Why You Can’t Stop Bingeing On Dairy, According to the Experts
I’m a decently healthy person but every single day, I eat a lot of cheese, and a lot of ice cream. It’s all I want, all the time; grilled cheese sandys, Annie’s macaroni and cheese, plain old Cheddar, Ben and Jerry pints, Tofutti Cutie ice cream sandwiches, you name it, I eat it. The bad news is that I have to stop, because I know in my heart that it’s a bad habit, but the good news is that it’s not entirely my fault.
I’m a pescetarian, so it makes sense that I crave a lot of protein. Or just any food in general.
“Protein-rich foods are broken down more slowly and therefore stay in the stomach longer, making us feel fuller,” nutrition Cassandra Barns, told the Daily Mail. “Ensuring we have a serving of protein-rich food — meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds — with every meal can therefore be helpful in controlling appetite and for weight management.”
So what’s a fromage-loving girl to do? I asked Luke Milton, celebrity sports nutritionist and founder of Training Mate, and to guide me through understanding my problem, and maybe even help me find a light at the end of the dairy-addiction tunnel.
“Dairy becomes an addiction, because our bodies crave that source of animal protein, and the real issue with dairy in America, especially, is that it’s too processed,” he said. “It’s so far away from its original form, that we don’t get nearly enough of the nutrition that our body needs.”
He went on:
“No one’s ever really able to talk about why dairy is being so processed. There’s a real issue in the states — more than anywhere else, people are reporting symptoms of IBS, and lactose intolerance.”
Tech Times also wrote about the addictive properties of dairy, citing a study in which researchers linked foods that people often abuse with how processed they are.
And it’s true that more and more people mention to me that their bodies don’t react well too dairy. That explains the huge surge in the dairy-alternative industry as well.
“Helped by innovation in both dairy and meat-alternative products, we believe the overall plant-based foods industry represents more than $3.5 billion in sales, including various meat and dairy alternatives,” an article in Forbes titled “Plant Power: How The $3.5 Billion Dairy-Alternative Industry Could Help WhiteWave, Hormel And Other Food Giants” notes.
“We don’t realize how much sugar is in the dairy we’re consuming either,” Luke said. “Even starting kids off with milk as a snack is contributing to the weight issues in America.”
So what should we be eating instead?
According to Luke, Greek yogurt is bomb for our digestive systems, and the whole trick to keeping up a consistent is eating according to where you live. For example, living close to the ocean — like I do, in Los Angeles — means taking advantage of the awesome foods that are available to me. I’ll take that as a hint to replace my dairy addiction with a steady diet of Nobu sushi instead. That’s what he must mean, right?
