The Dairy Effect
Well, I just started my last semester of college before I graduate. Am I ready? No. But am I ready to take on the many opportunities and career paths coming my way?
Also no.
But that's a terrifying story for a different day.
Anyways, this post is all about dairy. The Mediterranean Diet incorporates dairy, but they only eat some. Why? In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure. My best guess is that they don't want dairy to replace other healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Dairy is high in protein, calcium, and fat. For a long time there has been speculation that since dairy mainly contains saturated fat ("unhealthy" fat) that it isn't the best for you, but recent research suggests that the saturated fat inside of dairy may actually be beneficial and lower the risk for heart disease. I, for one, eat a lot of dairy. It's only 3 pm where I live, and I've already had two cups of yogurt today. So I may not necessarily follow this guideline to only eat some, like I've said before, the Mediterranean Diet can be easily adapted to fit your lifestyle.
With this new research coming out about dairy products and the potential benefits from saturated fat, I hope all of you do what I do and stop buying skim milk (AKA cloudy water), and start buying full-fat milk. Because it's the closest thing to cream that still gives you a lot of protein and calcium. I also stopped buying fat-free yogurt and reduced-fat cheese. Something interesting is that the Mediterranean culture has been eating full-fat dairy products since the dawn of time, and they have one of the lowest risks for heart-disease and mortality in the world. It's just taken centuries for research to catch up.
Because of this newer research, I think it important to distinguish between some dairy products that have more benefits than others. Milk, yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese all provide important nutrients necessary for the body. However, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and cream do not provide the same nutrients and benefits.
I know. It's heartbreaking. But I'm glad you heard it from me and not from somebody else. This does not mean, of course, that you should stop eating them. I think I've made more Gorgonzola cream sauce in the last month than one person can possibly handle, but I pour it on top of vegetables. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that as long as the sauce is on vegetables that it makes it healthy. Right?
Anyways, as said above, dairy is important for its calcium content. Vegetables contain calcium, but the calcium inside of dairy is more readily absorbed and used by the body. For example, 1 cup yogurt contains 250 mg calcium, which equals about 25% of the calcium you need in a day. On the other hand, to get this much calcium out of kale, you need to eat 2.5 cups. I don't know a lot of people who eat 2.5 cups of kale everyday. And even if they do, they still aren't absorbing all of the calcium from the kale because it's not as easily absorbed as calcium from dairy. So if they are just eating kale for the calcium, then they are wasting their time, and they will have GI distress as a result. That's not a fun thing.
Now I'm not saying you should only get your calcium from dairy, since there are a wide variety of foods calcium is found in, but I'm thinking this may be one reason why the Mediterranean diet specifically brings dairy into the picture--to get calcium. And I'm definitely not telling you to not eat your vegetables because they definitely do contribute to your calcium count--just not as much as it may seem.
In recent years, people seem to be getting bored with eating yogurt or milk everyday. It can be hard I try to incorporate dairy everyday if you just drink milk or eat the same kind of yogurt. Here are some simple and delicious ways to incorporate dairy into your daily life:
1. Sprinkle foods with a little bit of cheese (little being the key word here)
2. Once a day, substitute whatever you normally drink for a class of milk
3. When making foods that normally have water as a base (i.e. smoothies or oatmeal), use milk instead of water
4. Substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream in toppings, meals, dips, etc
5. Put yogurt on top of any desserts you may normally eat. I love putting yogurt on banana bread, cakes, muffins, or any other baked good
6. Use milk and yogurt in overnight oats
7. Eat 3 bowls of cereal as a midnight snack (something I do on a regular basis)
I hope these have given you all some ideas on how to incorporate dairy into your life in simple ways! As always, the Mediterranean Diet is not really a diet--it's a lifestyle. It can be adapted to your tastes and flavor profiles. Like the other day I tried Greek food to see if I miraculously started liking it. Fun fact. I still don't like Greek food. But I am still able to adapt these principles to my lifestyle and eat the way the Greeks eat, even though I despise their flavors (I apologize to any of my readers from Greece...if it makes you feel better, you can bash on American food all you want and I won't know or even care).
I invite you all to try one of the three steps talked about so far (vegetables, meat, and dairy), and to start incorporating it in the way described in the posts. I've been trying this myself, and I've been amazed at how much better I feel! I would love to hear your stories and experiences.
Have a great week, everybody!
Also no.
But that's a terrifying story for a different day.
Anyways, this post is all about dairy. The Mediterranean Diet incorporates dairy, but they only eat some. Why? In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure. My best guess is that they don't want dairy to replace other healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Dairy is high in protein, calcium, and fat. For a long time there has been speculation that since dairy mainly contains saturated fat ("unhealthy" fat) that it isn't the best for you, but recent research suggests that the saturated fat inside of dairy may actually be beneficial and lower the risk for heart disease. I, for one, eat a lot of dairy. It's only 3 pm where I live, and I've already had two cups of yogurt today. So I may not necessarily follow this guideline to only eat some, like I've said before, the Mediterranean Diet can be easily adapted to fit your lifestyle.
With this new research coming out about dairy products and the potential benefits from saturated fat, I hope all of you do what I do and stop buying skim milk (AKA cloudy water), and start buying full-fat milk. Because it's the closest thing to cream that still gives you a lot of protein and calcium. I also stopped buying fat-free yogurt and reduced-fat cheese. Something interesting is that the Mediterranean culture has been eating full-fat dairy products since the dawn of time, and they have one of the lowest risks for heart-disease and mortality in the world. It's just taken centuries for research to catch up. Because of this newer research, I think it important to distinguish between some dairy products that have more benefits than others. Milk, yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese all provide important nutrients necessary for the body. However, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and cream do not provide the same nutrients and benefits.
I know. It's heartbreaking. But I'm glad you heard it from me and not from somebody else. This does not mean, of course, that you should stop eating them. I think I've made more Gorgonzola cream sauce in the last month than one person can possibly handle, but I pour it on top of vegetables. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that as long as the sauce is on vegetables that it makes it healthy. Right?
Anyways, as said above, dairy is important for its calcium content. Vegetables contain calcium, but the calcium inside of dairy is more readily absorbed and used by the body. For example, 1 cup yogurt contains 250 mg calcium, which equals about 25% of the calcium you need in a day. On the other hand, to get this much calcium out of kale, you need to eat 2.5 cups. I don't know a lot of people who eat 2.5 cups of kale everyday. And even if they do, they still aren't absorbing all of the calcium from the kale because it's not as easily absorbed as calcium from dairy. So if they are just eating kale for the calcium, then they are wasting their time, and they will have GI distress as a result. That's not a fun thing.
Now I'm not saying you should only get your calcium from dairy, since there are a wide variety of foods calcium is found in, but I'm thinking this may be one reason why the Mediterranean diet specifically brings dairy into the picture--to get calcium. And I'm definitely not telling you to not eat your vegetables because they definitely do contribute to your calcium count--just not as much as it may seem.
In recent years, people seem to be getting bored with eating yogurt or milk everyday. It can be hard I try to incorporate dairy everyday if you just drink milk or eat the same kind of yogurt. Here are some simple and delicious ways to incorporate dairy into your daily life:
1. Sprinkle foods with a little bit of cheese (little being the key word here)
2. Once a day, substitute whatever you normally drink for a class of milk
3. When making foods that normally have water as a base (i.e. smoothies or oatmeal), use milk instead of water
4. Substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream in toppings, meals, dips, etc
5. Put yogurt on top of any desserts you may normally eat. I love putting yogurt on banana bread, cakes, muffins, or any other baked good
6. Use milk and yogurt in overnight oats
7. Eat 3 bowls of cereal as a midnight snack (something I do on a regular basis)
I hope these have given you all some ideas on how to incorporate dairy into your life in simple ways! As always, the Mediterranean Diet is not really a diet--it's a lifestyle. It can be adapted to your tastes and flavor profiles. Like the other day I tried Greek food to see if I miraculously started liking it. Fun fact. I still don't like Greek food. But I am still able to adapt these principles to my lifestyle and eat the way the Greeks eat, even though I despise their flavors (I apologize to any of my readers from Greece...if it makes you feel better, you can bash on American food all you want and I won't know or even care).
I invite you all to try one of the three steps talked about so far (vegetables, meat, and dairy), and to start incorporating it in the way described in the posts. I've been trying this myself, and I've been amazed at how much better I feel! I would love to hear your stories and experiences.
Have a great week, everybody!
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