[HN Gopher] Centuries of milk marketing warped the way we think ...
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Centuries of milk marketing warped the way we think about dairy and
nutrition
Author : rntn
Score : 15 points
Date : 2024-05-31 19:10 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vox.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vox.com)
| johnnyjeans wrote:
| It's been interesting watching the reactionary rally against
| dairy over the last 10 years. Watching laypeople with zero
| scientific background write editorials on nutrition-adjacent
| topics is always a great workout of patience.
|
| One of the more bewildering things I see is comparison of
| mammalian milks to plant milks... despite the two not being even
| remotely comparable. Plant 'milks' are just going through a lot
| of effort to take generally decent foodstuff (oats, nuts, etc.)
| and watering them down, massively reducing the nutritional
| density and content. The macro and micro content of things like
| oat milk, cashew milk, and so on are next to water because that's
| basically what they are. They're made by leeching a tiny amount
| of these legumes and grains into water, often artificially
| fortified with one or two vitamins. I leave it as an exercise to
| the reader to compare the nutritional profile of cashews with
| that of cashew milk and that of cows milk.
|
| > But that talking point masks the reality that milk is only so
| convenient and affordable because the USDA, with taxpayer
| dollars, has made it so through intensive, sustained investments.
|
| This is a really weird assertion to make when dairy has been a
| massively important staple of advanced societies for thousands of
| years, and continues to be in places like rural India, Turkey,
| Central Asia, and more. It's also not necessarily off-base, but
| that's because it holds true for all foodstuffs in the modern US.
| Because of how large our societies have gotten, the affordability
| of goods is directly tied to intentional prioritization of their
| supply chains by the organizational arm of society (government.)
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Ya, and with things like oat milk, most don't even realize
| they're consuming a cup of processed seed oil (imagine
| ranch/mayo) in that carton.
|
| > massively important staple of advanced societies for
| thousands of years, and continues to be in places like rural
| India, Turkey, Central Asia, and more.
|
| I also find it interesting how well milk consumption correlates
| with increased height.[0] All the tallest countries
| (Montenegro, Netherlands, Sweden) have the highest milk
| consumption levels. Everyone using protein powder to bulk up
| for fitness is using milk-based whey protein. We know that
| malnutrition affects height. Is there any other food or
| activity that correlates with height as much as milk
| consumption?
|
| [0] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Correlation-between-
| aver...
| kelipso wrote:
| Around 30% by calories of seed oil in many oat milks. Was so
| surprised when I discovered this. It's in the ingredients
| list but they never even hint at this anywhere else.
| mirror_neuron wrote:
| Count me among those that didn't realize how much seed oil
| is used. But is that bad? I don't have an axe to grind
| against cow's milk, but I do have trouble digesting it (and
| besides, I like the way oat milk tastes).
|
| Do I need to be worried about the fact that there's a lot
| of seed oil in it?
| hooverd wrote:
| Depends on who you ask. Maybe seed oil is the devil and
| should only be eating beef and butter for health.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Nutrition science is anything but conclusive, however
| there is some preliminary research indicating seed oils
| may not be healthy and contribute to obesity. Why are
| condiments like ranch and mayonnaise unhealthy? Because
| they're almost entirely seed oils.
|
| There _is_ oat milk without any added oils, including
| Oatly, but you have to specifically look for that
| version, they 're not always easy to find. And it will
| taste thinner without any fatty component that cows milk
| has.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _when dairy has been a massively important staple of advanced
| societies for thousands of years_
|
| "Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced
| ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactase nonpersistence
| is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, with 70 to
| 100 percent of people affected in these communities. Lactase
| nonpersistence is also very common in people of West African,
| Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent" [1].
|
| Digesting cow's milk relies on a new gene (<10,000 years old)
| that evolved in Northern Europe, East Africa and the Middle
| East [2]. Most adults--65 to 90%--have some degree of lactose
| intolerance. It's simply untrue that dairy has been a staple of
| even a plurality of advanced civilisations over history.
|
| [1] https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/lactose-
| intoleran...
|
| [2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lactose-
| toleranc...
| dualogy wrote:
| But the quoted poster said "dairy", not milk. Lots of dairy
| has little to no lactose, from butter to cream-cheeses to
| indeed cream itself (clotted, double, or even the liquid 30%
| fat "whipping cream") to yogurts / kefirs, and pretty much
| all kinds of cheeses too...
|
| I can't handle milk either, or anything high-lactose. The
| above things, though, no prob. I'd guess most of the
| "lactose-intolerant" will do alright with moderate (non-
| binge) amounts of such low- (but not no-) lactose foods.
|
| Variations of all those are indeed much-loved staples all
| over the world, whether of the cow or the goat or the sheep
| (or gazelle? caribou? ruminant species abound!) variety,
| depending on regional grazing conditions I guess.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _Lots of dairy has little to no lactose_
|
| Sure. The point remains: dairy hasn't been "a massively
| important staple of advanced societies for thousands of
| years." It was an important food in a minority of them, and
| even there biologically recently.
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