When most of us were kids we were told two big lies:

• There is a fat, jolly man who lives at the North Pole and distributes presents to kids around the world every 25th of December, and
• Milk is the perfect food.

Now, my guess is that, if you’re over the age of about seven, you’ve already figured out the truth behind one of these lies and it’s not the one that you drink with cookies.

Well, I’m afraid the truth about the other one may be just as hard to swallow as finding out that it was actually mom and dad filling up your stocking and reading your carefully written letters all those years, but here goes: 

Milk is not good for you.  In fact, it should be consumed, either not at all, or only in moderation.

Let me explain.

Mammals aren’t designed to drink milk past infancy.

When we’re born our mothers produce milk full of all of the fat and nutrients we need to rapidly grow from a roughly eight-pound baby into a 25-pound toddler in just over 12 months.  As a result, during those early months, our bodies (and the bodies of all mammals) produced an enzyme called lactase to digest lactose (the sugar found in milk).  But, between the ages of two and four - by which time most mammals have weaned - 90-95 percent of us stop producing this enzyme.

Enter the booming world of lactose intolerance, dairy allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, and all kinds of other fun health problems.

But the poor cow needs to be milked. We don’t want to waste all that milk!

Contrary to popular belief - and a zillion children’s books about life on the farm – cows don’t need to be milked – ever. 

A cow gives birth to a calf and she begins producing milk.  Once the mother has weaned the calf, her milk dries up until she gives birth again. This is how it works.

This is how it’s always worked until humans started wanting an endless supply of milk to drink and sell. So now what we do is keep cows constantly pregnant so that they constantly produce milk and we remove that pesky calf of hers every time she gives birth so that we can have her milk for ourselves forever.

But what about the calcium???  Surely our bones will turn to dust!

I think this is a great question for the African elephant munching on her grassy breakfast.  Let’s ask her how she manages to hold her eight tonne body up every day without snapping a femur when she stopped drinking milk at the age of one. Or let’s ask the gorilla or the hippopotoamus or any of the other strong, powerful mammals out there how they manage to keep their bones strong and healthy without the hourly helpings of milk, cheese and yogourt that the National Dairy Council would have us believe we require to stand upright.

First of all, calcium isn’t the only thing that makes bones healthy. Weight-bearing activities like walking, jogging, yoga, and weight lifting play a huge role in helping us grow and maintain strong bones.

And while calcium is certainly an important nutrient for bone health, our bones don’t need to be bathed in the stuff from morning till night to stay strong.  In fact, we likely need far less than the 1,000 to 1,200 mg daily currently recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.

A recent study that compared calcium consumption levels around the world showed that the countries with the lowest calcium intake (such as Yugoslavia and Singapore) also had lower rates of hip fractures (a common result of low bone density) than the countries with the highest calcium intake (such as U.S. and New Zealand).

So why is the recommended daily allowance for calcium so high then?

Well, we could get into the many theories about the powerful political influence of the dairy lobby in setting many of these recommended daily allowance numbers, but that’s another article – or book.  Another reason may be found by looking at the rest of the typical North American diet.

More and more studies are showing that, for bone health, it’s may not be about how much calcium we ingest, but rather how much of the calcium that we do eat, we actually keep.  You see, calcium is not friends with protein and sodium.  The more protein and sodium we eat, the more calcium we urinate out.  Typically, those diets highest in dairy (North American) are also highest in protein and sodium. Not good.

The other thing to consider is that calcium is better absorbed when eaten along with vitamin C.  The North American diet is often quite low in vitamin C and dairy itself offers none.

• Amount of calcium in a cup of milk: 300mg
• Amount of vitamin C in a cup of milk: virtually nil
• Amount of calcium in a cup of spinach (half a spinach salad): 250mg
• Amount of vitamin C in a cup of spinach: 8mg

As usual, Mother Nature knew what she was doing.

That’s okay, you say. I love dairy! I could marry cheese! I’ll just eat more to make up for any that’s being lost and I’ll eat oranges all day long. Well…

Calcium is good for you. Casein is not.

Eighty-seven per cent of the protein in cows milk is casein.  There is some casein found in human milk, but 300 percent less than what’s found in cow’s milk.  Casein is not good for you.  In his groundbreaking China Study, funded by the American Cancer Society, American Institute for Cancer Research, and the National Institute of Health, Dr. Colin Campbell and his associates discovered an alarming link between casein and cancer.  The link was so strong that Dr. Campbell eventually found that he was actually able to turn cancer cells “on” and “off” in mice by either adding or removing casein from their diets – scary stuff.

Calcium is good for you; casein is not, and with dairy products there’s no separating the two.

So where am I supposed to get my calcium then?

Happily, there are many beautiful and delicious non-dairy sources of calcium out there:

• Bok choy
• Spinach
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Collard greens
• Cucumber
• Romaine lettuce
• Sea vegetables
• Tofu
• Sesame seeds
• Almonds and almond milk

By adding more of some of these foods to our diet, reducing the amount of protein and sodium we ingest, and making sure we’re incorporating weight-bearing exercise into our weekly activities, we can easily maintain a healthy bone density for our entire lives – dairy free.

But my kids won’t eat spinach and collard greens!

I know, neither will mine. 

I don’t eat dairy, but my kids do. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while you know that my daughter is lactose intolerant so she drinks lactose-free milk but doesn’t eat cheese.  But my son loves cheese and yogourt.

I’m not happy about them eating dairy, but my solution isn’t to fight about it, rather I do my best to introduce them to calcium-rich dairy-free alternatives whenever I can to try to slowly wean them off the cow stuff.

These are a few of the things I’ve tried, some of them might work for you too:

• Make granola and/or granola bars with lots of sesame seeds.
• Add raw spinach leaves to green salads and cooked spinach to lasagna, soups and anywhere else you can hide it.
• I Always carry almonds in my purse for snacks when we’re out and they’re too hungry to argue.
• My kids love vegetarian sushi when we go out for Japanese food and the seaweed is brimming with calcium.
• Use almond milk in smoothies. The fruit and other ingredients hide any “different” taste they may not like.
• Make vegetarian lasgana with tofu instead of ricotta (it’s delicious – I promise – I’ll post the recipe here soon).

If you have any other ideas, please share!

Remember: Kale, it does the body good!