The Harvard School of Public Health sent a strong message to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and nutrition experts everywhere with the recent release of its “Healthy Eating Plate” food guide. The university was responding to the USDA’s new MyPlate guide for healthy eating, which replaced the outdated and misguided food pyramid.
Harvard’s nutrition experts did not pull punches, declaring that the university’s food guide was based on sound nutrition research and more importantly, not influenced by food industry lobbyists. The greatest evidence of its research focus is the absence of dairy products from the “Healthy Eating Plate” based on Harvard’s assessment that “…high intake can increase the risk of prostate cancer and possibly ovarian cancer.” The Harvard experts also referred to the high levels of saturated fat in most dairy products and suggested that collards, bok choy, fortified soy milk, and baked beans are safer choices than dairy for obtaining calcium, as are high quality supplements.
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The idea of ditching milk is still hard for our culture, despite the fact that the average person is lactose intolerant. Breakfast becomes challenging without it. I’m not a fan of soy milk – it’s often genetically modified, and even if you get the non-GMO stuff, it’s loaded with flavoring. So I just do the oatmeal w. a “splash” of milk.
Christie, I agree on all points. However ( you had to know a “however” was coming ):
– organic soy milk is not made from GMO soy beans
– you can get plain, unflavored soy milk
– you can buy a soy milk maker, fresh plain soy milk tastes much better
– you can also get rice, almond and hemp milk. Many people who do not
like soy milk like one of these.
Hey Steve,
You know, I checked out every brand at Whole Foods and even the plain soy milk has flavoring in it. I never thought about going old school and making your own – is that what you do? I did check out almond milk – also flavored. (I don’t do well with flavoring, in case you were wondering…)
LOL, no. I’m fairly conservative in my soy milk tastes. I *like* it like glue :).
Try Trader Joes and local co-ops for other brands. If those don’t pan out try one of the other plant milks. Seriously, I have a lot of friends who HATE soy milk, but who really like rice, almond or hemp milk.
I haven’t made my own soy milk since high school……..before there was equipment to make it convenient. The fresh taste did make an impression on me. If you have a food processor, a sauce pan and some cheese cloth you can try fresh out for yourself before you invest in a soy milk maker. Soy milk from scratch does have a “beany” after taste and it is thick. You can water it down and use a *touch* of your favourite sweetener. The fresh stuff, despite those things, has a much better taste. However, you will not get the calcium fortification that makes store bought soy, rice, almond and hemp milk a blessing.
I’m not a big fan of using anything other water for hot cereals either.
You can find some insanely nourishing hot cereals in Whole Foods. A little frozen or dried fruit makes those insanely tasty.
It will be worth it. There is a lot of debate now about cows milk being a huge factor is sex linked cancers ( breast, prostate ):
Quit Milk, Survive Breast Cancer
There are other options for breakfast beyond cereal too 🙂
Wow, too bad all I ever heard as a kid was “finish your milk.” Really interesting.
Harvard was only talking about the excess of milk in adults, not in children… Children need a lot of calcium to grow up.