Done with Dairy

Here’s the most recent interaction with a colleague in the faculty lounge of Georgia Tech. 

“Have you tried this Chai Latte drink?”

“I haven’t. I stay away from dairy.”

“Oh, are you lactose intolerant?”

“No, I just don’t enjoy drinking other mammal’s breast milk”. 🙂

My beloved grandma who spent her whole life in a remote Siberian village and had a farm, would milk our black and white cow (named “Docha”, tr. “little daughter”) twice a day and make her own fresh cheese, sour cream, butter, and cream. She would also give me a glass of warm milk that would still have foam on top and smell like fresh grass. Instinctively I would take a couple of sips and pour out the rest while she was not looking – there was something about drinking Docha’s breast milk that would gross me out at the age of 5. 

It’s no secret that environment shapes our behavior. If you surround yourself by people who avoid junk food, eat fresh fruit and vegetables, go hiking and exercise every day, inevitably you will start adapting some of those habits. I grew up in Western Siberia (Russia) where the climate and cultural norm have always dictated the menu. Regularly eating meat, dairy, pastry, sugar, and adding “processed” to this list (if you grew up in a city like me) becomes perfectly normal. 

My meat-loving brother Dmitri always confronts me with our grandma’s longevity argument (she lived to be almost 90 years old). I sigh patiently and remind him of a myriad of health conditions she had developed over her lifetime – cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal issues, allergies, to name a few. My grandfather died at the age of 76 due to a stroke (him and baba Masha shared the same diet). So, saying that we live longer now means absolutely nothing if your life is spent in suffering and poor health. It’s the quality of your life that truly matters. 

“Dairy is not a real food for humans or even grown up cows”, as legendary Dr Brooke Goldner put it. Naturally baby cows and other mammals stop consuming breast milk and eat other foods when they get older. We humans figured out a way to make cow’s milk taste good by adding sugar and other flavors to it, but that is not what Mother Nature intended for us. 

Yes, you can get some calcium and probiotics by eating yogurt, but you will also consume artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol, lactose (milk sugar) all causing inflammation, increasing your risk of breast, ovarian, prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. 

There’s some conflicting data on dairy if you search the Internet, and there will always be people claiming that they feel amazing on a carnivore diet. But let’s be honest and look at the long-term effects of our diets and foods that different industries are trying to sell us (dairy industry being one of them). There’s not much profit in selling you leafy greens (besides, you can grow your own!), and you won’t hear anywhere that kale has twice the amount of calcium compared to “the sacred cow” – “milk”, plus it comes with all the amazing health benefits.

I believe that consuming other mammal’s breast milk and products made from it is not only weird, but unhealthy for people, environment, and animals who are being forcefully inseminated and milked so we can enjoy that creamy texture. It probably took me 5 years to unlearn, rationalize, and feel good about being DONE WITH DAIRY.