Milk

Everyone has heard the saying “drinking milk helps build strong bones”, but is this really true? According to Walter C. Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, “There's no solid evidence that merely increasing the amount of milk in your diet will protect you from breaking a hip or wrist or crushing a backbone in later years” In his studies he found that women who drank milk twice a day were as likely to suffer bone breaks as women who drank it once a week. Yes, drinking calcium is important and yes, milk has plenty of calcium, but how much does one really need? Roughly around 500-700 milligrams daily should do the trick according to Mr. Willett. Another harmful factor that milk brings to the table is that animal protein causes blood and tissues to become more acidic. To compensate with this, our bodies pull calcium from bones. Doesn’t really add up too well does it?

As you can now tell, milk does have it’s cons; however, it also has plenty of positives. For example, milk does offer a great source of protein and can also even help people who has insomnia. The tradition of drinking a class of milk before bed to help one fall asleep can date back to medical texts from 1500bc. 1Milk also serves a role in helping your teeth. Studies show that more then 40% of children have cavities by the time they reach kindergarden, but the calcium in milk can help prevent those cavities if it’s paired with routinely brushing and flossing. In regards to proteins, milk is an excellent choice. It offers both whey and casein proteins, which help things such as muscle growth and amino acid profiles.