Milk and Obesity
It has been long known that high fat foods like dairy products contribute to obesity more then other foods for several reasons. First, fat is calorically dense. Gram for gram, fat has more than twice the calories of carbohydrates. So a bowl of ice cream has far more calories than an equal amount of grains, beans, fruits, or vegetables.
Second, our bodies store fat more readily than carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are fuel and are burned up easily then fat. Fat turns into fat and makes those who eat it fat. Also, fat doesn't fill stomach up quickly as carbohydrate do, especially complex carbohydrates and fiber.
Dr. Benjamin Spock wrote in his famous book "Baby and Child Care," "I no longer recommend dairy products. The essential fats that are needed for brain development are found in vegetable oils. Milk is very low in these essential fats and high in the saturated fats that encourage artery blockage and weight problems as children grow."
It should be noted that regular vegetable oils that are sold in supermarket is bad for body due to chemicals and heat involved in oil extraction process. What consumers need to buy is organic expeller pressed (= cold pressed), oil. Click here to read more about it.
Each year, Americans consume almost 600 pounds of dairy products, which is about 3 times more than grains, and almost 5 times more than fruits. Considering all the dairy and meat eaten, it's no wonder that more and more Americans get fat.
About 59% of American men and 49% of American women are overweight. They are at risk for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and early death. According to medical professions, 300,000 Americans die from weight related diseases every year, making fat the country's #2 cause of preventable deaths (smoking is #1). According to Tufts University researchers, obesity "is now of epidemic proportions in the United States" and "high fat diets are strongly linked" to ever increasing obesity rates.
Adults aren't the only ones who are getting fat. According to nutritionists, number of overweight kids has been more than doubled in the last three decades of 20th century and is now at "epidemic" levels. Two 1995 studies published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that meat and dairy foods are the main sources of fat in children's diets.
Dairy products, which has no fiber or complex carbohydrates, are about as high fat as they can be. A glass of milk has about 49% fat. Swiss and cheddar cheeses have at least 65% fat. Ice cream and yogurt has almost 50% fat. Even "low-fat" milk and "nonfat" cottage cheese, which many consumers mistakenly believe to be fat free, have more than 20% fat. Dairy industry tries to deceive consumers by labeling milk "2%," when, in fact, more than 30 percent of that milk's calories come from fat. Also they label cottage cheese "non fat," when 1/5 of its calories are from fat.
One may think of only drinking skim milk and do not eat any cheese or butter at all. This may solve obesity problem, but if you read rest of what milk is about, you may think otherwise.
After reviewing 28 studies investigating the relationship between fat intake and weight, researchers discovered that the rate of obesity has increased in nations where fat consumption has risen. Their findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also showed that simply by switching to a low-fat diet, people can decrease their caloric intake by up to 30%.
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References
http://www.milksucks.com
http://www.notmilk.com
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