Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Is Milk Bad For You? What 30 Studies Have to Say

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

For years, milk has been touted as one of the healthiest foods you can eat.  It’s packed full of protein, calcium, and other nutrients, and it’s delicious to boot.  It’s also hugely popular among bodybuilders and people just generally interested in improving their body composition. If you go asking around the gym for the best way to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible, it won’t take long until you’re told to just lift heavy weights and drink a gallon of milk per day. (The heavy weightlifting is a great idea, but the “GOMAD”? Not so much…) Recently, though, milk has come under heavy fire from the health “gurus” of the world who not only question its nutritional value, but go as far as labeling it a poison responsible for all kinds of disease and dysfunction. Drink milk, they say, and thanks to the lactose, pus, blood, hormones, and other “unhealthy” substances it contains, you’ll be more likely to gain weight, weaken your bones, and even get cancer and die. Many of the people making these arguments seem to have logic and science on their sides, too. Maybe they’re right? Maybe milk isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Maybe we’d all be better off without it? Well, as you’ll soon see, although the case against milk can be made to sound convincing, it’s based on trumped up charges. When you analyze the bulk of the research, which we’re going to do in this podcast, the takeaway is clear: Milk is not a magic bullet for bone health, muscle gain, or general wellbeing, but it doesn’t deserve condemnation, either, and you probably don’t need to stop drinking it. Let’s find out why, starting with square one: What is milk, exactly?  5:30 - What is milk?  5:30 - What is milk?  6:51 - Does milk cause weight gain?  8:26 - Does milk spike insulin levels?  10:43 - Does milk contain estrogen-like hormones that cause weight and feminizing effects in men?  11:28 - Does milk weaken your bones? 15:18  - Does milk contain dangerous hormones?  18:46 - Is milk too processed to be healthy?  19:48 - What is pasteurization, homogenization, fortification?  22:45 - Is milk filled with pus, blood, and somatic cells?  Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This is why studies have repeatedly shown that eating dairy does not cause weight gain. And in fact, some research shows that it can actually help you lose weight faster for reasons mainly related to satiety and portion control. Milk can be filling, at least more filling than other beverages. at least more filling than other beverages. Hello and good day. I am Michael Matthews and this is another episode of the Muscle for Life podcast. And this one is going to be about milk because according to many people, especially these days, drinking milk can increase your risk of all kinds of problems, diseases, and dysfunctions. But is that true? Is milk really as bad as these people claim?

It's a bit odd too, because for many years, milk was touted as one of the healthiest foods you can eat, one of the healthiest beverages you can drink. It's packed full of protein, foods you can eat, one of the healthiest beverages you can drink. It's packed full of protein, calcium, and other nutrients, and it's also pretty delicious, at least most people think it is. Milk is also very popular among bodybuilders and people who are just generally interested in improving their body composition. You have probably heard about the GoMad diet, gallon of milk a day. Not a diet I recommend, by the way. If you want to learn about that, head over to legionathletics.com and search for GoMad.

But yes, milk can be useful for helping with muscle and strength gain because it is packed full of protein and calories. Recently, however, milk has come under heavy fire from the health gurus of the world who not only question its nutritional value, but even go as far as labeling it as a poison that causes all kinds of problems in the body. Drink milk, these people say, and thanks to the lactose, pus, blood, hormones, and other unhealthy substances in it, you will be more likely to gain weight, you are going to weaken your bones, and you might even get cancer and die. And many of the people who are making these arguments against milk seem to have logic and science on their side as well.

Milk seem to have logic and science on their side as well. And so I often hear from people who write emails, DMs, and so forth, wondering if these people, these so-called experts are right. Maybe milk isn't all it has been cracked up to be, and maybe we would be better off without it. Well, as we're going to discuss in this podcast, although the case against milk can definitely be made to sound convincing, it is mostly based on trumped up charges. When you analyze the bulk of the scientific research available on milk, which we are going to do in this podcast, the takeaway is very clear. It is not a magic bullet for bone health, muscle gain, or general

well-being, but it does not deserve condemnation either. And if you like to drink it, you probably don't need to stop. This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural fat loss supplement Phoenix. It has sold over a hundred thousand bottles in the last several years, and it helps you lose fat faster in three ways. One, it increases your metabolic rate. Two, it amplifies the power of fat burning chemicals produced by your body. And three, it increases your metabolic rate. Two, it amplifies the power of fat-burning chemicals produced by your body. And three, it increases the feeling of fullness from food.

In short, it speeds up your metabolism, it helps your body burn fat more efficiently, and it helps you control hunger and cravings and maintain high energy levels. Phoenix also contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And all that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a 4 star average and another 250 reviews on my website with a 4.5 star average. So if you want to burn more fat every day and have an easier time sticking to your diet without having to pump yourself full of harsh stimulants or potentially harmful chemicals, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of

Phoenix today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.

All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now, at least. Let's get to the show. All right, so let's start at square one, and that is what is milk? Simple question, I know, but most people actually can't really answer it. So milk is a combination of water, whey and casein protein, globules of fat, lactose, which is a simple sugar, and some vitamins and minerals. In terms of calories and macros, a cup of whole cow's milk contains about 145 calories, 8 grams of protein and fat, 145 calories, 8 grams of protein and fat, and about 13 grams of carbs. Low-fat varieties of milk contain more or less the same amount of carbs and protein, but less fat and thus fewer calories.

For example, a cup of skim milk has about 90 calories, but the same amount of protein and carbs as whole milk. Now, in addition to the calories and macros, milk contains a smattering of micronutrients as well, namely calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins B12 and D if it is fortified milk. All right, so that doesn't sound so bad, right? What is so scary about this rather high-protein and nutritious beverage? Well, let's talk about that. Let's get into the six biggest lies and myths about milk. And here's the first one.

Milk causes weight gain. Now, bodybuilders have been using milk as a, quote-unquote, bulking food for decades now, and for good reason. If you are struggling to eat enough calories to gain weight, adding just a few cups of milk to your daily meal plan can be an easy way to get the needle moving. That doesn't mean that milk directly causes weight gain though, because no food can automagically make you fatter and fatter simply by eating it. Not milk, not sugar, not fast food, not highly processed foods in general, or anything else. Remember, no matter what you eat, energy balance is what dictates what happens

to your body weight. And if you are not familiar with energy balance, head over to muscleforlife.com and search for energy balance, and you'll find a nice long informative article that I wrote on it. And energy balance explains why someone like Professor Mark Haub was able to lose 27 pounds in 10 weeks eating Hostess cupcakes, Doritos, Oreos, and whey protein shakes. Yes, that was his diet. And that's also why a science teacher named John Cisna was able to lose 56 pounds in six months eating nothing but McDonald's and why an everyday dude named Kai Sedgwick was able to get into the best shape of his life following a rigorous workout routine and also eating McDonald's every day for a month. Now, what about insulin? Some people say,

doesn't milk spike insulin levels and thus fat gain? And yes, milk does raise insulin levels, as do all foods, really most foods. And yes, insulin does play a role in fat storage. But again, that does not mean that drinking milk makes you fat. Only overeating can cause significant weight gain. Again, energy balance is the key here. If you eat too many calories of even the cleanest foods in the world, you will gain weight. And if you restrict your calories, if you eat fewer calories and you're burning over time, you can eat nothing but junk and get leaner. Now, I'm not saying you should necessarily do that. There is definitely a lot to be said for eating a lot of nutritious foods, but this is why studies have repeatedly shown that eating dairy does not cause weight gain.

And in fact, some research shows that it can actually help you lose weight faster for reasons mainly related to satiety and portion control. Milk can be filling, at least more filling than other beverages. at least more filling than other beverages. I would still recommend not drinking calories when you are cutting and eating all of your calories because nothing is more filling than high volume, lower calorie food. And that's really what you want to be focusing your calories on when you're cutting. But if you are going to drink some calories while cutting, milk is actually a pretty good option. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well

please do tell them about it it really helps me and if you are going to post about it on social media definitely tag me so i can say thank you you can find me on instagram at muscle for life fitness twitter at muscle for life and facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Now, another claim that is often made is that milk contains estrogen-like hormones that can cause weight gain and even feminizing effects in men. And this is partially true. Yes, milk does contain these types of hormones, but not in large enough amounts to by itself have significant effects in the body. So case in point, if you drank one and a half gallons of whole milk in a day, you would increase your total estrogen levels by maybe 1%, definitely not more than 1%. And moreover, most of the estrogen-like compounds in milk

are actually broken down during digestion, which renders them physiologically inert. So my point is this, the only way that drinking milk can cause you to gain weight is if you are also regularly eating more calories than you burn. If milk is what is pushing you over the edge, if the milk you are drinking is what is causing you to be in a calorie surplus, yes, then it is causing you to gain weight, but simply because of the calorie intake, not because it has some inherently fattening property. All right, so let's move on to the next myth, which is milk weakens your bones. Now, if this is news to you, and if you are a little bit puzzled, because for a long time, everybody knew that milk was good for your bones, I understand. But these days, there is a vocal

minority of people who claim that milk actually weakens your bones by stripping away calcium. One study that is commonly shared to support this assertion is an analysis of a pool of studies that determined that dairy consumption was not associated with bone health. Now, I should note that this study was funded by a vegan organization that has lobbied for the USDA to remove animal products as a food group. So that should be taken into account when judging the quality of the research. Now, milk and dairy detractors have latched onto research like this as definitive proof of milk's inferiority, but these people are missing the forest for the trees. When you are evaluating the scientific research on, well, anything really, you can't just find a study or two that you like, or even worse,

a study abstract or two that you like, and then put on blinders. You have to look at the rest of the research on the topic and then determine which way the literature is leaning, the weight of the evidence as science-y folk like to say. And when you do that with milk and bone health, the story is crystal clear. Higher calcium intake is most definitely associated with greater bone density. And yes, this includes calcium obtained from milk and dairy. Now that doesn't mean that you have to drink milk and eat dairy products to have healthy bones, of course, but it does make it much easier to give your body the calcium it needs because milk and dairy are very calcium rich. Now, another charge that is often leveled against milk and bone health

is that it is an acidic food and that this then makes your blood more acidic, which then eats away at your bones over time. Now, this is just nonsense. This is utter tripe. Research clearly shows that no food, milk, sugar, anything else can significantly impact the pH levels of your blood. If you want to learn more about this, head over to muscleforlife.com and search for alkaline. And you'll see an article I wrote on the alkaline diet. And I also wrote about this point in particular in an article on Tom Brady's diet. So if you search for Tom Brady, you will find some more information as well. And it's good news that food can't significantly impact the pH levels of our blood because if it could, you could eat the wrong type of food and then just die. That's how

important it is for your body to maintain the right pH level in your blood. And the tolerances are slight. It's kind of like body temperature. And, you know, the regulation of blood pH is actually one of the stomach's primary functions. It uses various chemicals to ensure that everything that makes it through the processes of digestion is safe to be released into the blood. Okay, next myth is that milk contains dangerous hormones. So most cows are given hormones to increase growth and milk production, including recombinant bovine growth hormone, RGBH, and bovine somatotropin, also generally referred to as BST. Now, these hormones do find their way into the milk that is sold at your local grocery store. And while that may sound ominous, it is less of a cause for concern than many people think. And the reason why is the amount of these hormones in the milk is minuscule.

Most of the molecules are destroyed during pasteurization. minuscule. Most of the molecules are destroyed during pasteurization, and many of those that are not are broken down during digestion, which just leaves very little to affect your body and health. Now, another milk-related hormone that has people in a tizzy is insulin-like growth factor 1 or IGF-1, which has similar effects in the body as growth hormone. Now, this hormone is naturally present in milk at extremely low levels, I might add, and drinking milk does indeed boost your body's natural production of it. And these facts are often used to link milk consumption to cancer, to say that if you drink milk, you are increasing your risk of cancer, end of story. Drink milk, you are increasing your risk of cancer.

End of story. Now, this is actually understandable because cancer is at bottom, uncontrolled cellular reproduction. So someone with cancer, for example, certainly wouldn't want to do anything to boost IGF-1 levels. But that doesn't necessarily mean that increasing IGF-1 production always increases the risk of cancer in all people under all circumstances. And this is why research shows that scientists have not yet established whether elevated IGF-1 levels can increase the risk of cancer or are simply a byproduct of cancer. In other words, are we looking at causation or correlation? the literature has not provided a definitive answer yet. We just don't know yet. I think it's also worth noting that research shows your IGF-1 levels are generally correlated

with your total protein intake, meaning the more protein you eat, generally the more IGF-1 you have floating around in your blood. And I should also add that that is true of plant proteins as well. Plant proteins do indeed raise IGF-1 levels. Soy, for example, raises IGF-1 levels more than milk does. So if we are going to play by the more IGF-1 equals more cancer logic than a high protein diet would be far riskier than moderate milk consumption. And we know, however, that there is no credible evidence for this. There is no credible evidence linking high protein intake

with an increased risk of cancer. And just to drive another nail into this coffin, research has shown that people who eat more dairy may have a slightly higher risk of certain cancers, but most studies on the matter show that people who drink more milk have the same or even a lower risk of cancer than people who eat less dairy. Now, why the discrepancy, you might be wondering? Well, the most likely reason is simply confounding factors that are very hard to control for, stuff related to lifestyle like smoking and activity and poor diet, which are all known to increase the risk of cancer. All right, the next myth, milk is too processed to be healthy. Now, if you are one who likes to listen to fake doctors and self-styled nutrition experts, food processing of any kind is harmful. Well, this is silly, of course, because all foods

are processed to some degree. And so when anyone tars a broad category or discipline with the same brush in this way, alarm bells should start sounding in your head. Yes, it's true that there are some types of food processing that do produce unhealthy foods. Oil hydrogenation is a good example of this. But in many cases, processing makes foods safer, tastier, and more nutritious, not less nutritious. So in the case of milk and all other dairy products, they go through a variety of steps before they are deemed ready to eat, with the big ones being pasteurization, homogenization, and fortification. So what are these things? Well, pasteurization is the process of heating milk to 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds, and this is done to kill any unwanted bacteria, which ensures the milk is safe to drink and lasts longer on the

shelf. Homogenization is the process whereby fat globules are broken down into smaller ones and evenly dispersed throughout the milk. And they do this to keep the fat from separating from the rest of the liquid. And it is usually accomplished by forcing the milk through very small holes. And then there is fortification, which is the process of adding vitamins and minerals to the milk to make it more nutritious. Vitamin D is the most common nutrient added, but calcium and omega-3 fatty acids are also often included. Now, despite the obvious benefits of these processing methods, many health conscious people have come to believe that completely unprocessed raw milk is better for their bodies. And there actually is a valid argument to be made here.

Because it is not pasteurized, raw milk does contain more good bacteria that helps support gut health, but there is a downside. Raw milk also contains more bad bacteria that can cause sickness and other problems. Now, many raw milk advocates will point out that the risk of getting sick from the harmful bacteria present in raw milk is low, which is true, but it is still much higher than pasteurized milk. For example, according to CDC data, raw milk is responsible for 71% of the cases of people getting sick from drinking milk. Another common attack on pasteurization is the claim that it removes most or all of the beneficial nutrients naturally found in milk. And research shows that this is simply an exaggeration. While it's true that pasteurizing milk does downgrade its nutritional value, if your diet is set up at least halfway reasonably, if you're eating plenty of relatively

unprocessed nutritious foods, a lot of plant-based things, fruits, vegetables, seeds, legumes, and so forth, the reduction in the nutritiousness of the milk that you're drinking is simply not going to matter. It's not going to impact your health or wellbeing whatsoever. Now, if you were getting the majority of your daily calories from milk, which would be stupid, of course, then yeah, it might be an issue actually. But if you're not, the nutritional difference between raw and pasteurized milk is going to have no bearing on your health. And either way, whether you are drinking pasteurized or raw milk, you are going to be providing your body with an abundance of calcium and you are

still going to need to eat a bunch of fruits and vegetables and the other plant foods I just mentioned to make sure that you are giving your body enough nutrition to function optimally. All right, let's move on to the next myth, which is milk is full of pus, blood, and somatic cells. That sounds pretty bad, pretty gross, and that's why it has caught on. It is misleading though, and to understand why, we have to review how milk is collected from cows. So most dairy cows are hooked up to mechanized devices for milking that connect hoses to their udders, which suck out the milk. And while these machines are able to collect milk a lot faster than people can, they also cause many cows to get an infection called mastitis, which results in painful swelling in their udders. Now this, in turn, triggers an immune response in the cows, of course, which includes the increased production of somatic cells to fight off the infection. And in case you are not familiar with the term,

a somatic cell is simply any cell that is not a reproductive cell. So there's an infection, and the body produces these special type of cells to fight it. Now, when this is going on in a cow's body, it does affect the milk, which is why cows with infections do produce milk with higher levels of somatic cells than healthy ones. Furthermore, when somatic cell count is up due to infection, white blood cell count is going to be up as well to help fight off the infection, which is one of the main constituents of pus. Thus, the claim that milk contains somatic cells and pus, which we would assume is not good for our health. Well, first of all, milk never contains pus, but white blood cells. There's a difference there. Pus was chosen for the purposes

of propaganda because it conjures nauseating images, whereas white blood cells just kind of sounds benign. Moreover, the FDA maintains strict standards for testing milk for somatic cells, and any contaminated batches must be destroyed. Fines are also levied on farmers who consistently produce milk with unacceptable somatic cell counts. Now, no regulatory systems are perfect, of course, and that doesn't mean that you don't have people out there cheating the rules and producing milk that should be destroyed but is not. However, the enforcement of these rules has been pretty effective. Now, as far as blood goes, the claim that milk also contains blood, it is more or less the same story. Small amounts of blood can get into the milk if the cow's udder

is bruised or infected, or if it is harvested after birthing a calf. And this is handled in more or less the same way as milk contaminated with somatic cells. If it contains significant amounts of blood, it is supposed to be thrown out. And there are plenty of ethical milk producers out there who do just that. So while I do think it's fair to say that milk that comes from healthy cows is better or preferred over milk from sick cows, it is disingenuous to say that all milk contains byproducts of sickness that can in turn make us sick as well. All right, well, that is it for all the myths and really everything I wanted to go over. The bottom line here is that many health and fitness experts love to demonize foods.

They love to give people scapegoats, panaceas, and quick fix solutions because it works. It is good marketing if you have no morals. And that is why fad diets, of course, are the order of the day and why so many people think that they should avoid so many of the foods that they like, like milk, dairy, sugar, meat, and many others. And unfortunately, most of this is just manufactured hysteria to sell pills, powders, and diet and workout programs. The reality is a healthy diet is far more flexible

and accommodating and enjoyable and sustainable than you've been led to believe. And yes, it can include more or less any food you like to eat, including the ones I just mentioned, including dairy, including sugar, including meat and other verboten foods. And for milk's part, it is an inexpensive source of calories, of macro and micronutrients, and it is perfectly healthy when included as a part of a balanced diet. So despite claims to the contrary, milk does not cause weight gain, it does not cause cancer, it doesn't degenerate your bones, and it doesn't contain unhealthy amounts of hormones, pus, or blood. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it

interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too.

And of course, if you wanna be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right, that's it.

Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in, so instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my 100% natural fat loss supplement Phoenix. It has sold over a hundred thousand bottles in the last several years, and it helps you lose fat faster in three ways. One, it increases your metabolic rate to it amplifies the power of fat burning chemicals produced by your body. And three, it increases the feeling of fullness from

food. In short short it speeds up your metabolism it helps your body burn fat more efficiently and it helps you control hunger and cravings and maintain high energy levels Phoenix also contains no artificial food dyes fillers or other unnecessary junk and all that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a four star average and another 250 reviews on my website with a four and a half star average. So if you want to burn more fat every day and have an easier time sticking to your diet without having to pump yourself full of harsh stimulants or potentially harmful chemicals, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Phoenix today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order.

And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.LegionAthletics.com now, place your order,

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