[lia]

This is just a short article, here's a quote.

The Harvard experts also referred to the high levels of saturated fat in most dairy products and suggested that collards, bok choy, fortified soy milk, and baked beans are safer choices than dairy for obtaining calcium, as are high quality supplements.

The article is at

Harvard Declares Dairy NOT Part of a Healthy Diet | Care2 Healthy Living

Just from my own experience, it was clear that a lot of dairy fat wasn't good for me.

It seems that the original and longer article is at

World's Healthiest News |

But the front page doesn't have any simple navigation and I wasn't feeling enthusiastic enough to try to get to it.

 

[smorgan]

As one who consumes massive amounts of dairy fat every day (but almost no lactose and only moderate protein from dairy) I'm curious: how did you decide that "dairy" was bad for you.

The article looks completely useless. Their condemnation is based solely on some dubious claim of a correlation with prostate/ovarian cancer and the old saw about "saturated fat". The latter has been thoroughly diproven and discredited and casts serious doubt on the scientific cred of the authors. The former could be due to so many other things besides butterfat such as lactose, proteins, additives, growth hormones used on the cows, etc. as to make it practically useless.

Anyway, who said Harvard researchers are free from outside influence? That's a joke! What's the difference between congressional lobbyists and huge corporate funders of research at Harvard? In reality, they are mostly the exact same people!

 

[Shalynne]

Dairy intolerances and allergies are quite real, but not directly related to diabetes. Of course, one could be blessed with both at once, and I believe several Forum members are.

At one point before diagnosis, I thought I'd developed an intolerance to all dairy, including butter and cheese. In my case, it turned out my system was struggling to digest the carbs (bread, crackers) that I always ate with dairy. No bread, no problem!

 

[foxl]

Sweeping statements, all around.

For one thing, there is Harvard, and there is Harvard. There is a great deal of disagreement among researchers, within Harvard, and without. If we did not have controversy, there'd be no need for research.

Equally, there is dairy and there is dairy, as SMorgan points out. I keep the fat but ditch the lactose and much of the protein, as well!

And finally, there is the journalists' interpretation of the original researchers' article. SIGH.

 

[jwags]

I eat cheese, a little yogurt and of course heavy cream. I won't touch milk though. Many americans have been taught that dairy means milk. I agree milk causes problems but I have no problem with the saturated fat of other dairy products.

 

[lia]

how did you decide that "dairy" was bad for you.

It wasn't a decision. I found out I was diabetic and my (knee jerk) reaction was to go on a high fat diet. (This was 20 years ago, before there were forums probably.) Most of it was dairy. I like sour cream and cheese, and even used whipping cream in my coffee. Fats made up about 85% of my calories, so maybe I was a bit extreme.

In about 3 months I started to lose circulation in my arms. I would wake up once or twice a night with my arms asleep, and have to move them to get the circulation going again. I freaked out in a very serious way. 'Ohmigod, diabetes, amputations,' and dropped the high fat diet.

It took 3 days for an improvement to start, and that was quite a relief.

A few months ago, after reading all the high fat advice on this forum since getting here, there happened to be a sale on sour cream

Got a few pounds. By the time I finished them, I was starting to have the exact same circulation problem again.

I don't know exactly what it is from. Not sure if it is the saturated fat, or possibly the cholesterol. Dairy products seem to be high in cholesterol too.

 

[Shalynne]

It wasn't a decision. I found out I was diabetic and my (knee jerk) reaction was to go on a high fat diet. (This was 20 years ago, before there were forums probably.) Most of it was dairy. I like sour cream and cheese, and even used whipping cream in my coffee. Fats made up about 85% of my calories, so maybe I was a bit extreme.

In about 3 months I started to lose circulation in my arms. I would wake up once or twice a night with my arms asleep, and have to move them to get the circulation going again. I freaked out in a very serious way. 'Ohmigod, diabetes, amputations,' and dropped the high fat diet.

It took 3 days for an improvement to start, and that was quite a relief.

A few months ago, after reading all the high fat advice on this forum since getting here, there happened to be a sale on sour cream

Got a few pounds. By the time I finished them, I was starting to have the exact same circulation problem again.

I don't know exactly what it is from. Not sure if it is the saturated fat, or possibly the cholesterol. Dairy products seem to be high in cholesterol too.

It may also be a reaction specific to dairy rather than fat, per se. I say this because most of your high-fat consumption was from that one group, and because dairy intolerance/allergy is quite common. Have you been able to get that checked out?

In addition to dairy, I like meats, eggs, fish and a moderate amount of very oily nuts. Avocados are not cheap, but they're a prime food for most of us. And on those rare occasions when I cook, I like to use olive or coconut oil. Real mayo in salads.