomen, then it stands to reason that any weight loss is going to come from the largest source. It’s all about proportions people!

Anyway, I looked it up today and it appears to be a fairly adequate diet. Not super restrictive or specialized (ie: it’s not high-pro / low carb). It’s basically the Canada’s Food Guide in my opinion with attention to portion sizes, healthy fats, increased fruit and vegetables, and balancing the food groups (though their sample meal plan seems lacking in dairy). Altogether it appears to create a caloric deficit; which of course is the ONLY way you can lose weight.

In summary it appears to be just another company putting a spin on common sense in order to make money. The Canada’s Food Guide is free, people. FREE! “But Ed, this comes in the form of a book, not a pamphlet!” Well, if you want to cart around a book instead of an easy to carry pamphlet go for it (I’d like to see you put the book on the fridge with a magnet). “But this has a user friendly website with tools to help coordinate and track weight loss!” Hey, that sounds great! Good thing the Canada’s Food Guide has a helpful website too….

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

Man, so many things I want to write about these days and yet so little time. New job, weddings to help plan, condo to buy, shoulder to separate (mine, very very ouch). It’s been a crazy few months! Definitely need to change that and these are some of the topics I’ve been thinking about:

• Health Check program – boon to informed purchasing or only a marketing platform?
• Saline injection into meat – hidden source of sodium, is it really necessary?
• Vaccenic acid – a healthy, natural, trans fat?
• Nutela – ooooh how I want to rant about the commercials for this crap…

My opinions on these topics to follow soon!

It’s been a Natural Health sweetener for years yet usually only found at health food stores. Now, Stevia is coming to the masses (in the US at least) as big brands like Coka-Cola and PepsiCo release their versions to the world; with all their distribution and brand power behind it.

I always find it interesting when products such as this, which have had relatively low consumption rates in the past due to their niche marketing, are suddenly distributed by large multinational corporations thereby significantly increasing the consumption pattern. It effectively results in a huge societal safety experiment where unforseen/untested properties may come to light. Sure, Stevia (and its components) have gone through some clinical safety research, albeti much of it provided by the distributing companies themselves. Indeed some research suggests a concern for possible DNA damage caused by one of the chemical extracts.  And DNA damage is often linked to risk of Cancer. With the potential for exponential consumption of Stevia if its marketing is successful, only time will tell its true colours. For society is replete with examples of “safe” products whose dangers only manifest themselves when consumed on a societal scale.

Sidenote: I wonder what happened to Tagatose? Another natural sweetener that was big in the media a few years ago. I’ll have to check into it!

In response to a recent comment on one of my posts regarding Salmon I thought it would be helpful to post this link out there which highlights other, less common, choices for fish. It details several varieties of fish (along with their common monikers) that are purported to be more healthy when eaten and more environmentally friendly when fished. Something I am definitely going to try out is Arctic Char. This was a fish that was sometimes provided as the Special Meal of the day at the Pepper Mill restaurant in Canmore; where I worked for many years and was an instrumental factor in my future interest in cooking. The dish always received rave reviews yet I still haven’t tried it myself. Time to change that!

Check out Safe and Lesser-Known Fish Choices for the details.

So, these past few months have seen some remarkable changes in my life. I’ve gotten married (woot!), gone on a sublime honeymoon, and moved out west to Calgary where, reportedly, wine runs from the faucets and the streets are paved with cheese.. I mean gold. With all this activity it isn’t surprising that I’ve not posted anything on nutritioned recently. Now that I’m settled, however, that should change. For now I have the internet again and the world of nutrition awaits. Huzah!