Eggs and Dairy
Speaking of animal protein, we often think of meat and meat products. However, this category also includes fish, seafood, eggs, milk and dairy. They all differ from each other by the level of protein that they contain. The criteria of protein concentration may define the degree of how much resources the body uses for their digestion and the amount of waste and toxins produced during this process.
Meat and eggs have the highest concentration of protein. Yolks are richer in protein than whites, followed by fish, seafood, milk and dairy in the protein rich food list.
Dairy products are different from the rest of the animal protein foods in a sense that they are produced in a fairly harmless way – without the need to slaughter an animal. We are going to omit the moral side here and focus on the fact of how the act of slaughter may affect meat as our food and the consequences for human health.
In order for us to eat a piece of steak or a fillet of fish, an animal (or a fish) needs to be slaughtered. Milk and dairy are the only category of the animal protein products that can be obtained without the need to slaughter an animal. How does it affect the properties of these foods? In comparison to other animal protein products, milk and dairy do not have stress hormones. This is because during a slaughter, stress hormones are released by the body of a living creature. It mostly relates to meat and to a lesser extent, fish too.
The presence of stress hormones in food may be attributed to high blood pressure in some meat eaters.1, 2 Stress hormones may lead to erithism and hypermotivity.
Naturally, milk and dairy do not contain stress hormones. However, their protein is similar to some of the human proteins. Fairly big quantities of milk and dairy in a human diet may lead to sensitivity in the body: those proteins that the body did not manage to digest, may trigger an auto-immune response within the body in some individuals, producing anti-bodies. The immune system may be tuning up to attack these proteins, and at some point, anti-bodies may start attacking the body’s own tissues.
Dairy products are reported to have endogenous opiate substances in them³. They make a baby calf calm down during the lactation period. Dairy has the same calming effect on humans, giving a nice happy feeling of relaxation and peace of mind³. Some people describe these feelings as a “divine goodness”.
Naturally, the opiate strength in dairy is low and not dangerous in terms of someone developing an addiction. However, we have dairy industry that manufactures a lot of dairy products. The processing of milk into dairy may make the end products highly concentrated with the ingredients of the original product – milk and lactose. For that reason, cheese may have the highest concentration of opiates.
Many people admit that they are literary additive to cheese. If stopped from eating cheese, some individuals may fall into a bad mood or feel lack of energy. I know some individuals who may be craving cheese so badly that it may disrupt their usual functioning through the day. If such person is given a piece of cheese, it may make them feel better – in a similar way an addict would feel a relief after a dose!
With age, some individuals may have a decreased lactase enzyme activity4, which may lead to dairy intolerance and low grade systemic inflammation and an impaired ability to absorb nutrients. On the contrary, fermented dairy products are reported to improve digestion, enriching the microbiome composition and immunity5,6.
References:
1. Guasch-Ferré M, Satija A, Blondin SA, Janiszewski M, Emlen E, O’Connor LE, Campbell WW, Hu FB, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ. Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials of Red Meat Consumption in Comparison With Various Comparison Diets on Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Circulation. 2019 Apr 9;139(15):1828-1845. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.035225.
2. Sampels S, Jonsson M, Sandgren M, Karlsson A, Segerkvist KA. Sustainable Delicacy: Variation in Quality and Sensory Aspects in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Meat and Comparison to Pork Meat-A Case Study. Foods. 2023 Apr 14;12(8):1644. doi: 10.3390/foods12081644.
3. Harrison D, Reszel J, Bueno M, Sampson M, Shah VS, Taddio A, Larocque C, Turner L. Breastfeeding for procedural pain in infants beyond the neonatal period. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Oct 28;10(10):CD011248. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011248.pub2.
4. Oak SJ, Jha R. The effects of probiotics in lactose intolerance: A systematic review. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(11):1675-1683. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2018.1425977.
5. Meng H, Lee Y, Ba Z, Peng J, Lin J, Boyer AS, Fleming JA, Furumoto EJ, Roberts RF, Kris-Etherton PM, Rogers CJ. Consumption of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 impacts upper respiratory tract infection and the function of NK and T cells in healthy adults. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2016 May;60(5):1161-71. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201500665.
6. Wastyk HC, Fragiadakis GK, Perelman D, Dahan D, Merrill BD, Yu FB, Topf M, Gonzalez CG, Van Treuren W, Han S, Robinson JL, Elias JE, Sonnenburg ED, Gardner CD, Sonnenburg JL. Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell. 2021 Aug 5;184(16):4137-4153.e14. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019.
