Dairy: An Ancestral Perspective

If I had to pick the most controversial food in our country in terms of health right now, I’d bet on dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream, you name it—all currently touted by the wellness industry as inflammatory to the body, hard to digest, and the culprit in chronic acne and a host of other ails. It’s no wonder why our grocery store shelves are now filled with dairy-alternative products made from things like nuts, seeds, soy, and coconut. Thanks to the rise in popularity of Paleo, Whole30, and plant-based diets in recent years, dairy has become a food to be feared and avoided at all costs.

But this wasn’t always the case. Fifty or more years ago, the one thing you could find in almost everyone’s fridge? A gallon of milk. Especially if there were kids in the household. It was the #1 food for building strong bones and healthy bodies, and its golden reputation lasted through 1975, when Americans drank on average 247 pounds of milk per person. (For comparison, that number dropped to 146 in 2018.) I myself was partly responsible for this steady decline, having completely ditched dairy for years in high school and college due to the desire to improve my health. Knowing what I know now about the nutritional profile of milk, however, I believe our grandparents might have been onto something.

Is dairy inflammatory or nourishing? Should you consume it regularly, occasionally or refrain completely? As with everything else, the answer to this question is complex and depends on a number of factors. That said, it may be worth taking a closer look at each one before writing off this American classic altogether.

Read the rest in Issue No. 4 of the Ember Journal, published June 2022.