Welcome to Health queries a podcast where your health questions are answered by faculty and experts and the McQueary College of Health and Human Services at Missouri State University. I'm your host, Lauren Stockton, and today we're discussing dairy and dairy alternatives with Natalie Allen, a registered dietician, clinical assistant professor, and team dietician for Missouri State athletics.
My name is Natalie Allen and I am a registered dietitian in the biomedical sciences department. And I have a great variety of jobs at Missouri State I teach, and our dietetics program. And I'm also the dietician for the Missouri State bears on our 400 athletes, helping them improve performance through nutrition.
So can you kind of explain? Have you done any research? Like what are your professional interests that are related specifically to this milk discussion that we're going to have?
I think all dietitians have a background in looking at science related data as far as nutrition and what is research show us what what facts Do we have, there's a lot of nutrition information out there. And it's hard for the public to discern what's true and factual and what's not. And as a dietitian, you have a great base to look at that. I also do a lot of research with athletes, and looking at reducing stress fractures, specifically in athletes, which is common in females. And we know that dairy plays a role in that along with many other things. So that's another piece of the puzzle when we're looking at dairy intake and research.
So one of the questions that I was actually really curious about was kind of this cultural shift from, like, I grew up in the late 90s, early 2000s. And I just remember being an elementary school and just constantly being, you know, in my face, it's like drink milk, Got Milk, that kind of stuff. There's this big push to drink milk with children. And I don't really think I see that as much anymore. And maybe that's just because I'm not the target audience anymore. But do you think that there has been a cultural shift? And if there has been what do you think is caused that?
I think, certainly, there has been a shift. Looking at dairy milk versus non dairy alternatives. I would say that people producing milk and the dairy farmers, they still want people to drink that, and they're still pushing that. So it may be that our audience has shifted a bit or when especially social media, which is a certain age group, that age group is tending to be anti milk in some ways, and I'm not sure why that's happened. And that isn't true across the board of all the population. But I think it's important that people get the factual information about dairy and about milk, because we are seeing some changes health wise, as people are drinking less dairy. And so we need to help people understand that and then they either need to supplement their diet with other foods and other drinks, or we're going to have some health issues on hand that we don't want to have long term.
So what are some of those specific health issues that can come from like a reduced dairy intake.
So the most important time to drink dairy is, as mentioned, school aged, right, elementary school and middle school in high school, because that's when bone formation is the most important. So I always tell people, if you want to try a non dairy alternative and and you're done growing, and you're, you're a middle aged mom, and you're like, Hey, I'm gonna switch to almond milk and my coffee, that's fine. But the most important thing with dairy intake is to drink milk while the bones are forming. So school aged years elementary, middle High School, we encourage people to be consuming dairy, whether they're getting yogurt, milk, cheese, however, they want to do that as you get older. It's not as important. Our bones aren't forming much. We still want people to drink milk. But certainly if a middle aged mom tells me I'm going to put almond milk in my coffee. That's a lot different than somebody saying, I'm not going to allow my kindergartener to drink milk.
So what are some specific problems we're seeing in children with reduced dairy intake?
And what we're seeing now is, as dairy intake has decreased, his younger people are getting osteoporosis or osteopenia. So softening of the bones, and that's something generally that was considered a disease of an older person. And now we're seeing it younger, that's a concern, right? We don't want to have people breaking bones, and having bone pain, those kinds of things. Also, we're seeing less vitamin D intake, and that's something that we need to work on, because vitamin D has a role in bone formation, but also in other areas of the body. And the other thing we've seen very rarely, but we have seen it a little bit is an increase in rickets and rickets. Pretty much was wiped out years ago, decades ago, when milk became more commonly consumed. And now we're seeing a little bit on the uptake particularly And children and rickets is where you have the bowing of the legs. And that's generally a permanent situation and not good. I think the important thing to remember when you're looking at milk versus a non dairy milk, they're not nutritionally equal Dairy Milk has a different nutritional makeup, non dairy milk. And so I think it's important to know we're not trading apples for apples. And if you don't want to drink dairy milk, then how are you going to get the protein, the phosphorus, vitamin D, the calcium, you can get that in other ways in your diet, but you need to be cognitive and aware and then make it a purposeful decision to get those nutrients in different foods.
So are there any benefits of using dairy alternatives for somebody who like let's say they're not lactose intolerant, or they don't have any of those health concerns, they just maybe don't like milk or they are trying to, you know, be vegan or anything like that
is generally sometimes lower calorie. It can also be lower carbohydrates, but generally, it's lower in protein as well. So I think I would recommend if somebody wants to try a non dairy milk, soy milk is your best bet, is a complete protein. It has a variety of amino acids, it tastes pretty good. And so that's, that's a great option. The other thing is calcium is generally not as well absorbed in the body when it comes from a non dairy source. So my suggestion is make sure number one, your non Dairy Milk has calcium added to it and vitamin D if possible, and shake that carton as much as you can, because the calcium precipitates out of the milk. So when it gets to the bottom of the carton, if you're not shaking it and mixing that calcium up in there, you're not getting the benefit of that. And so it's it's not as well absorbed. And it generally is not naturally found in that food. So we just need to do a few things to make sure it's available for our body. As far as non dairy milk people who want to try that. I say go for it. Just remember though, that for example, a cup of dairy milk has eight grams of protein, a cup of almond milk has one gram of protein. So you just need to think about are you eating your protein in other ways? Are you eating meat and beans and nuts and peanut butter, then great, you probably don't need to get your protein from your milk. But if your milks your main protein source, you don't want to do that swap as far as calories. Sometimes drinking non dairy milk is lower calorie. And that can be useful for people who just drink a little bit, you know, they put it in a smoothie, or they add a little bit to a cereal. That's that's a great alternative option for somebody who's not growing anymore. And that isn't developing or growing bone mass right now.
What are your thoughts or observations on the dairy versus non dairy discussion?
Some of my students told me you know, I feel like if I drink milk, you're shamed about it. Like it's it's almost like you shouldn't drink it. And I'm like, that is not true. There's a place for all foods in one's diet. You know, everything can fit in a diet and I think that's the most important take home message for any nutrition podcast is that there's nothing you can't have right? variety, balance and moderation are keys so you ice cream, eat ice cream, if you want a bag of potato chips, eat a bag of potato chips you want you know to drink some soy milk with your you know, Reese's puffs, you can have that too, right? But But balance it with other healthy things in your diet as well.
Just like they always tell us everything in moderation. Do you have any closing thoughts? Before we wrap it up?
Let me talk just really quick about calcium intake. So as as most of us know, the most important nutrient in milk is calcium. And it's that one is choosing not to drink day milk. They just need to get their calcium in another way. So how can you do that you could drink calcium fortified orange juice. That's one option. Particularly for people who can't tolerate milk, you could do a milk alternative, but remember to make sure that it is calcium fortified broccoli has calcium, but you have to eat a lot of that to get enough calcium. Generally, we want you consuming about 1000 milligrams of calcium a day for someone who's growing it's 1200 milligrams of calcium a day. So you may need to look into taking a calcium supplement, or a multivitamin that has calcium in it. If one is going to choose not to drink milk, particularly in those teenage year. We just want the bone formation to be the best that it can during that time. Now as far as vitamin D, which is also a really important nutrient and milk. It's also called the sunshine vitamin. And you can get that by going in the sun for 15 minutes a day. And you know riding your bike taking a walk studying outside reading a book on your deck or your patio. And so that's another way that you can get that important nutrients so just make sure sure that you're focused on calcium and vitamin D, if you're not drinking dairy milk because we have seen a decrease in intake in those two nutrients, and they're really important in the functioning of the body.
That was a great key important thing to wrap it up with. So thank you so much for joining me this month. I really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for having me. And don't forget if anyone has questions, feel free to email me.
If you have any questions for Professor Allen feel free to email her Natalie Allen at Missouristate.edu. That's N-A-T-A-L-I-E A-L-L-E-N at Missouristate.edu. Join us back here next month as we take another dive into your health questions and interests. For more information on the McQueary College of Health and Human Services, visit Missouristate.edu slash MCHHS and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at MSU MCHHS.
