Milk, What Kind Should I Buy?

I wanted to do a little blog about milk.  There are so many choices out there, and so many of them claim to be healthy, so let us investigate.

There is regular milk, low fat milk, organic milk, milk from local dairies, and raw milk.  What kind is the best?

 One thing that I think is the most important question to ask is "What do the cows eat?" Cows were meant to eat grass.  Most cows in America eat corn.  If you look it up, corn messes with their stomachs, and gives them infections, so most farmers give the cows antibiotics to help with their messed up stomachs.  To add insult to injury, Monsanto created a hormone to make cows make more milk, so guess what ends up in the final product.  Let's take this just a little further, most of the corn in America is GMO corn, (genetically modified) (Again let us thank Mosanto).  So regular milk has traces of antibiotics, hormones, and glyphosate (the ingredient in Round up which is in the GMO corn).  Fat free milk, including 2%, 1%, and skim are even worse, because the process the milk goes through after removing the fat makes milk practically worthless to drink.  Whatever you do, if you can help it, avoid regular milk.  This includes the fat free versions too.

The Bunches of Vitamin B's

Vitamin B is not just one vitamin, but many.  I know we have all heard of B1, B2, B6, and B12.  Sometimes they go by their names of Niacin, Thiamine, Riboflavin, etc.  There are at least 12.

These vitamins help out body by helping us to convert food to energy, as well as helping us feel like we have more energy.  They are also important to help neurotransmitters in our body and brain.  There is a lot of research that shows the B vitamins help our brain make those crucial hormones like serotonin, which is needed to keep us feeling good.  Lack of these hormones can cause depression.  Some research has shown that people who are depressed may just need to supplement with a B multivitamin.  It helps brain function by keeping us mentally sharp, and can also clear up "brain fog".

So where can we find vitamin B in our food?  In a lot of places, because there are so many B vitamins.  The common foods that you can find this in is nuts, leafy greens, eggs, good for you dairy products, and meat and fish.

Vitamin A, What It Does, and How to Get It.

So next I will be discussing the vitamins and minerals in detail.  Starting with vitamin A.

First of all this is a fat-soluble vitamin, and can only be absorbed with the help of fat.  This is important to remember, because you will want to add a little fat to help you absorb it.

Vitamin A comes in a few different forms, but we will talk about two.  The first form is Retinol, and this is absorb-able the way it is.  This form comes from animal sources.  The second form we see the most is beta-carotene, and is the plant source.  Our body converts this to vitamin A in the intestines.  I wanted to do a little research about the conversion, because what happens if our gut health is bad, does it still get converted properly?  I don't know yet.

Vitamin A has many jobs within our body.  The most famous has to do with our vision.  Children who do not get enough of this vitamin will develop poor vision and can even become blind, especially in countries where there is not enough food.  Adults will develop night-blindness, and obviously can make our vision get worse.   The vitamin is needed for gene transcription, very important to help our genes reproduce correctly.  If they don't, it may be one reason we develop cancerous cells.  This vitamin helps our immune system work properly, and also is important for healthy skin.  You may have heard people getting prescriptions for vitamin A creams for acne. It is very important for proper fetal development, and is the reason why alcoholic mothers have babies with fetal alcohol syndrome.  The children were deprived of vitamin A.  I also read that once the damage is done, it can't be helped by giving the infant vitamin A, so there is irreversible damage. So you can see why this vitamin is important.

Fat does not make us FAT

The last macro-nutrient that I need to talk about here is FAT.  This nutrient has been so vilified in our country that you would think it was poison.  So we avoid it like the plague.  There is a low-fat version of every food out there that you can buy, and it is deceptive and damaging to our health.  I will say that there are good fats and bad fats, and we will get into that at the end of this article, but we need fats in our diet.  Let me explain why.

First of all, for those of us who are trying to lose weight, eating fat makes us feel fuller longer. It takes longer to digest, and so we are not hungry right away.  If we are not hungry, we will not eat as much.  Secondly, fat is important to help us get our fat soluble vitamins; A,D,E, and K.  Did you realize that those vitamins will not get into your body without fat?  They attach themselves to fat and then pass through your intestines.  A study done tested the amount of vitamins absorbed from a salad.  One group ate the salad with no dressing. One group ate the salad with low-fat dressing, and the third group ate the salad with regular dressing.  After eating they were tested to see who absorbed the most vitamins.  Group one absorbed NOTHING.  What good was it for them to even eat the stuff. The second group absorbed some, and the third group absorbed the most.  The lesson here is to go ahead and enjoy your salad with regular dressing!