My toddler doesn’t drink milk.
Has ever a better nomination for worst mom/nutritionist of the year been
submitted?
Milk, this revered and celebrated thing. This ubiquitous and necessary
thing.
Promoted with towering billboards of celebrities sporting white mustaches
and free calendars that show up in your mailbox innocently featuring dairy-laden
recipes.
We are a culture obsessed with milk, and mothers of toddlers – especially those
just graduating from the breast feeding stage – are the worst of all.
Well here is my big announcement of the day:
I am content with the fact that
Oliver doesn’t drink milk. Proud even. I have raised a little boy who chooses
water ten times out of ten.
But let me clarify.
I am not strictly anti-milk. (There’s almost nothing in this world I could consider
myself ‘anti-’… maybe just murder, and Monsanto.) In fact, I’m not dairy-free
at all. If foods are offered to me containing milk, if they look amazing on a
restaurant menu, or if a recipe really calls for it: I’ll use milk. And not to
say Oliver doesn’t get his dairy in a day too: full-fat plain yogurt
(store-bought, or homemade) and aged white cheddar cheese make their way into
our fridge most weeks. He even has chocolate milk when he’s visiting family,
and has never passed up an opportunity to fill his mouth with whipped cream.
But I do not offer my son milk to drink. And days can go by that he doesn’t
have dairy.
Why? How?
Despite what advertisements, and people you know (including doctors), tell
you: milk is not mandatory. There are components of milk that are beneficial,
the main ones being protein, vitamin D and calcium. But there are components of
many things that are beneficial - spinach contains fiber and iron doesn’t it?
Is there a daily recommended servings of spinach? No. Because it doesn’t have a
marketing board behind it, paying big bucks to make you feel bad if you don’t
make sure your kiddies get what they ‘need’. Believe it or not, there are many
ways to get all the nutrients that milk offers, in other ways. And knowing
that, I can tell you that a smartly planned, healthy diet can ensure that your
child can go straight from breast milk to water and stay that way for life.
(Just for your information: a life lived with water as its own beverage is a
little dull. I also recommend drinking mugs and mugs of tea, wildly flavoured
fruit smoothies, warm seasoned broths, chilly nut milks, and freshly juiced
fruits and vegetables.)
What’s wrong with milk?
For starters, to be specific: milk just means a liquid that a mom makes for
their baby. There’s zero wrong with milk. Where things go wrong is that we
equate milk with cow milk: milk produced for cattle. (Even goat milk is easier
on a person’s digestive system, so you know.) Cow milk comes from massive,
corn-fed animals that grow from tiny to enormous in a few weeks. This is
achieved through the chemical makeup (and added growth hormones) that their diet
provides.
The corn they are fed is
almost surely genetically-modified and pesticide treated.
One of the 59 hormones that cow’s
milk containers is growth hormone (IGF-1) and it happens to work in humans the
same way it works in baby cows. But baby cows are supposed to be growing
rapidly: a 25-year old nutritionist is not. (Although I’ve been gaining about a
pound a week with this pregnancy.)
Also, the milk sold in stores must be pasteurized to
make it safe by government standards. (You should search the work Michael
Schmidt is doing for getting raw milk legalized.) Pasteurization is so high
heat that it destroys vitamin C, B12 and B6, as well as beneficial bacteria,
and it denatures the milk proteins and enzymes.
Milk is also not the health food it’s cracked up to be. Fifty-five percent
of its calories come from lactose: a sugar.
Here
are some other yucky facts: It is allowed to contain feces before it is
pasteurized (for 15 seconds). It is also allowed to have 750,000 cells of pus
per 1 cubic centimeter, and 20,000 live bacteria.
Milk can cause a host of issues in many people. Lactose-intolerance is so
wide-spread now: interestingly, many of these people can tolerate raw milk just
fine because it is rich in the enzymes needed to digest milk. Milk can also be
the cause of acid reflux. I find it makes me tired and my throat phlegmy. Try
taking a 10-day milk-vacation and see how you feel.
Alright, alright, I believe you, but where will I get my nutrients?
Calcium can be found in many places. In fact, when a ton of different
cultures were studied for their dietary intake, the ones that don’t include
dairy had lower fracture rates than those that did. That’s from the Harvard
School of Public Health. Calcium is abundant in fish with bones, beans,
molasses and sesame seeds. In its most natural form, it is found in combination
with the co-factors it needs to be absorbed in your bones, and not swim around
in your blood increasing risk of arterial plaque. Calcium can also be overdone:
kids who drink a lot of milk daily have higher rates of anemia because it
blocks iron absorption.
Vitamin D isn’t even a real component of milk – it is added before sale. The
funny thing is, vitamin D is fat-soluble so if you’re drinking skim milk you’re
likely not even getting the benefits. Vitamin D is plentiful in: outdoor
sunshine, eggs, fish, and many high-quality, inexpensive supplements. It’s one
of the only tablets I take regularly.
Your day’s protein shouldn’t be coming from milk either, with all the
wonderful sources out there. Even if you steer clear of red meat, poultry and
seafood, you can still enjoy beans, lentil, nuts, seeds, and tofu.
What do I suggest instead?
Above I’ve listed some foods you can include to make sure you and your
family are getting the nutrients you need. I also mentioned that our family
still eats full-fat plain yogurt and cheese: these forms of dairy aren’t
perfect but they are much more easily digested by most and have a good amount
of fat to absorb any fat-soluble vitamins.
If you’re still looking for a chilly, white beverage to fill up your toddler’s
cup, or to put the finishing touches on a garlicky béchamel sauce over noodles,
look no further than homemade nut or seed milk.*
There are also good alternatives sold in stores if you’d rather not make
your own: cartons of almond and coconut milk are ready for the drinking, and rice,
oat and hemp milk aren’t bad too.
I don’t recommend including soy milk as a daily part of your diet because
soy-overload comes with a host of problems: blocking the absorption of
nutrients, disrupting thyroid function and reproductive hormones, and irritating
the digestive system.
* Side note: to make nut or seed milk, soak your ingredient of choice in water overnight. In the morning, dump that water and fill your container up with water again, going a few inches over the nuts or seeds. (In a pinch if you forget to overnight soak, I find cashews and sunflower seeds are soft enough, if fresh, to make milk without soaking.) Blend for a few minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or cheese cloth. Add a pinch of sea salt, a splash of vanilla and some stevia, honey or maple syrup to taste, or leave unsweetened. I have made this in under a minute (opting for a very quick blend) when Oliver is desperate for a "hot cocoa".
Labels: calcium, diet, milk, toddler
