We've all seen the commercials, the subtle white mustache, the iconic two-word question: Got milk? Milk, and dairy in general, is marketed very strongly as a champion of bone health, mainly due to the calcium content. When transitioning to a vegan diet, you may wonder where you'll get your calcium and how to keep your bones strong. Well, in this interview with Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org, we've got you covered! [tweet it]
To hear Dr. Gerger's full explanation, be sure to check out the video above. But here are some select nuggets:
On the harm of dairy products as a calcium source:
“Dairy is the number one source of calcium in the United States. It’s also the number one source of saturated fat intake, essentially. Not beef, but cheese primarily. You know, as much as burger king says that you can have it your way, you can’t be like, ‘Yeah…could I get the protein and the iron but hold the saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics?' It just doesn’t work that way. [tweet this]
“Now, the most concerning thing in terms of milk consumption was these series of studies, actually which will be profiling soon on NutritionFacts.org, they actually found that those who drank more milk actually had a higher hip fracture rate, so we’ve known that milk isn’t protective. Whether we’re talking about older women, younger women, peak bone mass; any of that, milk just has not be shown to protect bone health. But here for the first time you’re saying, well… [it] actually increases fracture risk as well as shortening the lifespan and increase risk for cardiovascular disease. … And so, that is not where we want to get our calcium, calcium is important but we should get it from healthy foods, right?” [tweet this]
On vegan sources of calcium:
“Healthy calcium sources are dark green leafy vegetables and you get some in everything from sesame seeds, and nuts, and you know, tahini is a good source, [and also] dried fruits. I mean you, get a little bit throughout the day. I even encourage people to get 600 miligrams of calcium a day. I wouldn’t dip below 600. The average vegan gets over 600. But again if you’re restricting calories for some reason, you’re just not eating a lot, you’ll want to make sure you have a lot of calcium-enriched foods in your diet.”
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Dr. Greger on this issue. As he so aptly pointed out, even if dairy and other animal products do contain some desirable nutrients, they come as a package deal with plenty of undesirable elements. So skip the middle cow and get your calcium from plants–you get all of the nutrients and none of the saturated fat, antibiotics and pus. Yes. There is pus in milk.
This video is focusing on health and nutrition, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that outside of the entire health detriments of dairy, it is also possibly the cruelest of all the animal products industries. You can learn more about what exactly dairy involves in either of the videos listed at the bottom, but suffice to say, a glass of milk contains far more suffering than a pound of beef.
To be sure you’re getting your daily calcium, check out Cronometer, the awesome software that I use to track my own nutrition. It’s totally free and pretty fantastic. So fantastic in fact, that they’re sponsoring this video post! Be sure to use the link in this post to go make your profile so they know that Bite Size Vegan sent you.
Cronometer. Does a body good. (The milk people are going to sue me…) [tweet the “real” milk catchphrase]
Now, I’d love to hear from you on the calcium issue. Where do you get yours from? Did you, or do you, believe the dairy hype? Let me know in the comments!
Connect with Dr. Greger: