Another diet question (dairy free)

[Keith]

One interesting anecdote - about 5 months after my wife and I went no-dairy, we went on our honeymoon to Italy. Both of us agreed that we weren't going to bother avoiding dairy during that trip -- cappuccino, gelato, great cheeses, cheesy pasta dishes, authentic pizza, tiramisu, were all fair game. Despite eating some dairy practically every day for 2 weeks, we didn't notice any of the normal side effects. Maybe their dairy is healthier than what we have in the US (and probably locally sourced from a nearby farm)?

Bovine growth hormone ,BST and quite a few other hormone drugs are banned in europe so you wouldn't have the effect that you were talking about .

There will be some pretty major dietary differences in european cows compared to US cows. Not sure about italy and alfalfa but in the UK alfalfa is pretty rare as the forage base where we would have maize and grass silage as the two major forages. US/canada cows would also be fed whole soya including the oil , whereas european cows would get the remains of the soya after the soya oil has been extracted and then exported to europe.

interesting fact , a neighbouring farmer of ours was taking part in trials to feed omega 3 oils to the cows in order to get omega3 in the milk so it could be sold as a "health fad" milk. He stopped after about 6 months as his pregnancy rates dropped through the floor. No cows in calf is pretty disastrous in a dairy herd . Guess the moral of the story is if you want to increase your fish oil intake ....eat some frickin fish.

Also your point about locally sourced is unlikely. Yeah theres speciality cheese makers , but most european milk goes through massive factories for economy of scale as a result of the supermarkets squeezing the dairy processors margins, but results in fairly large areas supplying each factory. The trend over here is for larger dairy farms, some of the biggest would be approaching average US farm size and there was a huge outcry when plans were sent in for a 7000 cow farm over here.

[Keith]

I'm sceptical about the link between cows milk and diabetes. A far more likely culprit is the sheer amount of sugar that manufacturers shove into foods simply to get people to buy more of their product because its tastes sweet.The effect will be magnified in western countries due to a higher proportion of the diet being processed food containing more sugar.

[NightGizmo]

I'm sceptical about the link between cows milk and diabetes. A far more likely culprit is the sheer amount of sugar that manufacturers shove into foods simply to get people to buy more of their product because its tastes sweet.The effect will be magnified in western countries due to a higher proportion of the diet being processed food containing more sugar.

Sugar, diet, and obesity are the generally accepted causes for type 2 diabetes, which is basically insulin resistance.

But the recent research potentially linking dairy and diabetes is referring to type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disorder where the body kills the insulin producing cells in the pancreas, and from that point on the patient has to rely on insulin injections (AFAIK, there isn't any cure or way to reverse the process short of a pancreas transplant). They don't know what causes the autoimmune disorder yet, but I don't sugar/obesity is one of the candidates.

[NightGizmo]

Also your point about locally sourced is unlikely. Yeah theres speciality cheese makers , but most european milk goes through massive factories for economy of scale as a result of the supermarkets squeezing the dairy processors margins, but results in fairly large areas supplying each factory. The trend over here is for larger dairy farms, some of the biggest would be approaching average US farm size and there was a huge outcry when plans were sent in for a 7000 cow farm over here.

Cool, thanks for the info. I was purely guessing about the local source stuff, obviously I was wrong. Must be all the hormones here in the US that are making milk to unhealthy.