wooo long post
Mar. 9th, 2005 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aprilstarchildStudy shows milk not what it's cracked up to be.
This is what I've been telling people:
1. We are the country with the highest consumption of dairy on earth.
2. We are the country with the highest rate of osteoporosis.
So, someone tell me, how is dairy the solution to osteoporosis? Well, guess what? It's not.
When you eat too much protein, the acid/base balance in your blood is thrown off. So your body tries to neutralize it. It does this by leaching the calcium from your bones. Americans, on average, eat at least twice the protein that's good for them. The idea that anyone eating whole grains, fruits, and vegetables (with beans/nuts/seeds/legumes thrown in here and there) could possibly be short on protein is fucking bonkers. When is the human body growing the fastest, developing the quickest? When we're infants. What's the supposed perfect food then? Breast milk. Breast milk gets 5% of its calories from protein. That's it.
The only historical cases of actual protein deficiency, are of people eating nothing but junk food, and of people who are literally starving to death. If you're getting enough calories (and they're not all soda pop and candy), you're getting enough protein. Period.
So. When you drink milk, you're adding quite a bit of protein to your system. Any calcium in there, will be used to neutralize the protein. So, it didn't do you a damn bit of good. The RDA's for calcium are so ridiculously high and unreachable because it assumes you eat a normal American diet--i.e. a lot of protein. People all over the world who eat low-protein diets and no dairy at all have rock solid bones. In some places in the world, osteoporosis is unheard of!
Not to mention that leafy greens are a better source of calcium anyway, cup-per-cup or calorie-per-calorie.
Now, one note: People in societies with high dairy intakes are taller. I'm convinced that one reason I'm shorter than both my parents, is my distinct dislike of milk as a child, and we didn't eat much other dairy.
To change subject entirely....
I bought some knitting stuff today. I've been eyeing a Debbie Bliss pattern for about a year now, and finally bought the book it's in. I also broke down and bought the yarn it called for (well, half of it now--the other half is on hold for me). When I'm done with this sweater, I will have paid almost a hundred dollars for it. $16 for the book, $8 for new needles, $7.50 each for eleven skeins of baby cashmerino.
By the time I'm done with this sweater, it'll be chilly enough to wear it all the time. *lol* It's a wrap-around top, styled after the ones ballet dancers wear, with 3/4 sleeves. Ah, here's a picture. Go go gadget images.google.com. I'm making it in...hm. A soft teal sorta color. No way I was making it in that pink shade. I think this is it. Looks more teal in person, less blue-grey. Either way, quite pretty and rather flattering to me, I think.
The cost isn't too bad... when you think of how many hours I'll put into it, on a per-hour basis it'll be cheap entertainment. *lol* OMG, the needles are so freaking tiny. Size two and size three. Itsy bitsy. Socks are usually made on that size needle, with double points. I'm using really long straights.
If I do a good job, I'm going to end up wearing that sweater every damn day. It'll be pretty and never truly go out of style and will look good over tshirts or tanktops, so I can wear it in the summer, yeay.
This is what I've been telling people:
1. We are the country with the highest consumption of dairy on earth.
2. We are the country with the highest rate of osteoporosis.
So, someone tell me, how is dairy the solution to osteoporosis? Well, guess what? It's not.
When you eat too much protein, the acid/base balance in your blood is thrown off. So your body tries to neutralize it. It does this by leaching the calcium from your bones. Americans, on average, eat at least twice the protein that's good for them. The idea that anyone eating whole grains, fruits, and vegetables (with beans/nuts/seeds/legumes thrown in here and there) could possibly be short on protein is fucking bonkers. When is the human body growing the fastest, developing the quickest? When we're infants. What's the supposed perfect food then? Breast milk. Breast milk gets 5% of its calories from protein. That's it.
The only historical cases of actual protein deficiency, are of people eating nothing but junk food, and of people who are literally starving to death. If you're getting enough calories (and they're not all soda pop and candy), you're getting enough protein. Period.
So. When you drink milk, you're adding quite a bit of protein to your system. Any calcium in there, will be used to neutralize the protein. So, it didn't do you a damn bit of good. The RDA's for calcium are so ridiculously high and unreachable because it assumes you eat a normal American diet--i.e. a lot of protein. People all over the world who eat low-protein diets and no dairy at all have rock solid bones. In some places in the world, osteoporosis is unheard of!
Not to mention that leafy greens are a better source of calcium anyway, cup-per-cup or calorie-per-calorie.
Now, one note: People in societies with high dairy intakes are taller. I'm convinced that one reason I'm shorter than both my parents, is my distinct dislike of milk as a child, and we didn't eat much other dairy.
To change subject entirely....
I bought some knitting stuff today. I've been eyeing a Debbie Bliss pattern for about a year now, and finally bought the book it's in. I also broke down and bought the yarn it called for (well, half of it now--the other half is on hold for me). When I'm done with this sweater, I will have paid almost a hundred dollars for it. $16 for the book, $8 for new needles, $7.50 each for eleven skeins of baby cashmerino.
By the time I'm done with this sweater, it'll be chilly enough to wear it all the time. *lol* It's a wrap-around top, styled after the ones ballet dancers wear, with 3/4 sleeves. Ah, here's a picture. Go go gadget images.google.com. I'm making it in...hm. A soft teal sorta color. No way I was making it in that pink shade. I think this is it. Looks more teal in person, less blue-grey. Either way, quite pretty and rather flattering to me, I think.
The cost isn't too bad... when you think of how many hours I'll put into it, on a per-hour basis it'll be cheap entertainment. *lol* OMG, the needles are so freaking tiny. Size two and size three. Itsy bitsy. Socks are usually made on that size needle, with double points. I'm using really long straights.
If I do a good job, I'm going to end up wearing that sweater every damn day. It'll be pretty and never truly go out of style and will look good over tshirts or tanktops, so I can wear it in the summer, yeay.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
milk
Date: 2005-03-10 05:35 am (UTC)Now,contrarily, there is evidence that japanese americans have a lot of "american" illnesses that their japanese counterparts do not, related to obesity, cancer, and hormones.
Re: milk
Date: 2005-03-10 05:53 am (UTC)Let's hope that applies to me. *lol*
If milk's supposed to make you taller...
Date: 2005-03-10 02:45 pm (UTC)"Health" gerus keep changing their tune so much, I don't trust them. I simply follow what my stomach tells me it wants, keeping in mind things like the time of the month. (I need a steady fiber intake, put it that way.)
BTW, how are you?
Re: If milk's supposed to make you taller...
Date: 2005-03-11 07:03 am (UTC)But genetics is a huge influence on that, anyway, so who knows?
As far as health gurus: Keep in mind--the reason people think dairy is good for you, is because the dairy industry has paid for gobs and gobs of advertising, and have paid for studies that will come out with the results they want. Making them not all that different than, say, tobacco companies.
Don't forget: Most milk sold in supermarkets contains blood and pus because the cows are milked with machines that often hurt them. Also, antibiotics and genetically modified hormones. There are a lot of reasons not to drink milk or eat dairy.