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Health & Fitness

Low-Fat Dairy?

We hear this all the time and assume it's fact. Eat low-fat. Skim milk. But what's the historical perspective?

I have to laugh every time I hear this "advice."  Eat low-fat dairy.

Let me state a clear fact right off the bat.  Americans did not get into an obesity epidemic drinking full fat milk or eating red meat.  Did we have an obesity epidemic in the early 1900's?  Did primitive people have an obesity epidemic when they consumed animal protein, fat, bone broth and organ meat?  NO!!! 

So why in the world do I still hear our nutrition "experts" telling everyone to eat low-fat diets, or low-fat dairy?  There is absolutely no historical proof that would make this a good decision.  And and as the Primitive Health and Fitness Expert, it's my job to expose modern science and dietary fact for what it is.  A fad. 

One day we're told to eat this.  The next, eat that.  Red meat is the issue.  Milk is the issue.  But no matter what scientific study they can do, if it doesn't hold up to historical proof, it's not fact.  And humans flat out never lived on a low-fat diet. 

Even more disturbing, what does an American eat when they're told to eat low-fat?  Here's a few options:

  • Skim milk-- strip milk of it's natural fat, and you're left with all the sugars.  Not a good choice if you're trying to lose weight
  • Junky carbs-- over processed food that's got almost no nutritional value (the primary reason we're overweight)
  • Science project low-fat foods-- probably the worst, the litany of low-fat, processed foods.  NEVER buy or eat a food that claims to be low-fat unless it is an actual plant

I am all fired up about this today because I just watched Biggest Loser last night.  And I heard one more dietician tell a child to consume low-fat dairy.  She was in the house of a young boy from Maryland, surrounded by candy and hundreds of disgusting, processed, sugary and chemically laden foods.  She was doing a great job purging his family's cabinet.  But then she had to drop the "low-fat dairy" comment.

News flash, this boy didn't get obese drinking full milk.  And neither will you. 

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You could call me the Lorax of Nutrition and Exercise.  I feel like standing on a pile of canned and boxed food and screaming "I AM THE PRIMITIVE GUY, AND I SPEAK FOR REAL FOOD!"  So when I hear advice being dispensed from the same tired, antiquated science, I get mad. 

I don't even want you to read this and think I'm promoting milk.  What I'm promoting is two things-- 1) food in it's natural state 2) nutrition advice that matches human history

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I don't think dairy is a great part of the diet except in small amounts.  And if you choose to have dairy, I tell my clients to stick to whole fat, grass-fed varieties.  Pastured butter is a great cooking choice.  Full-fat, organic yogurt is perfectly fine in your diet in reasonable amounts.  And if you choose to drink milk, I'd make completely sure your system handles it well, and I would pay the money for grass-fed, organic varieties.

The bigger point is this.  Before you pick any system to get healthy or lose weight, make sure it's grounded in historical reality.  Be skeptical of health claims that do not mesh with the 100,000 years of human history.  And if something has fat in it's natural state, like meat and dairy, do not buy low-fat options that have been chemically stripped of their natural fat.

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