Milk (Whey Good!)
Poor ol’ milk.
It’s one of the most controversial topics in the nutrition world.
Some folks say… “Milk is bad. It causes inflammation.”
That might be true, for some folks.
Other (clueless) people say, “Humans are the only animal that drink milk as adults.”
Those people have never put a bowl of milk out for a cat, a dog, or a pig.
As I like to say, the only reason my dog doesn’t drink milk every day is because he lacks the opposable thumbs needed to open the carton!
That and he hasn’t figured out how to open the fridge. ☺
So is milk bad?
I honestly don’t know.
But I do know…
Whey protein is not bad. There’s study after study showing whey protein, like this one from BioTrust, help you lose fat and build lean muscle mass.
And there are plenty of experts these days saying that Greek yogurt is God’s gift to your gut and that we must all be eating it every day for ‘healthy bacteria’.
Finally, there are studies like this one, from the journal, Nutrition, saying…
Women who eat 2-4 servings of dairy per day are able to lose weight and belly fat faster than women that did not eat dairy products.
Dairy products also help you maintain lean muscle mass and a fat-burning metabolism.
But wait, there’s more…
Several years ago I created a workout program for a study on milk.
It went like this…
20 young women were put into one of two groups:
1) Resistance training plus fat-free milk
2) Resistance training plus a carbohydrate drink
Both groups drank 500mL of their drink after a workout, and then another 500mL an hour later.
That’s right, the milk group drank a liter of milk per day!
That was an extra 400 calories per day for both groups, but the carbohydrate group didn’t have protein in their drink. Both drinks were flavored with vanilla to “mask” the identity of the drink.
No side effects reported in either group…so like Taylor Swift, the girls seemed okay with milk.
(No complaints were made about ‘milk mustaches’, either.)At the end of the study, the young women in the milk group gained 4.2 pounds of lean mass and lost 3.5 pounds of fat!The women in the carbohydrate drink group gained 2.4 pounds of lean mass and lost only 0.67 pounds of fat.The girls in the milk group also got stronger.So milk is a pretty darned good after-exercise drink for women looking to gain muscle and lose fat.
The bottom line:
If you like milk, and if you are looking for a post-exercise drink to help you lose fat and gain muscle, then start with two cups of milk …
…or at least a whey protein shake.
You can get a free bottle of the best tasting whey protein here
It doesn’t contain any junk sweeteners, like sucralose.
Let me know what you think of dairy products and whey protein,
Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer
PS – Let me ask you an important question…
How will you measure your life?
What have you done this year?
Did your short-term activities align with what’s important, long-term, in your life?
If not, then change your plan and fix your habits. Get things right this month.
We are running out of time.
Make every minute count because every moment matters. The clock is ticking.