Calories in Milk
 

I recently attended a wonderful lecture given by a female health care professional. The basis of her talk was preventative health care and preventative anti-aging measures.

I took a couple of wonderful things from her lecture. The first of which is that milk is really not good for you at all. Now, I LOVE milk, but based on what I learned I'm trying to get it out of my diet--one week at a time.

I've been successful this week. And even better--I've lost weight without making any other changes to my diet & excercise!

I wonder if it's because I've cut out the calories from the milk, or if it's because I've cut out milk and my body's adjusting....

Has anyone else tried something similar?

Hi there :)

Have you been counting calories at all? This isn't always the case of course, but when people cut out one thing, they may replace it with something else. So if you cut out milk and aren't replacing it, say, with a glass of juice or something, you've probably added to your calorie deficit. How much were you drinking a day?

I also tend to believe that many people are lactose intolerant anyway, so with my line of thinking it could very well be the removal of it from your diet.

I'm interested to know why milk isn't good for you?

Me also........Why isn't milk good for you? enquiring minds want to know.........

Me too . . . everything I've been reading lately has been touting milk as a great diet-friendly food . . . do tell us more.

There are conflicting opinions on this. Some insist that cow's milk isn't good for humans, period. Others say that it's OK for children but not for adults. Still others say it's fine and a good source of calcium.

There are definitely people who are lactose-intolerant, however--and milk does make them ill, primarily with diarrhea.

The web can give you lots of information on this topic. :)

Jay

If you were drinking milk (which has calories) and now you aren't drinking milk, the reduction in your calorie intake would make an impact on weight loss. If you were drinking a small-ish glass once a day (12 oz...the size of a Starbucks tall), that's about 135 calories a day you're no longer taking in. Over a week or two, you can see how that would add up!

Otherwise, unless you have some sort of digestive issue like lactose intolerance, current research shows that dairy, including milk, actually helps in weight loss efforts if you account for the calories in it, most likely due to the calcium content. Still, if milk doesn't work for your body, no harm in cutting it out (but do try to get enough calcium from other sources, since osteoporosis is nothing to fool with).

I personally don't like milk at all. Yuck. But I have heard that it is unnatural for humans to drink milk as adults. All other mammals stop drinking milk when they are weaned from their mothers so it really has no benefit to us as adults. Althought the calcium is good for you, I prefer to get mine from yogurt and cheese and other such things. But, as American's... we eat all sorts of unnatural things. I just chose to not drink milk.

did the speaker make the case that all milk products are bad? as in, we shouldn't eat yogurt, cheese, etc., either? i would assume milk-based products would have the same negatives as drinking straight milk. like peachcake, i'm not a big milk fan but i do like some of those yummy things that are made with it!

i also wonder if it makes a difference health-wise if you drink skim vs. 2% vs. whole. obviously whole milk is pretty loaded w/ fat but how bad is skim?

I also love milk and I have cut down on how much I drink and it has made a huge difference to my weight loss! I think my weight loss has almost doubled each week since I cut it out (I drank way too much of it!)
Those calories do add up quickly.

Pardon me, but I'm a little confused -- Those are milk-based you know. ;) You are just eating your milk instead of drinking it.

What about low fat milk, like 1% and 2%? Those also lower calories, and you still get the calcium.

Yes, yogurt and cheese are made from milk--but the milk is changed by the process of making them.

Jay

If you are going to use a "natural" or "no other animals do it" argument, then yogurt and cheese fit in there just as well as milk (I'm not aware of any cheese-making animal other than man). Although it is true that many lactose-intolerant people can eat cheese and yogurt without problem.

When animals and humans are weaned, they lose the ability to break down milk only after they've stopped drinking it. In other words, weaning "causes" us to lose the ability to digest milk. If you never stop drinking milk, you generally do not lose the ability to drink it; because the body has a "use it or lose it" reaction to creating those enzymes. And while it's true that animals and until fairly recent centuries most humans never had the oportunity to drink other animals' milk and weaned before adulthood, those animals and ancient humans had sources of calcium at which modern humans often turn up their nose (such as eating bones and insects).

There have been a couple studies that suggest that small amounts of dairy (like 2 to 3 glasses of low fat milk within the scope of a calorie-controlled diet) actually may improve weight loss, but I think the results are far from conclusive, and it's definitely not something to believe "if a little is good, a lot is better."

My aunt, and my husband before he started watching his diet both drank milk as pretty much their sole beverage, often drinking nearly a gallon a day. That's nearly 1600 calories, even if the milk is skim. That's obviously not good. (So when I heard that Dr. Kevourkian when on a "hunger strike" refusing solid foods, but continuing to drink milk and juice, I found that quite humorous).

Personally, I consider milk pretty much the same as ALL foods, natural and altered, neither evil nor saintly. It's possible to overdo a good thing, and it's possible to incorporate a few not so great things into a healthy diet.

Marvellously informative post kaplods As usual you managed to come up with the perfect pieces of information . . . :hug:

I'm starting menopause and definitely need more calcium. I wouldn't think of skipping milk, I drink either skim or 1%. I'm lactose intolerant so I drink Lactaid. You've got to keep your bone strength or you're in trouble when you get old.

Am I the only one who's read about how normal (processed cow's) milk is not good because it actually needs calcium in order to be metabolized, so even though it contains calcium, it actually takes MORE calcium from your body than it provides.

This is why I am cutting down on regular milk. I've discovered unsweetened almond milk, which is a fabulous substitute for me (tried unsweetened soy milk--took maybe 2 sips and dumped the rest--YUCK!).

If someone could give me a website where I Could look up some legitimate studies, I would love to. I had a site I used to search all the time, but, for the life of me, I can't think of it right now--must be my brain can't function before 6am :p

Jilly... you could always look up articles here: http://www.notmilk.com/

Jill, I don't think that can be true, because children don't lose all their bones if they are fed cow's milk. ;) However, it has been shown, allegedly, that digesting animal protein requires some calcium, so it could be that folks are saying the animal protein in milk removes calcium.

Some sources say that vegetables are the best source of calcium--for example, if you want to eat arugula, water cress, and turnip greens, you'll be doing great. Arugula, 1300 mg Ca, water cress, 800 mg, turnip greens, 650 mg. But the amounts of calcium above are given for 100 calories of these greens, and 100 calories of arugula is a LOT of arugula... which I personally don't like. :p

The best thing is to have a balanced diet that includes plenty of green leafy vegetables, evidently.

Jay

I've heard alot of anti-milk rhetoric, but most of what I read has been obviously urban legend (unverifiable information, or verifiably proven wrong such as bogus experts - and fictional or distorted reports of research).

I'm open to properly sited research, but haven't seen much yet that has been very persuasive. I would agree that if calcium where leached from the body by milk, people such as my husband would have osteoporosis by now. He eats very little high-calcium vegetables and consumes extreme amounts of dairy. He has excellent bone-strength and bone-density (even though he has a hereditary degenerative joint condition which damages the cartilage in and around the joints, his bones themselves are in great shape).

Anectdotal evidence is worthless, because it doesn't matter how my husband's body processes calcium, but it seems to me that there is a lot more pro-milk research than anti-milk research. I know, I've heard all the "conspiriacy theories," but human beings are notoriously bad at keeping secrets, and the truth generally does come out - and from people who actually can be proven to exist, can back up their claims, and have verifiable credentials.

I actually heard on the radio the supposably soy milk is not good for you because soy is not meant for human consumption. I don't know about that. I love milk though. It's my favorite beverage and people have been drinking it for hundreds of years (probably not as healthy as it was, with all those hormones they give the cows).

Personally, until the milk comes with a warning label on it like cigarettes and alcohol or is banned in the EU, I'll keep drinking, although I do make sure that my milk comes from cows that haven't been given antibiotics or hormones, even though I believe the evidence on whether or not the hormones actually have any effect is questionable. :)

I feel like milk bashing is the new anti-carb. I have several friends who 100% buy into the "milk is bad" theories... BUT they never liked milk to begin with, so it all just seems very convenient if you ask me....

Whatever the "real" answer, drinking milk is nowhere near as bad for you as eating pizza, cheeseburgers, and french fries every day. Giving up milk is not going to be the magic pill.

All very interesting. Admittedly, I don't buy into the anti-milk party. I actually allow myself a glass a day that I don't count in my calories.

I've never heard that milk depletes calcium. But, I do know that the body requires Vitamin D to properly process and take in calcium. Some skim milk apparently doesn't have enough vitamin d to allow the body to absorb the calcium in it, and so there's no advantage to drinking it without some sort of added vitamin D.

The whole "it's not natural, we're the only animals that drink another animal's milk" thing is funny to me. Of course we're the only animals to drink another animal's milk- we're the only animals that have domesticated other animals! (Though there is a species of ant that has domesticated aphids... but that's totally different).

For the most part, all of the anti-milk rhetoric that I've heard is rhetoric. I've heard very little, if any, research to back up the claim that milk is bad for you. If anything, I've seen several studies to support that the combination of calcium and vitamin k (with, of course, vitamin d to support the absorbtion of calcium) are beneficial to weight loss.

Ok, I'll "weigh in" here (yeah, I know, bad pun!) I think the truth is that milk (cow's milk, goat's milk, etc.) is NOT bad for humans - maybe for some - but certainly not all. Remember when the "egg" got it's bad reputation? Now they're saying eggs are GOOD again. And you all know the old saying: "Smart is believing only half of what you hear/read. Brilliant is knowing which half to believe."

I drink skim milk. I can't stand the way whole milk feels in my mouth. It's just too.... thick, or something. I usually have a glass or maybe two every other day. I also eat cheese, and on occasion, yogurt.

I have noticed that if I have too much milk product at one sitting, my stomach gets REALLY upset.

Also, isn't it true that in order for your body to digest & assimilate the calcium, you need 6 or 8x as much magnesium? Or something like that...

:^:

No no! If you take that much magnesium, I guarantee you'll be running to the bathroom! :eek:

500 mg magnesium a day and 1000 mg calcium is plenty. Or check it out on the USDA website.

Jay

No, No! LOL!!! I mean "weight loss wise". Something about the body doesn't assimilate calcium without magnesium, and products like milk has something like a 8 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium (or a 6 to 1 ratio.... can't remember which!) and that the body needs more magnesium in order for the calcium to do it's job.

Or... I could be explaining it wrong... sometimes I'm pretty sure that *I* read too much & don't know "which half to believe"! :dizzy: