Page 96 - Summer 2019 Journal

about 46% of the added sugars.”1
So why isn’t flavored milk a good way to
get the “three out of four” important nutrients in milk? Since the milk has been heated—once for pasteurization and again for the powdering process—any enzymes that help the body ab- sorb calcium and phosphorus will be destroyed. You need vitamin D to utilize calcium and phosphorus but it is unlikely the vitamin D will be absorbed since it is a fat-soluble vitamin, and there is little or no fat in the flavored milks.
These flavored milks typically also contain corn- starch, carrageenan (hard to digest), natural and artificial flavors and vitamin A pal- mitate. Strawberry-flavored milk labels list high-fructose corn syrup along with sugar, plus natural flavoring and red dye—but no strawberries!
Back to the newsletter from the American Dairy As- sociation North East: on the back page is a photo of Ab- bey Copenhaver, New York dairy farmer and registered dietitian. She is participating in the Ironman race spon- sored by Team Chocolate Milk, and is shown drinking a bottle of lowfat chocolate milk. She did the marathon, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run, in fourteen hours four minutes. (Winners typically complete the course in just over nine hours.)
Abbey looks nice and slim, as she should, engaging in so much exercise. But on the op- posite page we have two group photos of the State Dairy Princesses—the outgoing winners and the incoming winners. Recently at a dairy conference I attended, a dairy farmer who was promoting whole milk for school children pointed out that all six of these teenage gals are overweight, some quite a bit so.
The dirty little secret of these flavored milks is that they provide the perfect combina- tion of ingredients for weight gain—in spite of industry claims to the contrary. First is the
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lowfat powdered milk. If you feed lowfat milk to pigs—who have a metabolism similar to that of humans—they will rapidly gain weight, but they will stay lean if fed whole milk. It seems coun- terintuitive to many, but readers of Wise Traditions know that we need those animal fats to stay slim. They provide energy, support thyroid function, help with detoxification (so those toxins won’t need body fat to lodge in) and contribute to satiety.
Then we have the sugar, or combination of sugar and high- fructose corn syrup. The added sweeteners in one serving of fla- vored milk add up to twenty-five to thirty grams—thirty grams is two tablespoons. If this added sugar contributes only 4 percent of
sugar intake in chil- dren ages two to eighteen, then these kids are eating a heck of a lot of sug- ar. . .maybe because flavored milk leaves them so unsatisfied.
A third in- gredient in flavored milk that can cause weight gain is free glutamic acid (basically MSG), formed during the milk powdering process, and also lurking in the arti- ficial and “natural” flavors. Researchers use MSG to induce obesity in test ani- mals. And a study at the University of North Carolina found that “people who eat more MSG are more likely to be overweight or
obese,” no matter how many calories they consume overall.2 The fact that spokespersons can promote these food-like products is an indictment of the whole dairy industry. They are absolutely not appropriate for anyone, especially growing children. What kind of society believes that it is a good idea to feed such garbage to children, and what will become of that society in future
generations?
This article is taken from a blog post at nourishingtraditions.com.
1. https://www.drink-milk.com/common-questions/flavored-milk/.
2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-msg-linked-weight-gain/
msg-linked-to-weight-gain-idUSTRE74Q5SJ20110527.
Wise Traditions SUMMER 2019