This came up yesterday when my mom and I were discussing calcium and post-menopausal women and hence the topic on dairy. Coming from an eastern European culture where we literally ate a kind of salty lard on bread (kajmak) growing up, you can imagine how important dairy was. Of course things were different for my mom growing up who was a very skinny kid. But we live in a different world now and our lifestyles have changed to more sedentary but our diets largely haven�t changed for the better at all.

I�ve learned a lot from my family�s health issues. My younger (half) sister grew up obese on a high sugar/high dairy diet and was blessed with a nephrotic kidney which we discovered at the ripe old age of 16. It�s sad to say that despite two trips to the emergency room and being a very talented cook she really hasn�t quite understood what it means to �eat healthy.� I was first exposed to macrobiotics when 10 years ago my grandmother managed to reverse terminal systemic cancer diagnosed on two continents by going whole hog macro. Oh yea, her arthritis disappeared too. I guess when you�re told you have only 6 months to live that�s incredible motivation. She stopped taking all her pills, dropped 60lbs, and was even able to thread a needle where before she couldn�t even hold a glass of water. I was a pretty dumb kid then but I knew something amazing happened watching her transform into literally a blushing, bright eyed, energetic elderly lady. She�s 83 now and still going strong in the old country.

Anyway, I digress, here�s some information on dairy I�ve only just recently learned myself.

Everyone knows you need calcium to survive but did you know that actually the healthiest source of calcium is found in green leafy vegetables and legumes? And you don�t need to consume that many to make up the difference in milk since its estimated that you don�t absorb more than 30% of the calcium content found in cow�s milk anyway because it comes with large amounts of phosphorus rendering most of the calcium unabsorbable.

Most of us are born with the enzyme lactase which is specifically designed to break down lactose. As we grow older from infancy and babies naturally wean themselves from mother�s milk and onto solid food, our bodies are designed to let go of lactase which had served its purpose in infancy. Instead we transition to cow�s milk and sustain that enzyme far longer than it was designed to stay in your body. It made sense that historically cow�s milk was a great survival food. Considering our circumstances today, it is no longer necessary for the majority. Many people in Asia and Africa and the Caribbean cannot digest diary because it is not a common part of their dietary intake and yet they don�t suffer calcium deficiency at all.

Milk is the food designed to bond a baby with its mother for safety and security and to set the kid up immunologically and emotionally. Dairy foods are sludgy. They actually contain hormones that produce a cloudiness which even inhibit your taste buds from picking up the subtleties of healthy foods. So-called �comfort foods� usually contain high dairy contents. You�ll find that by eliminating dairy and eating more whole grains, beans, and veg you�ll have more energy and clarity.

Sadly, dairy consumption is not just unnecessary it�s actually harmful in that it accumulates in the upper regions of the body like lungs, breast tissue, and lymph (cheeses tend to collect heavily around the reproductive organs.) We�re only finding out now that dairy intake has been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, ovarian cysts, infertility, kidney stones, and obesity. It�s tragic that the new wave of obese children in this country are likely suffering from the growth and sex hormones we inject in cows. If the dairy industry wasn�t so bent on protecting its survival this would be common knowledge and children wouldn�t be pushed milk in schools.

I�m not worried about the occasional pat of butter in sauce or Parmesan on the salad. I just won�t make cheesy or yogurt dishes or use milk in cereal (soy tastes so much better anyway.) Just means I need to learn how to make different things which is great because I was getting tired of my recipes anyway.