It’s been at least 15 years that I have functioned in the capacity of a personal trainer, a CrossFit Coach, a Nutrition Coach, and a Health Coach. Yes…all of those things. And prior to that, in the years I got to work with Ed in the clinic – I saw predominantly seniors for exercise in the pool and in the clinic. We’ve seen a lot. I hate giving my resume…but here I am (with Ed – so here we are) flying at 15,000 feet, training seniors in a pretty aggressive setting, seeing the inflammation, body and joint aches, struggles with bodyweight, difficulty in putting on muscle…and when I/we ask about someone’s diet it’s like we said their kid or their dog was ugly – they get quite defensive. We’re asking because we care, and because we’ve spent many years working with our athletes to improve their diets so their performance improves. These two things are definitely tied together.
Our concern with being “stuck in your ways” is:
IS IT WORKING?
If it’s not, maybe you take a look at this post and think about it.
Dairy is one of those highly debated topics. It’s tough…but in order to take a hard stance on it, you’d better understand dairy’s history in a timeline of human existence, what it is supposed to do for a mammal (we are mammals by the way), and while I think most of you can rip off a list of benefits, I’m not sure you can rip off the same list of detrimental effects. There are two sides to this dairy story and we need to understand both before we stick so tightly to our guns.
Just because the label says healthy or because your doctor says it’s good for you…is it?
Hang with me for a bit and let’s start from the beginning, and then end with “What will you do?”.
Dairy has a sorted history. If you’ve followed any of the nuts and bolts, ancestral/Paleo web spheres, then you’ve undoubtedly heard and read the backstory on why dairy products may not be the best for us. Personally, I do like using our ancestral past and their lack of modern diseases as a template for making sense of things before I start searching PubMed, Google Scholar, or other research publishing websites. Now, that doesn’t mean things we thought back in the early 2000s, the 90s, the 80s, and earlier are still right today. But some of them are. What’s great is when YOU formulate a decision on what’s right based on your own research and experimenting with the food in question. And then you have a position and a solid “why”, versus “just because [insert YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok influencer here] said so”.
So here we go…
ANCESTRAL MAN & ART DEVANY
Arthur DeVany. You can buy his book, The New Evolution Diet, on Amazon for as little as nine bucks (Kindle). It’s older, written in 2010…but remains valid. It was one of the first reads that tried to resolve our health crisis (even before it WAS a crisis!) using our ancestral past. To me, it made sense. Yes, I know, our world is different now…but using that as an excuse for our sick society just means you’ve given in to it. And if we can learn from our past, often we can solve the future. No, we can’t replicate how our ancestors lived, but we can give our lifestyles a kick in the pants and change SOME things to better represent how our bodies might thrive versus just survive.
LOREN CORDAIN & THE PALEO DIET
DeVany gave way to LOREN CORDAIN, whose research and publications on ancestral lifestyles are still active via the book THE PALEO DIET and the website THE PALEO DIET. Don’t get me wrong, Ed and I aren’t “strict” with this concept. And have some respect…it’s because we’ve tested it with our life and our sport (CrossFit) and the wheels fall off the bus in a high intensity, anaerobic, heavily loaded training style without adequate “time of training” fuel (e.g. carbohydrate). We tested and retested it…we look, feel, and perform better with some “safe starches” in our diets. I know, we’re talking about dairy but this is the back story. Cordain published the bad side of dairy in “Why Dairy isn’t Paleo”. It’s a blog post on his clinician’s site so it’s long and pretty detailed, and also well-cited. It’s good to know the history – if we understand that past, we can use that to make the future better.
CrossFit, Robb Wolf, Andy Deas & CrossFit Football
Ed and I spent a lot of time in the weeds with these four entities. You probably know the CrossFit nutrition prescription:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
Notice there’s no dairy. DOH!
There are a few things that, over the years, hit me like a ton of bricks related to how I view diet, exercise, and sleep…and there was an episode of The Paleo Solution Podcast (Episode 5) where they tackled the dairy situation and related it to health, and specifically performance in the program CrossFit Football. I was able to find the transcript…and dang it…it still haunts me. And the data, as far as I can find, still holds true today (no research to debunk it). It’s the very first question on the podcast so you don’t have to search for it. Some of the conversation supports DeVany’s position above.
ENTER…CHRIS KRESSER, MD
I’ve taken some of Dr. Kresser’s coursework over the years (cholesterol, etc) and I like that he’s a functional medicine physician with a lot of experience and, like CrossFit in the “old days”, he’s a huge source for open education and information.
Back in 2019, he posted his position on dairy – Dairy: Food of the Gods or Neolithic Agent of Disease. Those of you who think I’m down on it…not so fast. Kresser keeps the meat of the concept by qualifying that in those with some forms of disease, poor gut health, and a few other conditions, dairy may not be a great idea. But for some, it could be a nutritional powerhouse, with one caveat. Fat-free, pasteurized dairy with the slick label everyone likes is not going to be the winner – rather, raw, full-fat dairy is the winner for health benefits. But again, YOU should read his position (not long) and continue to make YOUR decisions (hopefully educated) regarding dairy.
Melissa Hartwig & The Whole 30
Continue to fast forward, and I know many of those in our circles know of and have tried The Whole 30. Created by Melissa Hartwig over 10 years ago as The Whole 9, their position on Dairy is also worthy of a quick read. Yes, they float around in the Paleo-sphere too…but with a modern twist. If nothing else I’m introducing you all to some new sources for your information (other than – YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!😂😂) Good read: The Dairy Manifesto
So where’s the punch line? Dairy: yes or no? Um…yes and no. If you take dairy out of your diet for a week or so, then reintroduce it – how do you feel? Do your joints ache? Does your gut hurt? Do your sinuses get stuffy? If so, you may contribute that to dairy. Then it’s up to you …do you want to live with that symptom just so you can have cottage cheese? Totally up to you.
Dairy is not a “great” natural source of Vitamin D – it’s mostly fortified. While it does contain calcium, in the reads above from DeVany and Cordain, they pose the concept that it’s not our calcium intake, but rather the amount of calcium we retain in our bones (versus leeching), and our diets may play a role in why we aren’t retaining calcium.
I get it – as we get older, dairy can be a soft, somewhat nutrient-dense food that is easy to eat. As long as you aren’t experiencing side effects from consuming dairy -have at it. But do the work to investigate if you feel good about dairy. If your blood sugar is better off dairy. If your joints feel better or if you have more energy without it. THEN decide.
The prolific effects of consuming dairy aren’t worth it for Ed and I keep it as a staple in our diets. We’ll source some raw dairy, heavy cream for coffee, and an occasional trip to Dairy Queen, but otherwise, it’s not common food for us. For our athletes – we do want you to be smart, educated consumers of the food you put in your bodies. Hence all the links. There are a lot of people out there smarter than I am and I’m happy to introduce you to them 😉
You’re unlikely to out-game me on nutrition, how nutrition affects your training, and the right “order” to make changes to your diet – especially after I get to know you! Sure, there are a few “unique snowflakes” in our web right now with a lot of health stuff going on, but for the most part, as we discussed in our kick-off meeting to the recent health challenge, we’re unwilling to discuss all of your supplements and ancillary providers when you don’t have a solid base of nutrition from which to start. Let’s get things cleaned up so we can have some fun in the gym!
Final thoughts on dairy farms…these images above are unfortunate. The one on the right is a modernistic view and the one on the left is an actual dairy farm. And the image below is what we want to think a dairy farm is like. It’s funny – my Uncle Jack had a large dairy farm as I was growing up. It looked like the picture below. It was a small farm in a small town, and I know the world is much bigger now. BUT…I do think our sourcing can improve, and the hunt for raw dairy could happen for any of us. Maybe our consumption goes down, but the quality of what we consume goes up. Maybe the type of dairy we consume is improved (full fat). And maybe the timing of our consumption is improved (post-workout and occasional treats). The way I look at it – that’s a win, win!
CHECK THIS OUT: GetRawMilk.com
Bonus Question (will be dated for the 11/14)
1) True or False: According to Loren Cordain in “Why Dairy isn’t Paleo”, while the Glycemic Index of dairy is relatively low, the Insulin Index is very high. (hint: the answer is listed clearly in a table image)
2) True or False: According to Robb Wolf, dairy creates a “huge, huge, inordinately large insulin spike. (hint: transcript)
3) True or False: According to Robb Wolf, just some of the side effects of dairy consumption can include acne, sleep apnea, sleep disturbances, and hyperinsulinemia (high insulin).
4) True or False: According to Chris Kresser, raw dairy is a whole food, and pasteurized dairy is a processed food.