3 Reasons Why Milk Supports Better Health (and Weight Loss)
Milk is one of most nutrient-dense foods found in nature, providing you with a wealth of essential vitamins and minerals. Milk is also considered the ‘gold standard’ protein in scientific circles, the highest quality protein source from foods and thus a key tool for supporting your health, weight loss and longevity.
Nutrition is incredibly complex, but what you eat everyday doesn’t have to be.
Our food environment today is loaded with calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods, contributing to our current crisis of weight gain, poor health and chronic disease.
Develop the right nutrition habits – such as achieving your daily protein intake total and dividing it out over the day – will help you lay the foundation for your best mental and physical health.
Why Is Protein So Important for Health?
If you’re looking to improve your health, get leaner and support healthy ageing then take a tip from the best performance nutritionists and dieticians around the world; start with protein.
If you can ‘set’ your daily protein intake – the amount of protein you should eat in one day – and then divide it out over the course of the day, you’ll lay the foundation for better mental and physical health.
Let’s take a closer look at three key reasons why protein is crucial for health and wellness.
#1 Get Back To Nature - Minimally Processed Foods
A new classification system for healthy whole foods, called the NOVA system, has been developed by Dr. Carlos Monteiro, PhD and colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil to attempt to combat the alarming rise in weight gain and poor health around the world.1
In the NOVA system, foods are grouped into four categories;
- Group 1; raw or minimally processed food (e.g. milk, eggs, meat, vegetables, fruit, seeds, etc.)
- Group 2: processed culinary ingredients (e.g. oils and butter, etc)
- Group 3: processed foods (e.g. canned foods like vegetables and fish, as well as cheeses, etc.)
- Group 4: ultra-processed foods (e.g. soft drinks, pizza, french fries, packaged breads, and the like).
If you can eat more foods from Groups 1 and 2, and limit your intake of group 4, you’ll develop the nutritional habits for reversing chronic conditions, losing weight and improving health.
Protein-based foods, like milk, are classified as a Group 1 food because they’re minimally processed, loaded with essential nutrients, and thus key building blocks for health and vitality.
#2 Nutrient Density – More Vitamins & Minerals
Ultra-processed foods are convenience foods, shelf-stable and ready to consume, but contain very few nutrients and are loaded with calories.
When you consume more protein in your diet, you dramatically increase the nutrient-density of your diet, meaning you bring onboard more essential vitamins and minerals.
A recent study found, ‘habitually consuming a higher protein diet is associated with greater intakes of micronutrients in both male and female adults.’, highlighting the power of protein to act like nature’s multi-vitamin.2
Increasing your intake of nutrient-dense foods - Group 1 NOVA foods like milk - also reduces your caloric intake from ultra-processed foods, a key pillar for weight loss and better health.
#3 Supports Weight Loss & Health
Weight loss isn’t just about aesthetics. If you’re overweight or obese, losing weight is a powerful stimulus for reversing chronic diseases like type-2 diabetes.
In Canada, type-2 diabetes affects approximately 9.3% of the population and is expected to rise to 12.1% of the population by 2025.3 The best diabetes experts in the world are quick to point out that approximately 90% of diabetes reversal is simply due to weight loss.4
How does protein intake support weight loss?
First, it improves satiety. In fact, protein is the most satiating macronutrient (over carbohydrates and fats). Senior investigator at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the United States, Kevin Hall, PhD, uncovered that the extra calories consumed from snacking alone (approximately 425 kcal/day), over the last four decades, was sufficient to explain our current weight gain-obesity crisis.5 Satiety is crucial to limit mindless snacking to support healthy weight loss.
Next, protein supports weight loss via the thermic effect of food (TEF), the scientific term for how much it ‘costs’ your body to simply digest and process the food you’re eating. The thermic effect of protein is 3-fold greater compared to carbohydrates and fats, meaning you literally burn more calories just by eating protein.6
Finally, protein helps to build lean muscle. Muscle mass helps to preserve your metabolism throughout the weight loss process. It’s also one of the best predictors of healthy ageing. That’s right, lean muscle isn’t just about weight loss, it’s crucial to better blood sugar control, lowering inflammation, supporting positive mood and cognitive health.7 Another big win for protein.
How Much Protein Do Need?
When it comes to protein intake, there are two key factors to consider; protein total and timing.
Let’s talk protein total.
The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is a paltry 0.8g/kg/day. This is an active area of debate amongst the best protein researchers around the world, who are quick to point out this is simply too low.
A better daily protein target to aim for is to consume a minimum of 1.2g per kilogram bodyweight per day.
How much protein is that in one day?
For example, a 100kg man would aim to consume 120g of protein per day, while a 70kg female would aim for 84g, divided evenly throughout the day.
What about protein timing?
This simply means to spread out your protein intake throughout the day, with the aim of at least 20g of protein per meal. The meal most people fall short of hitting their protein target is breakfast (more on this below).
In short, if you can achieve your daily total protein intake and spread it out over the course of the day (i.e. protein timing), you’ll lay the foundation for better health and slimmer waistline.
Practical Tips - Increasing Protein Intake (and Nutrient-Density)
Milk is a convenient, simple and highly effective strategy for increasing your daily protein intake. The following are three easy and practical tips for adding more protein into your daily nutritional regime.
Breakfast
Breakfast is the meal of the day where most people fail to hit the desired 20g dose of protein for health and weight loss. Simply adding a glass of milk (250mL) to your two eggs to start the day, or with your bowl of muesli and berries is a significant upgrade to your first meal of the day.
Afternoon Snack
The afternoon slump is a common theme in many offices (and schools) around the country. Try adding 250-500mL of milk to your snack of choice – fruit, dark chocolate, or even when you crave something sweet – you will dramatically improve your blood sugar control and keep yourself satiated until dinner.
Before Bed
A growing percentage of people struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep throughout the night. Milk contains the essential amino acid tryptophan, which triggers the production of serotonin and ultimately your sleep initiating hormone melatonin to support deep sleep. Milk is also predominantly made up of casein protein, a slow-release protein that supports recovery during sleep. A simple strategy is to add a glass of milk (250mL) before bed to upgrade your sleep and recovery. (It also helps to curb late-night snacking!)
To Sum Up
Processed food is now the norm across Canada and it’s having an alarming impact on our waistlines and overall health.
In the last 40 years, obesity rates in Canada have doubled.8 Today, over two-thirds of men (69.4%) and half of women (56.7%) are currently classified as overweight or obese and the surge in consumption of processed foods over the past few decades has been linked as a strong contributing factor.9
After the United States of America, Canada spends more money on ultra-processed food than any other country in the world.10
Numerous studies have highlighted the more processed food you consume, the greater the likelihood of weight gain and obesity.11,12
For example, Canadian adults who consume one-third of their diet from processed foods are 31% more likely to become obese, 37% more likely to develop diabetes and 60% more likely to struggle with high blood pressure (a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke).10
What can you do to reverse this trend and upgrade your own health and wellness?
Start with protein; start with milk.
Dr. Marc Bubbs ND, MSc, CISSN, CSCS
References
1) Carlos Augusto Monteiro et al., “Household availability of ultra-processed foods and obesity in nineteen European countries,” Public Health Nutrition 21, no. 1 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1017 /s1368980017001379.
2) Gwin, J, et al. Higher Protein Density Diets Are Associated With Greater Diet Quality and Micronutrient Intake in Healthy Young Adults. Front Nutr 2019; 6:59.
3) Houlden, R.L. Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committee. Can J Diabetes 42 (2018) S1–S5
4) Guess, N. Dietary Interventions for the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in High-Risk Groups: Current State of Evidence and Future Research Needs. Nutrients 2018, 10, 1245;doi:10.3390/nu10091245.
5) Kevin D. Hall, “Did the food environment cause the obesity epidemic?,” Obesity 26, no. 1, (2018) https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22073.
6) Alan A. Aragon et al., “International society of sports nutrition position stand: diets and body composition,” Journal of theInternational Society of Sports Nutrition 14, no. 16 (2017), https://doi. org/10.1186/s12970-017-0174-y.
7) Daniel A Traylor, Stefan H M Gorissen, and Stuart M Phillips, “Perspective: protein requirements and optimal intakes in aging: are we ready to recommend more than the recommended daily allowance?,” Advances in Nutrition 9, no. 3 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmy003.
8) PHAC. (2011). Obesity in Canada - healthy living - Public Health Agency of Canada. Public Health Agency of Canada. Available at: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/hl-mvs/oic-oac/index-eng.php. Accessed 10 Aug 2016.
9) Statistics Canada – Viewed on April 17th, 2020 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/82-625-x/2019001/article/00005-eng.pdf%3Fst%3DOBRuwojR
10) Nardocci, M et al., Consumption of ultra-processed foods and obesity in Canada, Can J Public Health. 2019 Feb;110(1):4-14. doi: 10.17269/s41997-018-0130-x.
11). Louzada, M. L. d. C., Ricardo, C. Z., Steele, E. M., et al. (2017). The share of ultra-processed foods determines the overall nutritional quality of diets in Brazil. Public Health Nutrition, 21(1), 94–102.
12). Steele EM, Popkin BM, Swinburn B, et al. The share of ultra-processed foods and the overall nutritional quality of diets in the US: Evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study. Population Health Metrics. 2017;15(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s12963017-0119-3.