Coaching:
The Mediterranean Diet: Dairy
Dairy products are one of the nine elements of the traditional Mediterranean
Diet. Even so, dairy products eaten by those in Mediterranean cultures
are usually consumed in the form of processed products like yogurt
or cheeses. Milk is not often drunk as a beverage.
Specific research on dairy is more conflicting and much of it is funded by The National Dairy Council. The studies performed are often very small and in many cases appear biased.
For instance, the Dairy Council has run an advertising campaign stating that consuming dairy three times a day can help with weight loss. The fact is that those with a larger increase of dairy products eaten gained more weight over the course of a 12 year study than the ones who decreased their dairy intake the most during the same period. This may be the result of increased higher fat dairy products because researchers found that consuming low-fat dairy products was not associated with weight change.
There has been some speculation that higher calcium intake might help with weight control but that has also been disproven. Likewise, research into such things as colon cancer and fat absorption in those consuming dairy have been inconclusive. We do know that higher calcium and Vitamin D consumption is important, especially for bone health, but there are many other food choices that are high in calcium.
Here are some examples of foods high in calcium:
Rice
Many fortified cereals
Kale
Spinach
Collard greens
White beans
Peas
Chickpeas
Soybeans
Shrimp
Crab
Halibut
Papayas
Oranges
Raisins
Since there's a lot of saturated fat in many dairy products, choose lower
fat milk, cheeses and yogurts. You will find higher fat cheeses used
for recipes on this web site. You should select the best quality
cheese. For instance, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is so much better than
domestic parmesan (and many times better than the stuff in the green can).
It can be a little more expensive to buy the better quality ingredient,
but there’s so much flavor you’ll need much less.
Having a glass of lower fat milk every now and then is fine, and most folks have milk on their cereal or in their coffee. You do not, however, need to eat dairy products to be healthy or to lose weight. Make dairy products part of your life (but maybe a smaller part).