The Dairy Dilemma

Dairy: Is it the perfect food or a hidden trigger for inflammation and illness?

In this episode of Healthy California, I dive deep into the controversial world of dairy. With so much conflicting advice online and in the media, it's hard to know whether dairy should have a place on your plate. I break down the science, the pros and cons, and encourage you to make an informed choice based on your unique body—not a one-size-fits-all opinion.

I explore what dairy is (hint: it’s not just cow’s milk) and why it's considered a “perfect food” due to its balance of all three macronutrients—protein, fat, and carbohydrates—as well as micronutrients like calcium, vitamin D, B12, and potassium. Fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir even provide probiotics that support gut health.

But here’s the catch: not everyone tolerates dairy well.

I outline the common downsides of dairy, including lactose intolerance, food sensitivities, acne, eczema, and mixed evidence around inflammation. Ialso discusses concerns over antibiotics and hormones in conventional dairy and how they can disrupt your gut and endocrine systems.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The differences between casein and whey proteins and their roles in cardiovascular and immune health
• Why full-fat dairy is more protective than low-fat or non-fat versions
• How linoleic acid in full-fat milk may support memory, reduce inflammation, and lower cancer risk
• When dairy may be causing hidden symptoms like joint pain, skin issues, or bloating
• What A2 milk is and whether it’s better for digestion
• The pros and cons of raw vs. pasteurized milk
• How plant-based milks compare—nutritionally, environmentally, and for gut health
• What additives in almond, oat, or soy milks may be doing to your microbiome

Throughout the episode, I emphasize bio-individuality—the concept that what works for one person may not work for another. I encourage listeners to listen to their bodies, try elimination diets, and journal their symptoms for greater clarity. And if you want to take it a step further, she offers simple mail-in food sensitivity testing.

💡 Key takeaway: Dairy isn’t essential, but it can be beneficial. Whether or not it belongs in your diet depends on your personal response, your symptoms, and the quality of the dairy you choose.

🧾 Want to explore your relationship with dairy?
I offer one-on-one consultations and food sensitivity testing. Contact me at linda@heal-throughfood.com or visit heal-throughfood.com to learn more.

📚 References

• Fernandez-Rico, S., Mondragon, A.C.,, Lopez-Santamarina, A. et al (2022). A2 Milk: New Perspectives for Food Technology and Human Health. Foods. Vol.11(16), 2387.  https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11162387
• Jakubowska, D., Dabrowska, A.Z., Staniewska, K., et al (2024). Health Benefits of Dairy Products’ Consumption – Consumer Point of View. Foods. 2024,13(23), 3925; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13233925
• Nieman, K.M., Anderson, B.D., & Cifelli, C.J. (2020). The Effects of Dairy Product and Dairy Protein Intake on In

Thank you for listening to Healthy California.

If you have tried all my suggestions and are still having trouble with your health, and would like an appointment with me, please email me, text, or call me via the contact information below.

My contact:

Linda Brown, MPT, Doctoral Candidate Functional Nutrition

916-426-2543

linda@heal-throughfood.com

www.heal-throughfood.com

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Healthy California podcast. My name is Linda Brown and I am the host of Healthy California where my goal is to help educate you on your daily choices. So we all can become healthy. I believe you, your family, your neighbor and your community are all looking for better ways and simple ways to return to being healthy.

00:00:23

Many of you have health issues or have family that's going through tough times that seemingly have no answers. It's frustrating. There are questions about health, environment, foods, exercise and lifestyle, and it can be all overwhelming. And who do you believe and where is the science behind it?

00:00:39

This podcast will unravel the mystery behind being unhealthy and talk about little things that we can do in our lives to make a positive change in our health from all angles.

00:00:48

So to be healthy, we need to have physical health, mental health, environmental, health, financial and social health, and, of course, spiritual health. Let's answer some of these questions to get healthy. What good is just listening to a podcast? I will give you resources as well. Ways to take steps and make positive changes in your life to becoming healthy. This is a journey not an assignment, so be kind to yourself.

00:01:14

Hello, California. Welcome back to healthy California. This is Linda Brown here. Your host of healthy California.

00:01:21

Today we are going to talk about the dairy dilemma.

00:01:26

Why dairy?

00:01:28

There's a lot of controversy about about Jerry, so this episode is going to explore the controversial topic of dairy. Is it a nutritional powerhouse or is it a source of inflammation and intolerance? So we'll break down the science of it.

00:01:42

And weigh the pros and cons and then and then help you decide whether dairy deserves a place in your diet.

00:01:48

Or not. I am not going to make that decision for you.

00:01:52

However, I will summarize this episode and then you.

00:01:56

Can decide for yourself.

00:01:58

I have my opinions of course, but I can't make that decision for you because each person is different. So when I talk about dairy, I'm referring to foods and beverages that come from the milk of mammals like cows, goats, sheep, Buffalo, etcetera. Dairy is the cornerstone of many global diets. Probably every cultural diet has dairy in it, and it can be a nutritional powerhouse.

00:02:26

Dairy is the cornerstone of many global diets, but can be a nutritional powerhouse or a dietary consideration for each individual. Every person is different. Every single person is different. So when it comes to dairy, I don't think people should be saying that dairy is good for you or bad for you because it is very specific to each person.

00:02:51

But why is this important? Why am I even bringing it up?

00:02:54

Well, there is considered a perfect food in the sense that it has all the macronutrients and a lot of micronutrients. Macronutrients are fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and dairy has those they have. It has all of those. It has fat, it has protein in the form of casein and whey and it has lactose which is a sugar which is a carbohydrate, so it has all those 3 macronutrients.

00:03:24

It also has many other micronutrients, but the main ones is calcium, vitamin D, potassium, B12 has riboflavin. Of those four, three of them are under consumed in our daily intake, so we have a deficiency of calcium vitamin D, B12.

00:03:45

It's and some people say potassium, but we under consume those nutrients and dairy has those all in one place. Do you have to get all those micronutrients from dairy? Oh, no, of course not. Of course not. You can get it from any other part of your diet.

00:04:05

Well. So you don't have to consume dairy just to get those nutrients.

00:04:11

Dairy can also be a good source of probiotics for your gut.

00:04:15

If it if fermented like like in yogurt or Kiefer.

00:04:20

So there's a lot of good things about dairy, but then there is also a lot of intolerance and allergy to dairy as well. So let's look at the the pros and cons of dairy. Let's look at the pros.

00:04:35

Dairy is a high quality protein.

00:04:38

If it doesn't have hormones and and antibiotics in it.

00:04:44

Protein in the form of casein and whey. However, dairy is still considered highly sensitive and is one of the top foods for allergies. So many, many people have allergies to dairy and sensitivities and and some don't even.

00:05:02

However, whey protein is known to stimulate the immune system, which that's a good thing. Casein, the other protein in milk, has been known to enhance cardiovascular health. Way is good for your immune system and casing is good for your cardiovascular health. If you aren't allergic to it or have sensitivities to it. It's a good source of calcium, potassium, vitamin D and phosphorus.

00:05:29

And full fat dairy is better than non fat or low fat. Dairy fat is actually protective and and I want you to remember eating fat does not make you fat. Consuming fat doesn't make you fat. Everything else makes you fat. You have a little bit more adipose tissue on you.

00:05:48

Then you think you should. It's not because you're eating fat. It's because of sugar fried food, or toxins. It could be anything but the fat that you eat.

00:06:03

It's not what's storing the adipose tissue on your body, so I just want to make that part clear.

00:06:08

Full fat milk…

00:06:11

We're still talking about the pros of dairy. Full fat. Milk protects against stress. It has neuroprotective effect.

00:06:20

Promotes memory and concentration. Has linoleic acid, which has an anti atherosclerotic effect, which means that it's going to prevent hardening of the arteries. It has antioxidants in it and it has an anti cancer effect. The linoleic acid in the full fat milk.

00:06:40

So again, full fat is better than non fat or low fat.

00:06:44

And full fat milk also prevents obesity and type 2 diabetes stimulates the immune system, prevents osteoporosis so it makes bones stronger, and it supports the gut microbiota by the probiotics, the fermented part. So there's a lot of good things about dairy's full fat, dairy.

00:07:04

With all the good things about dairy, why would you not consume it right?

00:07:09

Well, let's look at the cons of dairy, you know, and really there's not a lot of cons to dairy, however there's so many people that have a dairy allergy and don't even know it, so they might be inflamed. They might have skin issues, joint issues, gut issues. All the things that come along with inflammation in general, which we've talked about in the past. And if you are allergic to dairy then you absolutely need to not have dairy, but you need to get tested just to make sure. And if you don't know, you should get tested anyways because you might not even realize it. So that's that's the main con to dairy. So the lactose intolerance which would increase.

00:07:54

And there is mixed evidence on on the inflammation part of it. However, if you look at many of the studies in the past that say that milk is bad, it's usually done with low fat or non fat milk. And again we need the fat to be protective. So there's mixed evidence.

00:08:13

Inflammation and then also if the milk has hormones or antibiotics that can mess with your endocrine system, and we've talked about that in the past as well. Milk that has hormones or antibiotics can be destructive to your gut microbiome.

00:08:33

The antibiotics can and the the hormones will lead you down, endocrine dysregulation, or just in general mess with your hormones, which could lead to a whole cascade of things. That's another con of dairy and things like acne. Some cancers have been known.

00:08:53

To be caused by dairy, and when I say acne and eczema, those are skin issues that come with dairy consumption because remember, the skin is an elimination organ. So we eliminate things from our body a few different ways.

00:09:10

Through our breath, through our feces, through our urine, and then through our skin. If you are allergic or intolerant to milk, then that maybe trying to eliminate itself through your skin. So eczema there's a there's a big correlation between eczema and and dairy, so keep that in mind as well. Besides the lactose intolerance, the mixed evidence on inflammation hormones, antibiotics and skin issues, and some cancers, there's not really a whole lot of other cons.

00:09:46

Even though those those things can be very destructive, of course cancer is and inflammation can be. But when you choose dairy or not, you have to outweigh the pros and the cons.

00:09:59

The benefits have to outweigh the risks, so that's something that you have to determine for yourself.

00:10:04

Let's talk about a 2 milk. What is A2 milk? The only thing about a 2 milk is the amino amino acid composition. The normal milk that we would drink is a combination of A1A.

00:10:19

But A1 the A1 part that amino acid part of the milk is what normally causes GI distress. Sometimes when people drink milk they get bloated and that may not be an intolerance, it may just be an inability to process that amino acid to people that drink a 2 milk will drink it just to decrease the bloating. The digestive discomfort, however A2 milk doesn't mean that it's lactose free and it doesn't mean that if you have a milk allergy that it's safe. It's just an amino acid composition that's different. It's supposed to ease digestive discomfort. Nothing else really is beneficial about a2.

00:11:07

It's thought to reduce inflammation because of the decreased digestive discomfort. So for some people it's it's absolutely beneficial to pay the extra money to buy a2 milk and for some people not.

00:11:18

So again, you have to decide that for yourself. What is pasteurized milk versus raw milk? Pasteurizing milk is the process of heating milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time solely just to kill bacteria. The bacteria like salmonella, E coli, listeria. You're pretty much just heating the bacteria away and doing this pasteurizing milk has drastically reduced foodborne illnesses, especially in.

00:11:47

And they do this to extend the shelf life and transportation back when they started pasteurizing milk, there wasn't the same ability to figurate milk. So to transport it from one place to another had to have a certain amount of shelf life to it. So pasteurizing it also helped with the shelf life shelf life and transportation the raw milk advocates claim that raw milk boosts immunity, which it does helps with allergies, which it can and has natural enzymes and probiotics, which it does.

00:12:22

Though again, you know I was raised on raw milk like right out of the cow. I just drank it right out of the cow. I don't have allergies and my immune system is strong.

00:12:35

But does that mean that that's going to be the same for you.

00:12:38

No, I never got sick from milk at this point in my life. I might. I think I might be developing an intolerance to it. However, it also could be the quantity of the milk you're drinking. If you look at the my plate.

00:12:55

You know from the USDA myplate.gov, it's like our current day food pyramid and the dairy section of that is a very small portion. It's not even considered part of the percentage of our daily intake. So if you're drinking glasses of milk, that might be the problem. Instead of drinking or instead of consuming like small bits of cheese here and there or yogurt, which is fermented, which is good. Or cottage cheese. We're not. We're not intended to have a large portion of our consumption being dairy and dairy is everywhere.

00:13:32

So that's the that could be the problem itself. Is it the raw milk? Maybe, maybe not. Or is it the the amount that we are consuming? Again, you have to.

00:13:42

Weigh the benefits and the risks. What are your plant based alternatives? Well, let's look at the pros and cons of your plant based milks pro for plant based milk would be that it's vegan friendly, it's lactose free.

00:13:58

And it has a lower environmental impact than Jerry does, and that's controversial as well, because when Almond Tree uses up more water than one cow during a season anyways, and the nutritional comparison between a plant protein is different than an animal based protein. So I want you to think about this for a second.

00:14:19

If you're drinking almond milk, but when serving of almond milk has 35 calories, will I know that 15 almonds makes 100 calories?

00:14:30

So what the calories are telling me is that it roughly takes 5 almonds to make a glass of almond milk. Well, then, what's filling up the rest of that glass? If you were to take 5 almonds and put a glass worth of water in there and blend it, are you going to have a nice smooth, creamy glass of almond milk? No. What's making all of that creamy and delicious? It's additive.

00:14:58

The most fires its gums, its sugars. There's a lot of things in plant based milk that are being added to make it palatable. So that would be a con. The protein quality varies in plant based milk you have all the emulsifiers, the gums and the sugars.

00:15:18

I'm listing the cons now and all those affect your gut affect your gut microbiome and also plant based milk is not very nutrient dense.

00:15:28

Unless it's fortified. So if you're going to drink plant based milk, hopefully it'll be fortified with calcium or vitamin D or whatever it needs to be fortified with, or you are having a well balanced diet so that you you're getting all your nutrients.

00:15:42

So those are the pros and cons of plant based milk and again you have to decide for yourself.

00:15:48

What benefits outweigh the risk? You know, on social media, there are doctors going around saying all the horrible things about plant based milks. However, I don't think it's that bad if you have it in moderation.

00:16:04

Again, it's about the moderation. If you're drinking a lot of it, yeah, you don't want all those you don't want all those additives in you.

00:16:12

But if you are going to make a shake or have a shake, or have something in your coffee, you know that little bit, I don't think is going to is going to be that damaging to you that parts my opinion.

00:16:22

So what do you do about it? What do you do about dairy versus plant based milk?

00:16:28

Well, what do you do about dairy? So if you're going to eat dairy instead of plant based, know that dairy is not essential. You don't need it to survive, but it can be beneficial for a lot of people. And it is considered the perfect food because it has all the macronutrients and many micronutrients. But you don't have to get it through milk. All those macro nutrients and micronutrients you can get in a nice healthy diet and dairy is only a very small portion of your dietary intake and it should not be a major part of it. It should not be in every ingredient list that's on your packaging of your foods, but I know none of you are eating packaged foods because you're all eating very healthy, right?

00:17:15

There is everywhere, but does it need to be? Does it need to be in everything? You know what percentage of your diet is dairy? Do you think something to think about if you're going to eat dairy or drink milk, choose organic grass fed grass fed, not corn fed.

00:17:34

They give corn to cows to fatten them up. And if you think about that, we have corn everywhere. Do you think we're getting fattened up.

00:17:42

I believe we are choose organic, grass fed antibiotic free because those antibiotics are going to transfer over to you hormone free because those hormones are going to transfer over to you because they all transfer over in fat.

00:17:55

And we drink the fat from the dairy and then it gets transferred over to us. So if you're going to choose dairy.

00:18:02

Choose whole milk and whole cream over non fat or low fat and again everything in moderation. We're not intended to have dairy in in everything we eat very, very small portion. It's not even a really a percentage of our dietary intake. According to the USDA.

00:18:23

Myplate.gov, that is like a current day food pyramid. And then I want you to listen to your body, your symptoms, your digestion, your inflammation. Listen to your body and you might want to journal some of this down because you might not realize that your skin issue is from Jerry. You may not realize that.

00:18:40

Headaches are from dairy. Dairy can be inflammatory to a lot of people. Consider eliminating from your diet to find out if you don't want to get tested or don't have the means to get tested, try just an elimination diet. Take it out of your diet for a month and journal some of the symptoms. Sometimes people will have better.

00:19:00

Sleep better clarity.

00:19:04

Decreased aches and pains in their joints. I mean, you just never know until you journal it down. And then if you do want to get tested, you know, you could always contact me. I can do food allergy testing. It's just a simple blood test.

00:19:16

And it's something that you do through the mail. It's it's really simple. That's the dilemma on dairy. I'm not going to tell you to eat dairy or not. Everyone is different. Every single person is different. And I want you to approach dairy pretty much like anything else. Just because dairy is bad for you doesn't mean it's bad for your neighbor. Just because someone has a an allergy to dairy doesn't mean you're going to have an allergy to dairy. Every single person is different, and that's another reason why I'm just going to kind of say this off the cuff.

00:19:53

I don't want you to go to social media and ever fall for the advertisements that, say, take this thing. It's it's good for everyone that there's not one thing in this world that's good for every single person. Besides, you know, maybe oxygen and water, but every single person is different. So I want you to treat yourself like you are special and that there's not one thing that makes you like everyone else. You're very individual and you should treat yourself like that. Don't listen to people who say Jerry is bad for you. Jerry is good for you. Find that out for yourself and make that decision for yourself and that is my thoughts on dairy.