Big Red Gum

I used to drink milk and use it cereal. Since I have stopped using milk about 8 years ago, I have not gotten strep throught once. I used to get strep once a year. I now drink Silk light vanilla. It tastes much better, and the chocolate is good too!

TheStott

There was also a study done at JMU in Virginia (which also made the Colbert Report, which MUST validate it). Coincidentally, I just rode with the physiologist that conducted the study. After that ride (60 miles, 6,000 feet of climbing) I had a great big chocolate milk (along with my regular high carb. dinner, and multiple snacks before bed). I felt good enough the next morning to do another 50 miles with around 3,000 feet of climbing. Did this have anything to do with the CM? Who knows, but I certainly didn't feel any worse.

Also, I'm taking part in a caffeine study with the same guy. Should be interesting.

GirlAnachronism

Anyone have any insight about soy milk vs. real milk? I love love love chocolate milk but my stomach doesn't tend to agree. Does soy milk have the same benefits as regular milk?

Val23708

it should. some studies show milk is better but every single one of those is funded by the dairy people (who are almost as evil as the corn people).

cows milk contains lactose which probably upsets your stomach. some people cannot digest the sugar, thus the micro flora in the gut gets to process it all and it can cause bowl problems.

cows milk also contains cholesterol (which basically makes it liquid meat!). on the other hand, soy milk is purely plant based, therefore has no cholesterol, and actually can lower your cholesterol through anti-oxidants.

cows milk (non-skim) contains more saturated fat (the bad one) and less mono-unsaturated fat (the good kind) than soy milk.

soy milk has less vitamin and mineral nutrition per same volume than cows milk in general, thus to get the same nutrition, you probably have to drink about 25% more soy milk (fortified)

soy milk does contain fiber which is very good for you, whereas cows milk does not.

so soy milk is plenty good.

Bob Dopolina 

Are you all missing the fact that you are not cows?

Milk is an evil fat and chemical laden product that humans were not meant to consume - we lack the enzyme lactaze that is needed to process it. The calcium is largely bio UN available and the stuff is full of fat and hormones.

Milk bad.

hrt4me

Thanks for all the good information

Val23708

indeed. the calcium in it really only offsets the acidity of the milk itself...

gregf83 

I always find this an odd statement. Not meant by whom? Who decided what humans should be eating. Were we meant to drink beer? eat pizza?

I (and many others) don't have any problem digesting milk and if you don't like the fat you can get low fat versions.

sebatl

Cows have been domesticated over 10,000 years ago in Europe. Scientists believe than being able to digest milk was such an advantage in famine periods that humans (Caucasians actually) have evolved over the years to be able to digest it.
Milk is not evil, it might even have saved your great great great (...) great grand mama's life few thousands of years ago...

To go back to the topic, does it have to be Chocolate Milk or is milk good enough, I tend to prefer my milk natural.

Val23708

Chocolate milk. Normal milk isn't loaded with as much sugar.

banerjek

That means I'm screwed. I've been drinking as much as a half gallon a day for over 20 years. I get whole milk unless I'm forced to get 2% or skim (yuck).

How much of this stuff do you have to drink before you can tell your body can't process it?

anticlimbactic

I haven't drank milk regularly since I was a kid. It's just nasty. That said, all this talk about chocolate milk made me stop and get a half gallon of Silk Chocolate

Bob Dopolina 

If you swallow a rock it will pass through your body, too. Does that mean your body was able to process it?

As babies it is easier for us to process cows milk. As we get older a large percentage of people lose this ability because we stop producing, or produce in far smaller amounts, the enzyme LACTASE.

From wiki:

Lactose intolerance is the inability to metabolize lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products, because the required enzyme lactase is absent in the intestinal system or its availability is lowered. It is estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood. The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from as little as 5% in northern Europe, up to 71% for Southern Europe, to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.


Those who continue to consume milk into adulthood who then stop very often subsequently become lactose intolerant.

It may work for you but it is not all that for a great number of people.

This doesn't even touch on the hormone issues with milk.


BTW, I take milk in my coffee (not cream).

Hida Yanra

of interest: I've been having GI & digestion problems during triathlons, 4+ hr workouts, and during periods of hard training. This has become much more noticeable over the last two years - and it is only in the past month that it occurred to me that milk might be the issue.

I consumed lots of dairy... LOTS of it.
Milk, yoghurt, ice-cream, cheese... and those numbers went up as I started cutting back on my meat consumption.

Long story short, I decided to try cutting dairy out of my diet for 10 days - and the GI/digestion problems 95% vanished.

I added dairy back in slowly, the problems returned, case closed.

I now consume very little dairy, and I've found ways around the many parts of my diet cows used to cover. I feel similarly to when I first took meat out of my diet - i feel like my metabolism is much "smoother", I seem to digest & process food much better - and not feel as groggy as when I drank 1/2gal of milk a day.

I still have some dairy - but very sparingly.
So, count me as someone who developed a lactose intolerance gradually (noticeable as of age 23), and I do much better without.

Hida Yanra

Fat isn't all bad, it gets a bad rap that is many times undeserved... but that's topic for a different thread.
how about: "Fat - part of 'all things in moderation'."

Lactaze (it'll do wicked stuff to you), the hormones in 90% of commercially available milk, and the non-usefulness of milk-based calcium make milk a lot less convincing in my mind... but that's just me.

I've been drinking rice milk for a few months now, and I'm quite happy with it.
(I've had two glasses already this evening)

Bob Dopolina 

Agreed, fats aren't all bad.

We need fatty acids for our everything out body does. It's just the extra fat in milk (even low fat) just isn't worth it to me. If I thought I was getting other nutrients the trade off would be worth it but this isn't my take on the situation at present.

Univega

I read somewhere the Austrian recovery drink (post ride) is Beer and Ginger Ale.

rooftest

That's what I was thinking. I think downing a milk, then going for a high-intensity ride is a recipe for disaster.

I can't stand milk, so I'll be sticking with the energy drinks. Plus, as has been mentioned, milk won't keep very well in my hot car while I'm riding for 3 or 4 hours.

Glidedon

"Two senior US government scientists, Drs. Daniel Doerge and Daniel Sheehan, have revealed that chemicals in soy could increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants.

The scientists decided to break ranks with colleagues in the FDA and oppose its decision last year to approve a health claim that soy reduced the risk of heart disease.
They wrote an internal protest letter warning of 28 studies revealing toxic effects of soy, mostly focusing on chemicals in soy known as isoflavones, which have effects similar to the female hormone estrogen.
They claim that research has shown a clear link between soy and the potential for adverse effects in humans.
Soy may lead to health problems in animals including altering sexual development of fetuses and causing thyroid disorders.
Some studies show that chemicals in soy may increase the chances of estrogen-dependent breast cancer.
According to their letter:

'There is abundant evidence that some of the isoflavones found in soy demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid.'
'During pregnancy in humans, isoflavones per se could be a risk factor for abnormal brain and reproductive tract development."

If you want to be brain dead and gay go ahead with the soy. :-)

Terex

chocolate almond milk > chocolate soy milk > chocolate milk...

I've gone over to choco almond milk for my post recovery ride (w/ banana & ice in a magic bullet), and vanilla almond milk when I have granola for breakfast.

urbanknight

I knew it was a mistake when I started drinking organic milk.

banerjek

Pshaw. I think part of what makes people unable to process certain foods is lack of exposure. The human body is very good at adapting at what it needs to. Not that there are no issues with dairy. Eat enough yogurt or drink enough milk, and even I will puke. But that's true for practically everything. People who eat food with no spices or taste also get sick when they're exposed to these things.

Despite milk's benefits, I do not use it when working out because I find it's better to go with something that's very easy on the stomach. But I did drink another 1/2 gallon of whole milk yesterday.

Bob Dopolina 

I've not heard this (in this context) but I have read that soy products (including Tofu) are not recommended for boys before the onset of puberty because of these same questions.

What I'd read suggested there was a link between too much soy and underdeveloped testicles in men. Living in Asia where Tofu is a much larger part of the diet than NA I don't let my son eat any soy products.

I, and the rest of my family do, as I seems to be just fine (in that department).

I'd like to read more. Links?

Bob Dopolina 

I'd completely agree with this.

The converse is also true. The odds are pretty good that if you stopped drinking milk right now that in a few years you wouldn't be able to handle it (certainly not in those quantities) anymore.

You may be one of those who could but the point is the body does adapt within certain limits.

I had to adjust, once I started living here, to a new diet. Now I crave different foods (still composed of the same basic nutrients) that I did before and, the last time I went back to NA, I craved some specific foods from here.

Coincidence? I think not!

banerjek

Definitely, this is true. I eat very little processed food -- I basically have a health nut diet except I like to drink lots of whole milk. While I can eat spicy things that will keep other people on the can all day and put down loads of dairy, a single meal from a fast food restaurant gives me heartburn and feeling sick to my stomach. I can hardly believe there are people that eat that crap almost every day.