From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Thu May 08 1997 - 14:26:07 MDT
At 12:25 PM 5/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Also, I don't do dairy products. Dairy is very high in fat -- a slab
>of cheese is much higher in fat than a similar calorie content slab of
>lean beef. I might as well be eating meat if I was going to eat cheese
>or milk. Besides, at this point, I've become lactose intolerant after enough
>years of not eating dairy. It appears most people do -- eating dairy
>products isn't something we evolved to do.
>
>Perry
It would be prudent to mention that small quantities of fat are required
for the proper absorption of some minerals. Dairy fats are an example of
this. Calcium is poorly absorbed when it is not mixed with small
quantities of appropriate types of fat. Dairy fats are well-suited for
this role (surprise!) which is one of the reasons it is often better to
drink 1-2% lowfat milk than non-fat. I have a relative who was a strict
vegan, but was required by her doctor to ingest small quantities of dairy
fats because her body could not adequately absorbing the calcium she was
ingesting both as supplements and in her food. She started drinking lowfat
milk which subsequently fixed the problem.
There are a few other minerals which are also require minimal amounts of
fat for maximum effectiveness. Fatty molecules serve many useful purposes
in the body and are a required part of the diet. The real question isn't
if you should ingest fat, it is what is an appropriate quantity and what
types. The "all fat is bad" meme is incorrect, or at least misleading.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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