The Scoop on Dairy
Dairy is one of the most controversial food groups known to man!
The famous "Drink Milk" campaign has many Americans brainwashed to believe drinking conventional milk is healthy.
I'm here to share with you the fact that NOT ALL dairy is bad for you, however, the most important thing you can do when buying or consuming dairy, is buy the kind of dairy that is not full of hormones, GMO's, toxins, and void of probiotics, enzymes, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
As a human race, we have been consuming dairy products for approximately 9,000 years.
However, the animals from which that dairy came were grazed on mineral and vitamin-rich grass.
Nowadays, the cows who produce the majority of the milk for consumer consumption are sick and fed GMO feed and antibiotics to make them fat.
Recently information has come out that conventional dairy farmers are feeding their cow's candy! With the price of corn rising farmers are now looking at other types of food to feed cows, and candy has been one of those foods!
The other issue we face is the majority of dairy comes from cows which live in horrible conditions. Their calves are taken away from them right after birth and impregnated over and over again in order to keep their milk production flowing.
Because they are milked when pregnant, the milk they create is brimming with pregnancy hormones that are not good for us!
It’s SO inhumane AND SO unhealthy for those who consume it.
Today’s milk contains dozens of:
- Reproductive Hormones
- Allergenic proteins
- Antibiotics
- Growth factors – some of which are known to promote cancer.
Conventional milk is also always pasteurized.
Pasteurization kills beneficial enzymes that help humans break down the proteins that cause many of us pain and suffering.
The thing is dairy can be VERY beneficial for our health, so it comes down to sourcing and buying the right dairy products that support our health!
Eating raw cheese, butter, yogurts, milk, and kefir from grass-fed cows, goats, or sheep offer many health benefits. The most important point here is to source wisely!!
Before we go into sourcing guidelines, let's touch on some of the most nourishing dairy products we can buy:
Raw Grass-Fed Milk
What is “raw milk” exactly? It’s milk that comes from grass-fed cows, is unpasteurized and unhomogenized. This means raw milk contains all of its natural enzymes, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals — making it what many refer to as a “complete food.”
Raw milk has many benefits to the human body:
- Reduces allergies.
- Improves skin health.
- Helps prevent nutrient deficiencies.
- Great to make probiotic foods.
If you are scared of raw milk, you must check out this article by Chris Kresser that discusses "that your chances of becoming hospitalized from a bacterial illness caused by raw milk is three times less than your chance of dying in a plane crash. In fact, he discovered that you have a better chance of death by infection from raw oysters than you do of ever getting sick at all from raw milk!"
Raw milk is just one more example of how a super food can be demonized. It is one of the most nutrient dense foods we can consume.
You can find out where to get real raw milk in your state by visiting this website!
Grassfed Butter!
Thank God, butter is back! Actually, it never went away. It was just replaced with horrible blends of processed vegetable oils (remember these starve our brain and are highly toxic!)
In fact, grass-fed butter has fewer toxins, better fats, and more antioxidants. Grass-fed butter also is an excellent source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which boosts your metabolism and helps prevent cancer and heart disease. I eat it in my morning cup of broth, coffee, and
Ghee:
(Grass-fed) Ghee (pronounced Gee) is a wonderful alternative to butter. It is actually clarified butter commonly made from cow’s milk.
It is commonly used in South Asian cooking but is gaining popularity due to the fact that those that are allergic to dairy can use it safely as it has all the water and milk solids removed from it. It also has all the great nutrients and fatty acids as grass-fed butter but a higher smoking point which makes it ideal for high-heat cooking and searing.
I use this daily for sautéing all my veggies and cooking my eggs. I highly recommend playing with this nourishing and high-temp fat!
Kefir & Yogurt Products -
Kefir and yogurts are a great way to introduce additional probiotics into our diets. Being discriminating is key if you want these gut-friendly products to be just that, gut-friendly.
Let's touch on the top benefits Kefir has on our body:
- Boosts Immunity
- Builds bone Strength.
- Helps fight off cancer.
- Supports digestion and combats IBS.
- Improves Allergies
- Heals Skin
- Improves lactose intolerance symptoms.
There are three types of kefirs: Milk Kefir, Coconut Kefir, and Water Kefir. Kefir is sometimes confused with yogurts, however, kefir is much more beneficial as it has 10-34 types of probiotics, where yogurt usually only has 2-7. Kefir can actually attack pathogens and bad bacteria in the gut.
When sourcing Kefir and Yogurts -
Do's:
- Make your own homemade yogurt and get 1000 times the number of probiotics and cultivate probiotics that move the needle when it comes to your health! Learn more here!
- Do always buy raw (ideal), whole-fat, organic (grass-fed even better) milk products. Kefir and yogurts (if made of cow's milk) and look for live culture strands listed in the ingredients.
- Do try goat milk products. Sheep and goat's milk is different from cow's as they are not inflammatory, easier to digest, and have high levels of MCT's (medium-chain triglycerides) which give a boost to your brain and your metabolism.
- Do always look at the ingredient list for added sugars and other ingredients you aren't familiar with.
- Do sweeten your OWN yogurts or kefir! Use fresh fruit, local raw unfiltered honey, 100% maple syrup, or try monk fruit (SO SWEET!! A little goes a LONG way)
Do not:
- Don't buy sweetened yogurts or kefir. Many sweetened fruity options have more than 18 grams of sugar per serving!!
- Don't buy soy yogurts. Soy messes with our hormones. Consume only in small infrequent amounts.
I've put together this dairy sourcing guide so you can have an easy resource to use when you shop!
Dairy can be confusing. I have been on a long journey discovering what foods nourish and what foods rob us of health. In my experience, high-quality dairy can be not only delicious but super nourishing.
Just begin to discover what works for you.
It may take some time to unravel all the lies you've been fed about dairy so just begin to explore it with an open mind.
If you really want to take your health to the next level, then you must check out my Homemade Yogurt Mini-Course!
I teach you how to make probiotic-rich yogurt that has 1000 times more probiotics than any store-bought yogurt or probiotic capsule!
It will change your life and just to give you a little teaser, I teach you how to cultivate the "love" probiotic that will not only help you feel more at ease, but it is incredible for your skin, you gut and your whole body!
In love of delicious dairy,
Becky Wells
The Hippie Moms, LLC
www.thehippiemoms.com
The Hippie Moms Podcast
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In love and light.
