Smart Alternatives For Milk
Did your mother ever tell you to ‘drink your milk’ when you were young? Growing up as kids, we probably all heard this – some of us a lot. It’s been drilled into us since we were young that drinking milk is important for building strong bones.
As such, many of us as adults maintain this habit. We continue to drink milk thinking it’s a great idea to help keep our skeletal system strong and healthy.
You should know two things:
Much of your skeletal system was actually built during your teenage and younger adult years, so if you are already in your 40s or 50s, it’s fairly determined. This being said, maintenance will be your focus now.
Milk may not be the superior choice you once thought it was.
While there is no question that you still do need to focus on getting enough calcium in your diet to help maintain your bones as you grow older, you do also need to think about the fact that milk can come with some drawbacks, especially for those who are diabetic.
What problems are associated with milk? Let’s take a look.
Sugar Content
For any diabetic, the biggest issue you’ll run into with milk is the high sugar content it contains. Most people don’t associate plain milk with sugar since it doesn’t seem that sweet, but make no mistake, natural dairy sugars in the form of lactose most certainly exist in milk.
One cup has nearly 10 grams of sugar. So, if you drink three cups per day like your mother insisted, this puts you at nearly 30 grams of sugar for that day, which is something that you definitely should be concerned about.
This is more sugar than most diabetics need from all their food over the course of the day, so you can hopefully just imagine the issues here.
It doesn’t really matter if it’s skim milk or whole milk either – all milk varieties will contain lactose.
Constipation
Another issue with milk that you may run into is constipation. Some people simply find that drinking too much milk backs them up and they are unable to stay regular.
Having regular bowel movements is vital to getting rid of toxic waste in the body, so this is very concerning. While you can certainly always treat yourself with laxatives to help pass those bowel movements, this is not exactly an ideal practice either.
You want a body that maintains a healthy gut and can be regular all on its own. If you’re relying on laxatives to help you, this could be disturbing the natural balance in your gut and leading to longer-term health problems down the road.
Lactose Intolerance
Another issue with all the milk is lactose intolerance. If you’re someone who doesn’t possess the digestive enzymes to break down the milk sugar as well as you should, you can expect to experience gas, bloating, and some digestive distress upon consuming dairy products.
Here again, a digestive enzyme can help remedy this, but forcing your body to rely on supplementary enzymes is not the most ideal of situations.
While many will realize they suffer from lactose intolerance and just go on to avoid dairy because it makes them feel terrible, some don’t realize that’s what’s happening and normalize it. It’s only when something causes them to stop eating dairy for a while that they then realize how much better they feel.
Not sure? Do a test and see how you feel if you remove the dairy from your diet for a few weeks. If you immediately start feeling better, you have your answer.
Smarter Choices
So, now that you see some of the issues associated with milk consumption, especially for the diabetic, what are some better choices you can consider instead?
Better options would include something like almond or cashew milk, both of which are often fortified with calcium. There are also some milks now available that are still dairy based but contain less lactose overall. These may help fit your needs better.
While one glass of milk a day is unlikely to do too much harm if you really must have it (just make sure that you account for those sugars), if you’re consuming two or more glasses of milk each and every day, it’s definitely worthwhile to consider making a change in your menu.