Soapbox(ish) time!Dairy has long been commonly thought to help alleviate for heartburn - but more and more evidence is suggesting quite the contrary. Mark Bittman's recent Opinionator piece in the NYTimes - Got Milk? You Don’t Need It - is a must-read. As is the follow-up to it he published yesterday, More on Milk. He presents a compelling and well-rounded account about why as a country we consume so much dairy, and the reasons why it's a habit worth breaking.I won't repeat all of his points here - read the articles for that (and I can't stress enough how strongly I advocate reading them!). But as Bittman wrote, quoting Eric Marcus of Vegan.com:
"In talking to other vegans I rarely hear them say they feel much different after quitting meat or eggs, but you hear all sorts of stories like yours and mine once they quit dairy.”
Over time, I personally have felt a difference from generally staying away from all animal products - but in terms of dairy in particular, I did find reducing/eliminating it had the most immediate and noticeable impact. And this is coming from someone who never had a strongly or acutely negative physical reaction to eating dairy - but regardless, I certainly noticed differences in pretty short order when I started avoiding it (and I used to consume a lot). And my body does respond differently now when I do eat some dairy - less so when it's goat's milk cheese, interestingly enough (but that's just me).Gabriel Cousens, in his wonderful book Conscious Eating, advocates an almost completely plant-based diet. When it comes to dairy, if it's to be consumed Cousens recommends that dairy be treated as a "condiment" - and as Bittman points out, when recognizing the nutrients contained in dairy, that such nutrients are more readily digested by our bodies when consumed in yogurt or cheese form (vs. liquid, aka milk). That, coupled with the importance of it coming from a clean, safe source, basically describes the evolution of my approach to dairy. I don't seek it out for nutrition - I get my nutrients from plant-based sources - and generally avoid it all together. But every so often, a little cheese (preferably goat's milk) from a good source is fine to satiate a craving (though it's also worth noting that by and large I no longer "crave" cheese or real dairy).What we eat and how we eat it is a personal decision, and it's unfair to lambast those who choose to approach food differently than we ourselves do. And dairy is one of the more hot-button issues, where you can find studies suggesting just about anything you want to believe - either that it's good for you, or that it's bad for you. But one thing I keep coming back to is that there is literally no evidence suggesting that a plant-based diet is bad for you... however, there is plenty of valid information linking animal products to various negative health effects. Something to think about!