Dairy and I

Anybody who knows me, however briefly, is aware that food matters to me. A lot. My earliest memories as a child are food-related memories and promises of a shrimp dish or another was a fail-proof way my parents had to get me to do anything when I was little. I am often moved to tears when I read about ancient food traditions and I’m a strong believer of the role of food in promoting both community and health. Cooking for me is my main therapy, even if at times I feel very anxious when I have to cook for others. All of this just to say that I have read a lot about food and health over the years and often use food as medicine at home.

When I was in Spain, I read an article by Jane Plant on the relationship between dairy foods and breast cancer (as well as other forms of cancer) and osteoporosis. Dr Plant is a well-known scientist in England who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42, only to have it re-occur four more times in six years. By the fifth time her physicians had mostly given up any chance of recovering.  During a trip to China, her husband, also a scientist, read some statistics that showed that breast cancer was very rare in Asia. After researching many possible reasons, Dr. Plant singled it out to a difference in diet, particularly in consumption of dairy. Not having anything to lose, she removed all dairy from her diet immediately. To her astonishment, and that of her oncologist, her cancer went into remission and she has been cancer free ever since. She went on to write several books about her experience and I have a couple of them.

I’ve always consumed a fair amount of dairy. When I was a kid I ate porridge with milk at least twice a day, drank chocolate milk at school, and ate a fair amount of cheese and yogurt. My love for cheese and butter has only increased over the years, even if I now shun drinking pure milk. For a brief period while I was in Spain I tried avoiding milk and dairy products but can’t say I was that successful.Probably because I convinced myself that foods so deeply ingrained in certain cultures such as cheese and yogurt can’t be all that bad. And indeed they may not be for some people but my body has been telling me for a while that I may not be one of those lucky bastards.

I have always had issues with dandruff, oily hair, brittle nails, excess mucus, as well as other skin and gynecological ailments. In her Food and Healing, Annemarie Colbin associates all of these symptoms with excess fats and dairy. That got me seriously wondering again if I would notice any difference in my sense of well being is I cut dairy for a while. This is a very difficult proposition for someone as obsessed with cortados as I am. But with the help of my new cook book as well as Terry Walters’s two beautiful books, I feel I’m now ready to give it a try once again. The idea is to spend at least three months without any dairy. I may allow myself one single cortado a week. We’ll see.

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