Dairy wasn’t a regular part of Paleolithic man’s diet. We started to domesticate animals and regularly started consuming dairy at around the same time we became agriculturalists some 10,000 years ago.
But unlike with grains, the science shows that dairy can indeed be good for us, especially when you have it in its natural state. Paleolithic man is proof that you don’t need dairy to thrive, but if the evidence shows that it can be good for us, then why not use it to maximise our results?
In the modern day, we can try as much as we want, but we’ll never be as healthy or robust as Paleolithic man was. Our environment is polluted, our soil is depleted of nutrients, and we’re not being forced to exercise at great intensities by fighting or fleeing from sabre-toothed tigers. The right forms of dairy can help us to at least partially bridge that gap.
But the key lies in the right forms of dairy. The vast majority of dairy consumed in the UK and in the West in general, is stripped of much of dairy’s potential health benefits. Despite this, the scientific studies looking at dairy consumption in general, either show that dairy is modestly good for you, has no effect on your health, or has inconsistent effects, where dairy shows harm in some studies and benefit in other studies.
It stands to reason then, that when you consume the best forms of dairy, it is far more likely to benefit your health and to benefit it to a greater extent.
Now let's take a look at what the studies reveal about the effects of dairy on some common modern day medical conditions/problems:
Inflammation
In a 2019 systematic review of 16 randomised clinical trials, the researchers reported that, “The majority of studies documented a significant anti-inflammatory effect” of milk and dairy products.
Obesity
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the impact of dairy products on weight loss show that milk and other dairy products either have no effect or a favourable effect on body composition parameters, such as body fat mass, lean mass, and waist circumference (Abargouei, 2012; Dougkas, 2019; Stonehouse, 2016).
Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Disease And Stroke
Heart disease and having a heart attack is the big one everybody is afraid of. It’s the reason why so many people avoid eating sources of saturated fat like red meat and full fat dairy like butter, cream, and whole milk.
But scientists are finding today that they were wrong to condemn all sources of saturated fat.
Firstly, let me tell you that a 2019 overview of 17 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, found that milk and dairy consumption had either a positive outcome on cardiovascular disease, heart disease, and stroke, or had no significant effect. And this was true for both full fat and low fat milk and dairy.
Next I want to tell you about a 2018 Spanish review, where the author says that it's a mistake to study nutrients in isolation. We studied saturated fat in isolation, saw that it causes harm, and told everyone to avoid eating foods that contain saturated fat – like coconut oil, palm oil, red meat, tallow and full fat dairy, to eat low fat dairy instead.
He then goes on to say (translated from Spanish):
“However, the scientific literature in recent years doubts that there is robust evidence to keep this recommendation [of consuming low fat dairy]. In fact, the more recent publications suggest that the consumption of dairy products, regardless of its fat content, is associated with neutral, or even beneficial effects on cardiovascular health” (Salas-Salvado, 2018).
The author talks about how recent studies have started to focus on the “food matrix”, which considers all the components contained in a food, and how these studies are showing that nutritious whole-foods like dairy have a beneficial effect on health, despite the isolated components of these foods being shown to do harm.
Type II Diabetes
A 2019 overview of 12 meta-analyses found that most studies reported an inverse relationship between type II diabetes incidence and consumption of dairy, meaning the more dairy people consumed in these studies, the less likely they were to develop type II diabetes.
Mortality
Multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found either no link, or conflicting associations between milk consumption and all-cause mortality (Larsson, 2015; Mullie, 2016).
Dementia/Alzheimer's
Studies on the effect of milk and dairy intake on cognitive function show inconsistent results, with some studies showing benefit, and others showing harm, hence no conclusions can be drawn (Cuesta-Triana, 2019; Lee, 2018).
Cancer
A 2019 overview published in the journal, BMJ Open, looked at 42 different meta-analyses and systematic reviews on the effects of milk and dairy on 14 different types of cancer, including cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, bowel, and others. Here’s a summary of the findings:
As you can see from the above data, the majority of studies show that dairy intake either has no significant association with, or decreases the risk of cancer.
Gastrointestinal cancers seem to fare better, with no studies showing an increased risk with dairy consumption.
With hormone dependent cancers on the other hand, a few studies show there may be an increased risk of cancer from dairy intake (though the majority of studies still show either no association or a decreased risk).
The authors of this 2019 BMJ Open overview mention that “Exogenous oestrogens from milk products consumed today may explain the potential increased risk in hormone-dependent cancers.“ Most milk products consumed today are high in estrogen due to modern dairy farming methods. Click here to discover the best forms of milk & dairy that have the lowest levels of oestrogens, and would be far more likely to protect you against hormone dependent cancers.
So all in all the studies show a slightly positive effect of dairy consumption on your health, with albeit lots of conflicting studies, where some studies show benefit and others show harm.
So What Gives? Why Are The Studies On Dairy So Conflicting?
These studies do not differentiate between different qualities of dairy. One systematic review for example, found that high intakes of dairy desserts and ice cream were associated with cognitive decline in older women. It also reported that 1 study demonstrated that high dairy intake was associated with reduced development of Alzheimer disease. The review then concluded that “studies [on dairy consumption] concerning cognitive decline have contradictory findings.”
Well of course desserts and ice cream – which are loaded with sugar – will cause cognitive decline!
Chances are the findings are only contradictory because the really bad forms of dairy are causing negative results, and the less bad forms of dairy are causing positive results.
As I’ll explain to you soon, most people in developed countries today consume bad forms of dairy, so if all of these studies on bad forms of dairy show an overall modest improvement in health and disease outcomes, then the best forms of dairy are likely to greatly benefit your health.
One meta-analysis mentioned the following to explain the lack of association found between dairy consumption and breast cancer, and the conflicting results from different studies:
”…milk products may contain pesticides which have carcinogenic potential. In contrast, some contents of milk such as calcium and vitamin D have been hypothesized to reduce breast cancer risk.“ (Chen, 2019)
Well, could it be that the cancer-causing effects of pesticides are being canceled out by the cancer-preventing effects of vitamin D? So what would happen if you drank organic milk, which doesn’t have any pesticides? If there was a study on the effects of organic milk on cancer, I think the results could be very different.
Also, many of these studies are from countries like the US, where dairy farmers are allowed to use bovine growth hormone on cattle to increase milk production. This practice increases levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 in milk, which could stimulate the growth of cancerous cells. So if you’re in the UK (where the use of growth hormone on cattle is banned), or if you drink organic milk in the US, then milk/dairy consumption for you would be far less likely to cause cancer, and may even help prevent cancer.
Another important variable that makes results from scientific studies on the effects of dairy on health so conflicting, is genetic variability in people’s ability to digest and tolerate cow’s milk.
Personally for me, quitting standard shop-bought cow’s milk made just a big a difference to my knee and back, as well as to my asthma, as quitting grains and sugar. And it’s not just me, my whole family, including my parents, brother, and his kids, all saw their asthma almost disappear when they quit drinking shop-bought milk.
Click here to learn what's wrong with the milk you get at the shops (even the organic stuff isn't good enough, find out why).
Unlike with grains and sugar, which everyone should avoid, with milk we need to take a more individualised approach.
If you have an inflammatory condition like arthritis, asthma, COPD, inflammatory bowel disease (and so many others) and you are regularly drinking cow’s milk that you buy from the shops, even if it’s a few drops in your tea, I would recommend you abstain from milk completely for at least a week, preferably for a month, and see how this affects your symptoms. You can replace it with an alternative milk such as coconut milk, cashew milk, almond milk, any nut milk, but not soya milk (soya milk is not a healthy option).
Remember though, you need complete abstinence for this to work, don’t even have a drop of cow’s milk in your tea.
If you find that dropping cow’s milk from your diet reduces your symptoms, then the cow’s milk you buy from the shops is likely causing inflammation in your body and you should avoid it, and switch permanently to either the alternative milks I listed above, or a much healthier form of cow’s milk.
If you find that dropping cow’s milk from your diet makes no difference to your symptoms, then you don’t have to drop shop-bought cow’s milk from your diet, but both your symptoms and your health will likely still benefit from switching to a much healthier form of cow’s milk, which you can learn about by clicking the link below:
Click here to discover the healthiest form of cow's milk (you won't find it in the shops, and chances are you've never tried it before).