Against Dairy, part 1

I’ve always argued that lacto-vegetarianism, vegetarian diet with dairy, is a bad idea for many reasons. One of these reasons is that dairy blocks vitamins and minerals that are of concern for the non-meat eaters out there. In part 1, I will focus on a very important mineral that helps regulate metabolism, keeps your heart beating normally, and is essential for a strong skeletal structure; calcium.

Animal protein has more of a specific amino acid named methionine than vegetable protein does. Methionine has come under intensified scrutiny lately due to some studies that suggest that excess methionine reduces lifespan. Aside from that body of research, it has been shown that excess methionine causes blood to become more acidic. When this happens, the sulfur from the methionine combines with exchangeable calcium from the bones to create calcium sulfate which is then expelled from the blood and excreted from the body, thus reducing the body acidity. If our body acidity is constantly elevated from daily consumption of dairy, our bones will constantly leach calcium in a struggle to lower that acidity.

Now, if this were true, shouldn’t populations that eat large amounts of dairy on a daily basis have weaker bones? In fact, they do as evidenced by a study that considers total animal protein. There was a large scale study of animal protein consumption vs bone strength from different populations around the world. This study showed that the more animal protein a population eats, the more likely that population is to have weaker bones, as measured by hip fractures. It should be noted that this study, though large scale, focused on women; the jury is still out for men.

So, if there is indeed a link between calcium, methionine, and strong bones, then the calcium/methionine ratio, though maybe not direct, could shed some light on the subject. The following lists vegetables that are highest in calcium, vegetables highest in methionine, soymilk, and dairy.

Food	Methionine (mg/Cal)	Calcium (mg/Cal)	Calcium/ Methionine	Comment
Soymilk, fortified	0.37	2.85	7.7
Watercress	1.82	10.2	5.6	Highest in Calcium & High in Methionine
Turnip Greens	1.06	5.83	5.5	High in Calcium
Kale	0.64	2.74	4.28	High in Calcium
Mustard Greens	0.96	3.85	4.01	High in Calcium
Spinach	2.31	4.24	1.84	Highest in Methionine & High in Calcium
Milk, nonfat	2.46	3.69	1.5
Soybean	1.23	1.34	1.09	High in Methionine
Asparagus	1.55	1.19	0.77	High in Methionine
Baby Zucchini	1.86	1.13	0.61	High in Methionine
Crimini Mushrooms	1.78	0.72	0.4	High in Methionine
Kidney Bean	1.16	0.43	0.37	High in Methionine
Cottage Cheese	5.18	0.85	0.16

The type of soymilk that I chose is fortified with calcium since it is the most common way to buy soymilk in the US. Notice that the vegetable highest in methionine, spinach, contains 2.31 mg/Cal whereas cottage cheese, like most cheese, is twice as high with 5.18 mg/Cal. On the other hand, the vegetable highest in calcium, watercress, has 10.2 mg/Cal of calcium and milk has 3.69 mg/Cal. It would appear that simply replacing milk with soymilk in our breakfast cereal would reduce our methionine levels and increase the calcium density, calcium stores in our bones. Moreover, if we stick to the vegetables for the rest of the day instead of that hamburger and milkshake, then we will be much less likely later in life to cry, “I’ve fallen, and can’t get up!”

5 Pillars to Healthy Eating in Today's Age

I get a lot of questions from friends, relatives, and colleagues about how to eat healthfully, and usually, how to reduce bad cholesterol. I usually send them some sort of email that includes 5 pillars of eating healthy in today’s age. Here are my 5 pillars in no particular order:

1. No Trans Fats (Partially Hydrogenated Oils): Increases risk of heart disease by raising the bad cholesterol and increasing fat reserves. Several intensive studies showed that trans fats significantly increase the amount of visceral and other abdominal fat.
2. No Artificial Sugars (Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose, etc): We have no feedback mechanism for shutting off the intake of artificial sugars. If we eat too much real sugar, our body tells us to stop. This doesn’t happen with artificial sugars. And since most sweet things are high in saturated fat and other unhealthy constituents, we end up eating more of these unhealthy constituents than we would have otherwise.
3. No Red Meat: High in saturated fats which lead to high levels of LDL and obesity. You should intake a modest amount of omega 3 and polyunsaturated fats, lesser amounts of monounsaturated fats, and severely limit saturated fats. By eating red meat, you are doing the opposite. Moreover, you are flooding your body with the opposite which means that you have to eat obnoxiously large amounts of say monounsaturated fats to block the formation of LDL.
4. No High Fructose Corn Syrup: It is believed that HFCS is worse than regular sugar because higher levels of fructose increase triglyceride levels which ultimately lead to obesity. There are a lot of studies that correlate HFCS and obesity, but I think they are a little biased because, in general, cheap, bad foods contain both HFCS and other cheap, bad ingredients; they go hand in hand.
5. No Dairy: After all the journals and papers that I have read on dairy, I have come to the conclusion that it is one of the worst things that we can eat on a regular basis. Dairy blocks the absorption of zinc, iron, and calcium. In addition, it raises the body’s acidity which further drains these nutrients from the body; especially calcium. Also, dairy is very high in saturated fat; 2nd to red meat for the average American.