As a child of the early 21st century, I grew up with the idea that milk should be consumed not once, but four times a day. According to the USDA food pyramid, dairy should be consumed on an average of 2-3 servings a day and the calcium, iron, protein, and probiotics were “natural” vitamins that could and should be ingested by the consumption of dairy. These were not practices brought down by and enforced by my parents, but social norms that all families in America from 1940 to 2012 believed.
Remember this from your elementary school cafeterias?
My senior year of high school I became dairy sensitive due minimal consumption of dairy products, and my body evolved to not being able to process dairy without making me feel nauseous. That was in 2016, all at the same time while almond and coconut milk were taking over Starbucks and Whole Foods as a nondairy moment seemed to be on the rise. Obviously because dairy was once a strong leader in the nutritional world, I want to know is how did dairy even get instituted into the American diet in the first place, why was it so prevalent and what changed.
Yes people do pay 60 cents extra for coconut milk
It turns out that all of health emphasis on dairy can be traced back to World War II. In the 1940’s, farmers had an abundance of animals and produce on their farms including cows, chickens, pigs, tomatoes, corn, etc. When men were injured and traveling overseas, they would send milk, cheese, and powdered milk to supplement the injured men and provide for soldiers in the field because dairy products were cost effective and nourishing.
American WWII Soldiers chugging milk for strong bones
Because milk and dairy products were in such high demand, farmers across the US swapped their variety of animals and produce to mass breed cows and harness all of their milk in order to feed the need of the nation.
This poster dates back to 1947 post WWII soldiers coming home to big cow farms
When the war ended, America was left with these seriously overpopulated farms of cows and mass production of dairy that did not seem to be slowing down any time soon. So the country would not go broke, American sold a lot of their dairy to other countries and ended up buying the remains. The dairy industries combined with major companies such as the US department of education and the US department of agriculture to sell this phenomenon that milk (and a lot of it) is essential to a healthy diet.
Milk began to become a staple for child development and was a staple to American family households.
Milk commercials and posters with celebrities from the Got Milk campaigns began to pop up everywhere. Dairy was considered a health food and trend that began to take over the nation. With the USDA and USDE advocating for dairy intake, it seemed only healthy and natural to want and consume vast quantities of milk, cheese, and yogurt in order to have sufficient amounts of calcium, iron, and protein.
What is interesting is that the a quarter of the American population is actually unable to digest dairy products. When the major health emphasis that one could only receive their calcium, iron, and protein from milk began, the truth is that is not the case. It turns out if is possible to get a whole 50% more calcium from leafy greens than from any dairy product, and that one consumes a significantly high amount of saturated fat from the portion sizes of dairy while trying reach the iron and protein count.
Calcium is surprisingly not limited to dairy products
Today we have nut milk and plant protein on the rise while red mean and dairy are slowly being kicked out. Unfortunately, because we have the least amount of people working in agriculture in the US than ever before, the transition from big only cow farms to a variety of plants and poultry, will only slowly occur over time.
My best suggestion would be to compare the nutrition labels on your food if you are looking to have a balanced diet because you cannot depend on big companies and corporations to tell you what is or is not healthy for your body. Because maybe dairy isn’t what you need most to get your protein and calcium and the government is just trying to pay of debt…
♥ Little Kelli