Whole Fat Dairy Is the Best

I know. I sound like a crazy woman. After so many years of it being pounded into us that we must eat low fat dairy to be healthy, it seems counterintuitive. For several decades, American nutritionists have been saying that whole fat dairy raises our LDL, the bad kind of cholesteral, while making us fatter.

Dr. Atkins maintained for decades that this thinking was wrong. That putting fat in our bodies does not in fact make us fat. To me, it's always made sense. For thousands of years, humans have consumed whole fat dairy and they were smaller then us! Our bodies are made for it. It's more filling which staves off hunger.

Today, I came across an article that talks about the low fat dairy vs high fat dairy by Paul John Scott. Apparently, LDL cholesteral has four varieties and dairy fat "affects only the large, fluffy kind of LDL—the benign kind." Low fat dairy has also been shown to cause weight gain. *GASP* What's that, you say? The milk flavored water you've been putting in your Wheaties has been causing me weight gain? Amy! You ARE a crazy lady.

Not so. You know those tiny, little French women who eat croissants and drink coffee that'll put hair your chest? They get about 36% of their daily fat intake from whole fat dairy. They are healthier than us, they are skinnier than us. The obesity rate in France is 10% as opposed to 34% in America. Granted, that number has been rising steadily in past years but only because more and more French are picking up the unhealthy eating habits of the Americans.

Here's something to curl your toes. A typical French breakfast consists of a whole wheat cereal, no sugar added, with whole milk. They then top it off with a dollop of cream. How many dieticians here in the grand ole USA would be screaming in horror? Here's another thing. Lunch and dinner are all finished with the cheese course. They eat about an ounce of whole fat cheese. What does all of this fat do? It keeps hunger way between meals. They don't snack. They also have a very healthy relationship with food which I'll address in another blog post.

Getting back to skim milk, when I read what they have to do to it to make it look appetizing, my stomach did a little flip. "...a chalky, bluish-white liquid into your coffee? That's the color many nonfat milks are before powdered milk is added to whiten them—a process that brings its own problems. Any way you look at it, there's been a lot of whitewashing of skim milk's image." Do you want to drink blue milk? It might interest your kids but that seems just plain gross to me.

During my weight loss I can't drink milk, whole or otherwise. An 8 oz glass of milk contains 12 grams of carbs due to the lactose. Once I get to where I need to be, I can have a glass of whole fat milk. However, I am encouraged to use cream in my tea (I don't drink coffee), put cheese in my salads, snack on an ounce or two of full fat cheese if I need to, use full fat sour cream as a topping on my omelettes, cook my eggs (with yolk) in butter and you know what? The people who do this way of eating don't keel over from heart attacks. They're actually quite healthy.  It can be pretty rich at first and the conversion between skim or low fat dairy can take a while since the taste is different.

Please take a look at this article and tell me what you think. Can you see yourself making the switch?

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/is-skim-milk-making-you-fat-2479492/

Have a great day and I hope to hear from you.

The Indomitable Amy