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Dave’s parents did us a
great favor by coming down from the Buffalo area to watch the old
ball-and-chain for a couple of days while we took our Easter break. It was
great to get away to Manhattan. We stayed in Times Square and it now seems
to be the hub of New York’s nightlife, even more than before. All these
lights and crowds give it a very festive atmosphere. We took in the auto
show and made our trek to Ground Zero. And all that walking around made us
hungry.
A stop at a restaurant
was my inspiration this week. The couple sitting behind us was asked what
they wanted to drink. The gentleman said “Milk, and make sure it’s
2%.” He went on to say he doesn’t drink anything else, because it only
has 2% fat.
Right? Well, actually
he’s totally wrong. And many of us consumers don’t know it either.
Although I do enjoy those
funny milk commercials with the skinny cows walking the runways and those
chocolate cows with their chocolate milk, maybe the milk industry could
educate the public better as to the actual fat content in their products.
I’m surprised that
Martha Stewart, who’s done one of these milk moustache ads, hasn’t
thought it to be her civic duty to give us the breakdown on all the
different milk products available. After all, poor people drink milk, too.
The milk industry has
been battling the beverages (i.e., soda, juice, even water) for more
market share. They lost share of the market to soft drinks because people
thought of milk as a juvenile drink. It was passé to drink milk. So the
milk industry had to re-think their approach, and this resulted in the new
milk marketing campaigns we see.
We have whole milk, 2%,
1%, skim, chocolate, orange, strawberry, coffee flavored, you name it, the
list of variations is endless. And I’m all for it. We drink too many
soft drinks that have no nutritional value, but loads and loads of
calories. At least milk has good nutrition.
But can milk make you
fat? Well, it depends on the type of milk and how much you drink. Whole
milk can make you fat, for sure. You should avoid whole milk, and even 2%
milk. Yes, even 2%, especially if you are dieting. Here’s why. Both are
high in butterfat, and most of that is saturated fat. And there’s a huge
amount of sugar calories in the form of lactose. Although homogenized
whole milk is only 3.25% fat by wet weight, fat makes up a huge 30% of its
dry weight (if you removed all the water, as in powdered milk). And
believe it or not, the fat in whole milk accounts for 49% of its total
calories. Whew!
So our restaurant
customer who insisted on that 2% “milk for health,” well, he’s in
for a shock. That 2% milk isn’t much better than whole milk. 2% milk
gets 35% of its calories from fat, and 38% of the remaining calories come
from sugars.
Many people have been
lead to believe that 98% of the fat has been removed from this milk to
equal the 2% claimed on the label, but that’s just not the case.
Am I beating up on milk?
Well, no. I love drinking milk—skim, that is. What I’m trying to do is
educate the consumer, because sometimes we may be misinformed.
Milk is actually a
nutritious source of protein and calcium. We should actually get 1,200 mg
of calcium per day. Did you know that when your calcium gets low, you can
suffer the fattening effects of a calcium-scavenging hormone that is
released in your body?
Some 25 million Americans
a year, mostly women, come down with osteoporosis—commonly known as
brittle bones. The reason is that most Americans drink only one cup of
milk a day, if that. You’re supposed to drink at least 2 cups of milk
daily. Doing this will prevent diseases in the future like osteoporosis,
and the addition of Vitamin D is essential for good skin, teeth, and
bones.
Oh, but hold on there.
What if you’re lactose intolerant? That means your body lacks an enzyme
needed to digest milk. Two-thirds of the world’s adults have this
problem. It’s very prevalent in African-Americans, Hispanics, and
Asians. Lactose intolerance can cause cramps, gas, bloating, and even the
big D—diarrhea. But the milk industry now sells lactose-free brands. And
there are also lactase enzyme tablets to take for digesting milk, yogurt,
and even cheese. Or, if you want, you can get your calcium for stronger
bones and teeth through supplementation.
I suppose I should
mention that there’s a school of thought that says that any form of
cow’s milk is bad for human consumption. There are books out there with
titles like, “Don’t Drink Your Milk,” and “Milk: The Deadly
Poison.” The authors often claim that antibiotics and bovine growth
hormone given to cows is secreted in their milk, and this causes human
diseases. Another line of argument is that the cows are mistreated. Of
course, the dairy industry and the government deny these issues, and point
to a lot of studies backing them up.
Some people claim that
there’s nothing wrong with milk itself, but all the processing and
pasteurization it goes through in modern America turns it into something
hazardous, and you should be drinking “raw” milk instead. I guess
these people never learned why Louis Pasteur invented his famous technique
in the first place. It takes a “raw foods” scare every few years to
wake people up to the fact that pasteurization isn’t optional. Just ask
the Odwalla juice company, when their “raw” apple juice spread e. coli
and resulted in a child’s death in 1996. They immediately switched to
pasteurization.
So
here’s to raising a tall, cool glass of milk—make mine skim. Yeah, I
know people think it looks like chalky water but hey, at least mine’s
guilt free and fat free.
Rick
Moore is a personal trainer certified by the American Fitness
Professionals & Associates. Visit his club, Rick’s Fitness &
Health, in Milton, Delaware or www.ricksfitness.net, or call 302-684-3669.
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