Marketing Milk and Disease: an Eye Opening Presentation on Dairy and It’s Health Effects

In a reply to my comment on a different post you have provided me with some links to Dr. McDougall. I have never heard of him before and checking out the links, I’ve been wondering what motivates his believes and opinions. Can’t say that I understand his motives, but he is misinformed and just plain wrong about many things that seem to make up his core believes:
“High Calories” DO NOT cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease or cancer, not a single study has been able to confirm that. Starvation diets are not sustainable in the long term and therefore ineffective. Calories In – Calories Out is a myth, the law Of thermodynamics has also never been proven. What is eaten along with the level of activity is far more important. That said, it’s not about burning calories with the activity, its about hormone response and stabilization, as it is with the foods consumed.

“High Fat” DOES NOT cause obesity, diabetes, cancer, NOR DOES “High Saturated Fat” cause heart attacks or stroke, there simply is no scientific evidence for this. It has been proven that arteriosclerosis is caused by inflammation and NOT cholesterol. McDougall’s theory is based on the “Lipid Hypothesis”, which was promoted by Ancel Keys and then passed as nutritional gospel by George McGovern and the “United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs” in the late sixties, under great protest by the experts of the era.

“High Protein” does not cause kidney damage, high carbohydrate diets place a far greater burden on the kidney’s then protein. And for that matter protein does not cause gout. Correlation is not necessarily causation, failing kidneys can’t process the by-products of protein and may lead to gout, as well as further kidney failure. Protein wasn’t the cause, it’s simply the end result of failing kidneys.

All this is from the first 3 minutes of the youtube presentation and I could go on, but there really is no point. Dr. McDougall’s believes are flawed, his presentation is flawed, so how can his advise be any better.

I would agree on the information about the dairy industry, but again he makes no distinction between commercial dairy, organic dairy or better yet raw dairy. His whole premise is too general and therefore flawed. I’m not saying that dairy consumption is absolutely essential, but there is a tremendous difference between a slice of processed cheese and cheese made naturally from raw milk. Most people with milk allergies report no problems with raw milk. As per the “Heiner syndrome”, its a very rare disease and therefore an emotionally charged comment. It is an allergic reaction to milk, however I have not been able to find any info on whether it is equally caused by raw milk and pasteurized commercial milk.

To consume natural whole foods is the key to good health, it has nothing to do with plants foods or animal foods. It’s the difference of organic broccoli versus chemically sprayed broccoli that matters. It’s the difference between a piece of meat from a pasture fed and healthy animal versus McDonald’s. It’s the difference of fresh raw milk form your trusted farmer or mass produced commercial pasteurized milk.

Have you ever considered how we could have evolved as herbivores? How could we be as inventive and productive if we had to spend the whole day eating. Animal based foods, are far more energy dense allowing for smaller portions and less frequency of meals. And I’m talking about fat, not protein, good fats are far more available out of animal products then plant sources. Besides ruminants are vats that ferment abundant cellulose into volatile short chain fatty acids for the animals energy requirements, they only ingest carbs but don’t consume them.