The power of dairy
The question of where people’s food comes from is a powerful and ongoing one. From the eternal question of, is the milk safe and non-contaminated, on to the question of, where does the food come from and are the animals treated well, consumers globally want to know more. Too often, they get misinformation. Recently, I was distressed to open up a copy of the Metro newspaper and see, right in the middle of a page on food trends, the trend towards “no dairy”. Sigh. They didn’t go into much detail, but it reminded me again how falsehoods are spread around the globe before truth gets its shoes on. You get one half-baked “nutritionist” online who says don’t drink dairy, or eat gluten or sugar, and suddently it’s in the newspapers. Why no dairy? What has gluten done that is so wrong? We all eat too much sugar, but it also has a place at the table in moderation.
Another laugh is the paleo diet. Ah, we’re all supposed to eat like cavemen now – meat, seafood, eggs, fruit and veg. No dairy, potatoes, cereal grains or legumes. Riiight. While we are at it, let’s all live in yurts and practice stone age medicine. It reminds of this televsion show, Surviving the Iron Age, where they had people living in Iron Age-style huts somewhere out in the countryside here in the UK, back in 2001. Half the people were sick as parrots by the end of the second week. It was amusing, although some of the poor folk had to be hospitalised. I’ll bet they could have used some yogurt, labneh or kefir to sort out gastric upsets. Or at least get some proper nutrition into their systems.
This is why the international dairy industry has to never let its laurels become a resting place. The European Milk Forum knows this, and is working in eight countries to continue to get the message across that now only is dairy natural, it’s good for you in a lot of ways. The public relations activities are ongoing and it’s a good job they are. The research is also well underway, and every new study for dairy and its constituent parts is useful. The drive to get dairy ingedients into the global fight against hunger by Arla and other industry participants is also very worthy.
Dairy is highly nutritious, cheap and goes delightfully well with so many things. It is animal husbandry of the highest order. Granted, it may not have been around in paleolithic times, but dairy and cheese making has been around for at least 7,000 years, or the neolithic age. They have been milking animals for longer than that. It is a tradition to be proud of.
