Protein before bed?

[gbrice75]

F.F. Cottage is the ONLY thing Costco doesn't sell that I really wish they had. They have 2% in tubs but no F.F.
I get it at the grocery store for about $3 per 24 oz.

I've been using the 1%, no-salt added variety for years. I could never go back to eating the higher sodium (regular) cottage cheese... the salty flavor nauseates me.

[Quester]

I got this from Men's Health:

NUTRITION

The Best Thing to Eat Before Bed
by Sara Cann February 24, 2012, 04:30 am EDT


The right grub before bed can bring huge results.
If you fall into the habit of eating dinner, hitting the gym, and then going straight to bed, you may be starving your body of needed protein to build muscles, according to new research from the Netherlands.

“We previously established that muscle protein synthesis rates [i.e. building muscles] are quite low during overnight recovery,” says study author Luc J.C. van Loon, Ph.D., professor of physiology of exercise at Maastricht University Medical Center. “As this might be attributed to the fact that there are not as many amino acids available during the night.”

So researchers questioned whether protein eaten before bed could be effectively digested and provide enough amino acids to stimulate muscle growth while sleeping.

They asked two groups of 8 men to perform leg extensions and presses for 45 minutes starting at 8 p.m. Afterward, one group received an additional protein shake prior to sleep, while the other group received water with some flavoring.


The study found that those who took the protein shake right before sleep increased overnight muscle protein synthesis by more than 22 percent compared to those who drank the flavored water.

Why? Protein stimulates muscle growth, but only for two to three hours after exercise. If you’re an after-work gymgoer, you may not have an extra meal to stimulate muscle production while you’re sleeping. This is why slipping in a protein snack before bed could give your body the opportunity to break it down into amino acids, which stimulate muscle growth, says van Loon. (Don’t know everything about protein? Here’s your perfect guide.)

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your bedtime snack, aim for about 25 grams of a high-quality protein like whey, which studies have shown to exhibit the best muscle-growth rates.

Bonus tip: The study authors noted that this research may be especially beneficial to guys 60 and older. Adding an extra meal right before bed provides more fuel for your body to synthesize muscle and combat the effects of age-related muscle loss. And a new study in the American Journal of Physiology found that elderly men who ate 35 grams of whey protein compared to 10 or 20 grams experienced greater muscle growth.

[Sgt. Hartman]

Is this thread really about whether or not to eat cottage cheese before bed? Are you fvcking kidding me?

If I knew my bedtime meal was the most important factor in determining my body composition/physique I'd have saved myself a lot of meals and workouts. Lift to failure and beyond, hit your macros everyday, and chill the fvck out with over complicating things.

And btw I usually have smuckers natural pb, casein protein, and milk before bed every night. This must be why I'm so weak, skinny and fat.

[OdinsOtherSon]

Is this thread really about whether or not to eat cottage cheese before bed? Are you fvcking kidding me?

If I knew my bedtime meal was the most important factor in determining my body composition/physique I'd have saved myself a lot of meals and workouts. Lift to failure and beyond, hit your macros everyday, and chill the fvck out with over complicating things.

And btw I usually have smuckers natural pb, casein protein, and milk before bed every night. This must be why I'm so weak, skinny and fat.

^^ Well, that pretty much sums it up and I couldn't agree more. Awesome perspective Sgt., as always.

[cj111]

I just had two pieces of toast covered in PB and then 3 fried eggs on top...

well, off to bed!

[gbrice75]

And btw I usually have smuckers natural pb, casein protein, and milk before bed every night. This must be why I'm so weak, skinny and fat.

Nah, the meal is fine. Your problem is you should be eating it PWO instead of before bed; exactly 2.34345453445 hours after your very last rep.

[DannC]

Wait...what? Still didn`t get the freakin` "no milk" part. Also read it in another thread.
Why exactly is it bad to drink it with the protein or just have milk, or even having it with the protein before going to bed?
Yes, the "sugar" might spike your insuline levels...but come on...A standard 8-oz. serving of milk provides good to excellent sources of nine essential nutrients, making it one of the most nutrient-dense foods. This means it provides a high level of essential nutrients compared to its calories. In fact, each serving of milk provides 10% or more of the recommended daily intake for calcium, vitamin D (if fortified), protein, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin and phosphorus. Milk is well known as an excellent source of calcium. Regardless of its fat content, milk provides about 300 milligrams of calcium per serving (8 fluid ounces).
I drink alot of milk, with my whey protein, even before bed...helps me recuperate faster, i make great trainings, great cardio, getting leaner and leaner and the weights are going up and very happy with myself...

Get Snickers is bad...but milk? Seriously guys ...now we eat just cotton cheese everytime? Hahaha

[oatmeal69]

It's the lactose.
It's also your diet and your routine, figure out what works best for you. Everyone here just offers opinions. Do as you think best.

[Turkish Juicer]

Wait...what? Still didn`t get the freakin` "no milk" part. Also read it in another thread.
Why exactly is it bad to drink it with the protein or just have milk, or even having it with the protein before going to bed?
Yes, the "sugar" might spike your insuline levels...but come on...A standard 8-oz. serving of milk provides good to excellent sources of nine essential nutrients, making it one of the most nutrient-dense foods. This means it provides a high level of essential nutrients compared to its calories. In fact, each serving of milk provides 10% or more of the recommended daily intake for calcium, vitamin D (if fortified), protein, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin and phosphorus. Milk is well known as an excellent source of calcium. Regardless of its fat content, milk provides about 300 milligrams of calcium per serving (8 fluid ounces).
I drink alot of milk, with my whey protein, even before bed...helps me recuperate faster, i make great trainings, great cardio, getting leaner and leaner and the weights are going up and very happy with myself...

Get Snickers is bad...but milk? Seriously guys ...now we eat just cotton cheese everytime? Hahaha

You have basically parroted the spokesmen of the milk industry and left out all the dark sides.

Every time you drink milk;

1. You are transferring the female hormones of the cow that are abundant in milk, estrogen being the first and foremost. This happens to be an issue with people who have high estrogen sensitivity.

2. Lactose, which is abundant in milk, is possibly the poorest, most useless form of non-starchy carbohydrates. It also happens to be the only form of CHO that leads to complications with people who are lactose intolerant; bloating and gas is a bigger issue for these individuals than most of us may think of it.

3. Dairy products are healthier compared to milk itself, thanks to the cultures and healthy bacteria present in them, which is why I would prefer cottage cheese over milk any time.

4. Every micro nutrition (vitamins, minerals, enzymes and anti-oxidants) that milk contains can easily be ingested from other sources. Plain and simple.

5. Pasteurized milk, unlike the claims of the spokesmen of the milk industry, is technically a food that consists of nearly dead nutrition, simply due to the process of pasteurization. How many people do we have on this forum who drink milk drink it raw, after boiling it of course? This is a fact that the milk industry likes to avoid everywhere on the planet.

If you think you have been benefiting from drinking milk, go ahead and continue do it. As far as standing up for milk, not such a great idea.

[austinite]

^ Well said, TJ.

[Sgt. Hartman]

You have basically parroted the spokesmen of the milk industry and left out all the dark sides.

Every time you drink milk;

1. You are transferring the female hormones of the cow that are abundant in milk, estrogen being the first and foremost. This happens to be an issue with people who have high estrogen sensitivity.

This is misleading. The structure of the estrogens in cow milk have not been altered to block the first pass through the liver like birth control pills or oral steroids .

You'd have to drink several gallons of full fat milk a day to even come close to matching the average male's daily e production anyway.

[--->>405<<---]

personally i like milk a lot and until coming to this forum drank the heck out of it. since then i have become a lot more conscientious about my milk consumption, but here lately have gotten a little less strict.

all things ingested IMO for myself are dependent on my current goals, when i am cutting i pay a lot more attention to specific types of carbs, when doing everything else i have learned i can be much more relaxed. the longer i am in this lifestyle, the more i try to go from extreme (where i started) to trying to be more practical and have diversity in my diet.

meats, fats, grains, dairy, fruits.. i want to enjoy my food. i dont want to be a robot my entire life. for me, body composition is priority, then after that i enjoy what im eating. it is a slow process incorporating foods back into my diet, but i am finding i can.

basically it comes down to everything in moderation IMO

[gbrice75]

This is misleading. The structure of the estrogens in cow milk have not been altered to block the first pass through the liver like birth control pills or oral steroids .

You'd have to drink several gallons of full fat milk a day to even come close to matching the average male's daily e production anyway.

I was gonna say - I'd like to see credible studies that show the effects, if any, of bovine estrogen in humans via consumption of dairy products. I'm not necessarily debating the topic; I just haven't seen anything concise to date.

[Tron3219]

I was gonna say - I'd like to see credible studies that show the effects, if any, of bovine estrogen in humans via consumption of dairy products. I'm not necessarily debating the topic; I just haven't seen anything concise to date.

I couldn't find any, I was looking the other day. However, I did read something that made me a bit curious. Lactose has a low glycemic index, which means doesnt raise blood sugar levels, but acts more so like a complex carb. Longer sustainment Of blood glucose, BUT does increase insulin significantly. So to me, it's like the best of both worlds. Long sustainment of energy (like complex carbs), but a sharp increase of insulin (like high glycemic carbs). If there's not a bunch of glucose in ur blood, it can't push near as much into adipose tissue, but could hav the effects of insulin to push other nutrients into muscle cells...thoughts?

-Chomp Chomp Chomp-Clink Clink Clink-

[oatmeal69]

The thing that makes C. Cheese so great is that the lactose has been fermented (?) away and the milk has been broken down into a more usable form by our bodies... I think, right?

[gbrice75]

I couldn't find any, I was looking the other day. However, I did read something that made me a bit curious. Lactose has a low glycemic index, which means doesnt raise blood sugar levels, but acts more so like a complex carb. Longer sustainment Of blood glucose, BUT does increase insulin significantly. So to me, it's like the best of both worlds. Long sustainment of energy (like complex carbs), but a sharp increase of insulin (like high glycemic carbs). If there's not a bunch of glucose in ur blood, it can't push near as much into adipose tissue, but could hav the effects of insulin to push other nutrients into muscle cells...thoughts?

-Chomp Chomp Chomp-Clink Clink Clink-

Sounds like a reasonable theory - but did what you read explain by what mechanism dairy/lactose increases insulin significantly, if not via increased BGL?

[951thompson]

The thing that makes C. Cheese so great is that the lactose has been fermented (?) away and the milk has been broken down into a more usable form by our bodies... I think, right?

No milk is actually way more nutrient dense then cottage cheese, the protein is quality, a blend of both whey and casein, it's great source of calcium as well as other nutrients, there's probably nutrients in milk that haven't even been discovered yet. (Same with egg yolks)
Bodybuilders have been using milk since the dawn of time, it's only recently it's become unfashionable.
Milk is great for bulking imo.

[Tron3219]

Sounds like a reasonable theory - but did what you read explain by what mechanism dairy/lactose increases insulin significantly, if not via increased BGL?

No I got de-railed on galactose and liver glycogen and bf...yada yada yada...damn ADD!!!

-Chomp Chomp Chomp-Clink Clink Clink-

[gbrice75]

No I got de-railed on galactose and liver glycogen and bf...yada yada yada...damn ADD!!!

lol... well if you happen to find out, hit me up pls!

[Tron3219]

lol... well if you happen to find out, hit me up pls!

There was a study that I wrote down to come back to on the effects of milk on insulin . I think it was in the British journal of nutrition in 2005

-Chomp Chomp Chomp-Clink Clink Clink-

[DannC]

i dont want to be a robot my entire life. for me, body composition is priority, then after that i enjoy what im eating. it is a slow process incorporating foods back into my diet, but i am finding i can.

basically it comes down to everything in moderation IMO

True that brother! I will continue to drink it because the positive effects of milk don`t all come from the "milk spokesmen" but i bet there were also men of science who made tests...

If i knew milk is "bad", never drinked it all those times when i was a child ) Bet Arnold wasn`t drinking any milk either!

[Turkish Juicer]

Sounds like a reasonable theory - but did what you read explain by what mechanism dairy/lactose increases insulin significantly, if not via increased BGL?

Although milk has a low-glycemic-index number (about 15 to 30), milk and milk-based foods paradoxically have a high insulin -stimulating effect, possibly because of certain protein fractions found in milk. All dairy products, with the exception of hard cheese, have potent insulin-boosting effects. Adding 200 milliliters of milk to a low-glycemic-index meal increases the insulin response by 300 percent.

[Turkish Juicer]

Hormones in milk can be dangerous

By Corydon Ireland

Harvard News Office

Ganmaa Davaasambuu is a physician (Mongolia), a Ph.D. in environmental health (Japan), a fellow (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), and a working scientist (Harvard School of Public Health).

On Monday (Dec. 4), she drew on all those roles during a lunchtime talk to most of her fellow fellows.

Ganmaa's topic was lunch-appropriate: the suspected role of cow's milk, cheese, and other dairy products in hormone-dependent cancers. (Those include cancers of the testes, prostate, and breast.)

The link between cancer and dietary hormones - estrogen in particular - has been a source of great concern among scientists, said Ganmaa, but it has not been widely studied or discussed.

The potential for risk is large. Natural estrogens are up to 100,000 times more potent than their environmental counterparts, such as the estrogen-like compounds in pesticides.

"Among the routes of human exposure to estrogens, we are mostly concerned about cow's milk, which contains considerable amounts of female sex hormones," Ganmaa told her audience. Dairy, she added, accounts for 60 percent to 80 percent of estrogens consumed.

Part of the problem seems to be milk from modern dairy farms, where cows are milked about 300 days a year. For much of that time, the cows are pregnant. The later in pregnancy a cow is, the more hormones appear in her milk.

Milk from a cow in the late stage of pregnancy contains up to 33 times as much of a signature estrogen compound (estrone sulfate) than milk from a non-pregnant cow.

In a study of modern milk in Japan, Ganmaa found that it contained 10 times more progesterone, another hormone, than raw milk from Mongolia.

In traditional herding societies like Mongolia, cows are milked for human consumption only five months a year, said Ganmaa, and, if pregnant, only in the early stages. Consequently, levels of hormones in the milk are much lower.

"The milk we drink today is quite unlike the milk our ancestors were drinking" without apparent harm for 2,000 years, she said. "The milk we drink today may not be nature's perfect food."

Earlier studies bear out Ganmaa's hypothesis that eating dairy heightens the risk of some cancers.

One study compared diet and cancer rates in 42 counties. It showed that milk and cheese consumption are strongly correlated to the incidence of testicular cancer among men ages 20 to 39. Rates were highest in places like Switzerland and Denmark, where cheese is a national food, and lowest in Algeria and other countries where dairy is not so widely consumed.

Cancer rates linked to dairy can change quickly, said Ganmaa. In the past 50 years in Japan, she said, rising rates of dairy consumption are linked with rising death rates from prostate cancer - from near zero per 100,000 five decades ago to 7 per 100,000 today.

Butter, meat, eggs, milk, and cheese are implicated in higher rates of hormone-dependent cancers in general, she said. Breast cancer has been linked particularly to consumption of milk and cheese.

In another study, rats fed milk show a higher incidence of cancer and develop a higher number of tumors than those who drank water, said Ganmaa.

All this begs the question of the health effects of milk on children. About 75 percent of American children under 12 consume dairy every day, but its health effects on prepubescent bodies is not known - "a good rationale for further study," said Ganmaa, who studies bioactive substances in food and reproductive health disorders.

She and her Harvard colleagues have already conducted two pilot studies.

One compared levels of hormones and growth factors in American milk (whole, whole organic, skim milk, and UHT - ultra-high temperature - milk) to milk from Mongolia. Levels were very low in both American skim and in Mongolian milk.

Another pilot study looked at third-graders in Mongolia. After a month, the hormone levels jumped among the children fed commercial U.S. milk.

Long-term studies are needed to see if any of this is important for children's health. "We don't know what the larger implications are," said Ganmaa. (The National Institutes of Health is now reviewing Ganmaa and her team's application to fund a two-year study.)

Meanwhile, Ganmaa is investigating 22 years of data from Harvard's Nurses Health Study, looking for a potential link between dairy and endometrial cancer.

But she is cautious about the implications of her studies of cancer rates and dairy consumption.

For one, said Ganmaa, "milk is a food of great complexity" and contains high levels of beneficial nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D. (Mongolian children, who drink a third less dairy than their American counterparts, have low levels of vitamin D.)

"The hormonal effects of milk are very new," said Ganmaa during questions from her Radcliffe audience. Until more research is done, she said, "I'd like to keep our heads low."

But steps can be taken now to reduce the amount of hormones in milk, said Ganmaa. Because hormones reside in milk fat, drinking skim milk is one option. Getting calcium from green leafy vegetables is another.

Modes of milk production can also change, said Ganmaa. She suggested milking only nonpregnant cows (the Mongolian model), or not milking cows when they are in the later stages of pregnancy, when hormone levels are particularly high.

"The dairy industry in the United States is not going to change in any radical way," said artist Shimon Attie, the Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow at Radcliffe - and a former dairyman.

But in the meantime, he had a suggestion for the coffee setting at future Radcliffe Fellows luncheons: a pot of nondairy creamer.

Source: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/.../11-dairy.html

[gbrice75]

Although milk has a low-glycemic-index number (about 15 to 30), milk and milk-based foods paradoxically have a high insulin-stimulating effect, possibly because of certain protein fractions found in milk. All dairy products, with the exception of hard cheese, have potent insulin-boosting effects. Adding 200 milliliters of milk to a low-glycemic-index meal increases the insulin response by 300 percent.

So potential hormone related issues aside, it sounds like Tron has a solid working theory. Milk has also been touted as an excellent PWO source by credible sources.

Personally, I've been staying away from it to keep sugar down (low GI or not), and also due to the potential estrogen issue. Although inconclusive (as far as I know), I like to err on the side of caution. Same reason I keep soy intake very low.

[RaginCajun]

My triathlete friend drinks chocolate milk immediately after a race.

[Tron3219]

So potential hormone related issues aside, it sounds like Tron has a solid working theory. Milk has also been touted as an excellent PWO source by credible sources.

Personally, I've been staying away from it to keep sugar down (low GI or not), and also due to the potential estrogen issue. Although inconclusive (as far as I know), I like to err on the side of caution. Same reason I keep soy intake very low.

Haha I just got back from the gym, and started reading on it. While I has at the gym I started thinking maybe the fat blunted the glucose from releasing into the blood stream, but this proved me wrong! Lol

http://journals.cambridge.org/action...0711450500022X

[Sgt. Hartman]

Bill Roberts on the Harvard article and Japan study (which is pretty much the only source cited for all negative hormone issues re milk).

A person claiming high levels of estrogen in milk should provide support evidence for his claim.

(Beyond just citing an author who himself provides no supporting evidence.)

To my knowledge it is not correct.

Did you notice that nowhere in that article was an actual figure given for the claimed amount?

Saying "10 times more than milk from Mongolia" means nothing when the estrogen (or progesterone) content from the Mongolian milk is essentially zero and the same is true for the American milk.

There's a reason no number was ever given on the actual amount. Because when numbers are given, they're absurdly low and destroy the entire argument.

And where would she get more funding if the alarm was taken out of her message?

Anyway, we are still waiting for someone claiming high estrogen levels to provide actual evidence that provides an example such level actually measured in milk sold in the USA.

Instead, we will get something like "The average American has 10 times more uranium in his body than the average Mongolian," setting some into a panic, who don't realize that the amount of uranium in an average American is nonetheless some utterly trace value of no consequence.

Hormonal balance is affected by all kinds of things other than directly taking hormones, you know. And unfortunately, studies trying to assign effects seen in the general population to foods suffer from the fact that all else is NEVER the same, and it may very well be, for example, that milk consumption also tended to correlate with something else being different, with that something else being the actual cause.

Or it could be there is a correlation between women's hormone levels and what foods they like. Cause and effect could be the reverse.

Anyway, we are still lacking example quantitative figures of high estrogen or progesterone levels in milk. I could go and get figures that I have found before, or other figures, and post them but it is the responsibility of the person making the positive claim -- here, that milk has high hormone levels -- to provide at least a trace of actual evidence.

That hasn't been done. And won't be done, because levels other than ones destroying the argument won't be found. Why credibility is being given to it, I can't quite get.

[gbrice75]

^^ good stuff here Sgt, nice work!

[basketballfan22]

God, I have missed this site. So much damn information! I see milk is still a hot-button issue. I still haven't cut down my milk consumption (3 cups of nonfat per day) despite a few previous posts from me investigating the negative effects of it. I see you, gb, are more hesitant about milk now. This makes me believe I should start cutting it out now. I definitely need to add cottage cheese into my diet plan. I eat a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt per day, but I have known about cottage cheese for a while. Do you guys think having both cottage cheese and yogurt is too much dairy if I start to cut out my milk?

[mockery]

the logic people use as an argument that they dont want to miss out on life, over think things or they will never compete so the little things dont matter. Yet planning meal delivery while you are sleeping so you "grow" is pretty much in the top three most over thinking and body building. Sleeping is no different then PWO meals, there is no magic window, there is no magic protein delivery window during REM sleep... You eat all day, the macro nutrients is in your system.

using steroids and having good genetics and training for half your life doesn't make a solid argument that al other points are moot because you are a huge dude. Or saying the key to success is training to failure especially when the base of that word is to fail. shame on you SGT. tisk tisk i usually expect more from you.

[Quester]

Studies have found that skim milk contains less estrogen than higher fat milk. Also, 98% of it is in conjugated, which is the less active form.

This is a more recent (slightly) report from the same source as above:

Modern Milk
by Jonathan Shaw
May-June 2007
Share on email Email
THE MILK WE DRINK today may not be nature’s perfect food,” says Ganmaa Davaasambuu, a Mongolian physician who is a fellow this year at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Even as the scientific community has become interested in the effects of the bioactive substances found in pesticides, says Ganmaa, not much attention has been paid to the naturally occurring estrogens found in food, which are both far more abundant and more biologically available than environmental estrogens. In fact, she is concerned that the high levels of hormones found in commercially produced milk may be harmful to human health. Estrogens and other growth factors have been implicated in the development of hormone-dependent cancers: those affecting the prostate, testes, ovaries, breasts, and uterus.

Skeptics note that humans have been drinking milk without apparent harm for millennia, she says. But modern milk is different. Her concern stems not from the use of bovine growth hormone (she excluded BGH-fed cows from her studies), but from the fact that milk-producing cows in commercial dairies, through use of artificial insemination and high-quality winter feed, are kept pregnant and lactating 300 days a year. “Cows are like humans,” she explains. “When they get pregnant, the estrogen levels in their blood, milk, and urine increase. [Human pregnancy tests detect similar increases.] This made me wonder—since the cows are pregnant all the time, the hormone levels in their milk should be really high.”

While earning her doctorate in environmental health in Japan, Ganmaa began investigating the prevalence and effects of these naturally occurring hormones. In her native Mongolia, traditional patterns of milking—the same as those used in Westernized countries until the 1920s—are still followed: pasture-fed cows are milked only through the first three months of a new pregnancy. Their raw milk had only one-tenth the progesterone that she and her colleagues found in commercially produced milk in Japan.


Mongolian physician Ganmaa Davaasambuu has linked increased tumor formation and growth in laboratory animals with chemically induced cancer to high levels of hormones in commercial milk. Seasonal milking practices among Mongolian nomads ensure that cows produce milk only during the first three months of a new pregnancy, when hormone levels are low. Because modern dairies, on the other hand, milk cows well into their next pregnancy, commercial milk often contains much higher levels of biologically active hormones.

In a 2002 study of cancer and diet in 42 countries, Ganmaa and colleagues found that countries with the highest consumption of dairy products suffered the highest rates of prostatic and testicular cancer. (A similar study Ganmaa did in 2005 showed much the same results for breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers.) In 2003, the group focused on the relationship between rising rates of these cancers and increased dairy consumption in Japan. Prior to World War II, the Japanese consumed very little milk, and rates of these cancers were low. But in the 1950s, a school-lunch program that included milk was instituted nationwide. Since that time, the intake of milk has increased twentyfold, and the incidence of prostate cancer has increased twenty-five-fold.

Still, such epidemiological evidence is circumstantial. But in a 2004 study that used rats in which mammary cancer had been induced, she and her colleagues found that rats fed low-fat milk (1 percent) were more likely to develop tumors, and in greater numbers and of larger size, than rats fed water or artificial milk. In a 2006 study, also in rats, she proved that the hormones in milk are biologically active in animals. Both adult and immature milk-fed rats showed increased uterine weight—the gold standard for measuring the estrogen activity of food and other substances.

During her time at Harvard, which began with a year as a research fellow at the School of Public Health under Stare professor of epidemiology and nutrition Walter Willett, she and her colleagues have conducted two pilot studies. The first compared American milk (whole, whole organic, skim, and “shelf-stable” ultra-high temperature milk) to milk from Mongolia. Levels of hormones and growth factors were low in both American skim milk (hormones are carried in the milk fat) and Mongolian milk. In a subsequent study, Mongolian third-graders were fed U.S. commercial milk for a month. The good news was that a number of the children who had been vitamin D-deficient when the study began saw those deficiencies corrected. “Milk is a complex food that contains many good things, such as vitamin B, vitamin D, and calcium,” Ganmaa notes. But the Mongolian schoolchildren’s growth- hormone levels shot up 40 percent; and the children grew, on average, one centimeter during the month—a statistically significant increase, according to Ganmaa. “But we don’t know if it will be sustained in the long term, whether it will affect their sexual maturation or their age at puberty,” she says. “One month is too short.” She and her Harvard colleagues are now seeking funding for a two-year study.

Based on what she has found so far, Ganmaa believes that cows in late pregnancy should not be milked—or, at least, that such milk should be labeled to indicate that it comes from a pregnant cow. In the meantime, it is reassuring to know that skim milk from the United States has low levels of hormones, just like the traditional stuff from Mongolia.

~JONATHAN SHAW

[Quester]

What about Organic milk?
The study above says that cows kept in a state of constant pregnancy are the problem. A cow in a constant state of pregnancy passes on more sex hormones than a cow that is in its natural state.
If that so, I have to wonder if cows that produce organic milk (no added hormones) are kept pregnant?

[oatmeal69]

I don't know but the first thing that sticks out to me reading these "studies" is that just because you eat something with a hormone like estrogen in it, doesn't mean that hormone directly makes it's way into your system. It still gets digested, pushed through the liver, kidneys, etc.
Kinda like inject-able AAS. The whole reason we inject is because if we ate it, it would be broken down to nothing by the time it got to our system.
I'd like to know if those studies are really scientifically valid.

[Rusty11]

I drink a lot of milk. I bought almond milk for the first time today. Man, that stuff tastes good. Half the sugar, too.

[basketballfan22]

Yeah, I officially cut out my milk intake now. I just purchased my first half-gallon of almond milk Thursday.

[Turkish Juicer]

I drink a lot of milk. I bought almond milk for the first time today. Man, that stuff tastes good. Half the sugar, too.

Also try unsweetened almond milk, it is almost sugar free and still tastes pretty good.

[basketballfan22]

Also try unsweetened almond milk, it is almost sugar free and still tastes pretty good.

Damn it! I totally forgot about looking for the unsweetened variety. I will be sure to look for it the next time I purchase it.

[Rusty11]

Also try unsweetened almond milk, it is almost sugar free and still tastes pretty good.

Thanks. I will. I never really thought about the sugar content in regular milk 'til I read this thread. Hopefully, my gut will thank me for it. And, thank you everyone for the info. My wife is thinking, " jeez, now what"

[gbrice75]

(unsweetened) Almond milk FTMFW!!

[oatmeal69]

What is the cost at a supermarket compared to cow's milk?