Can we really consume dairy?
Recently I was hospitalised due to a bout of gastroenteritis. I had severe stomach burn feeling, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. The doctors prescribed antacids (magnesium milk) and omezole to help with the over-acidic stomach.
But what really caught my attention was, the doctors (all three that I consulted) advised against fatty, spicy and lastly, dairy products.
Like, dairy? When my gastric flu first struck people were telling me to DRINK MILK! Something about how it neutralises the acid in my stomach. I’m thoroughly confused at this point.
So I ran a quick check and realised that consuming dairy will cause further inflammation of the stomach lining. Then that brought me to the question.
Why will dairy cause further inflammation of our gastrointestinal linings?
Lactose. I read this great article about how dairy is inflammatory because it contains lactose, which is bad because lactase is absent in pasteurized milk, and we cannot synthesise lactose and this leads to multiple problems.
Caesin protein. We cannot hydrolyse this as well , but according to the article, milk is ACID-FORMING. This is in direct contrast of the old panacea for acidic stomach - warm milk!
A Webmd article summarises our stand with milk:
It does not necessarily reduce the risk of osteoporosis because till now there is no clear evidence.
It is also rich in potassium and calcium, but we can easily obtain that from many other non-dairy food sources. So people can choose to omit it without fearing for nutrient-deficiency issues.
More importantly, processed milk is injected with many hormones and antibiotics and I’m not sure whether I want my body to consuming that in the first place.
So that’s my stand. What’s yours?
