I am no nutritionist, but I keep getting people ask me about dairy so I will oblige what little perspective that I do have. Like I said, Im not nutritionist but read if you want to and take from it what you will. You obviously need calcium for bone health (I only say obviously because the dairy industry seems to make it very apparent) and you will need to intake more as you are training more - especially with Parkour as it is a higher impact. Impact and tensile stress are what causes bone to adapt and ossify more densely (become stronger). You need to have the calcium available to back that up, as it is one of the main mineral components of bone crystal (hydroxypapatite). Calcium does not work alone to form this, though, it must be in mineral salt form which is a combination of Calcium and other elements (i.e. phosphate, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon). These mineral salts are crystallized by rad mo-fo cells called osteoblasts, which are the cells that produce bone formation. Long-story-short calcium is hugely important but you need lots of other stuff for bones, too, so don’t obsess over calcium. You also need amino acids such as proline and glycine (and other stuff) for bone elasticity. Collegen also goes into bone formation and is what allows the bone to flex - build this too. If you want to know more about the amino acids required for collagen synthesis, check this link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collagen Note: the world needs to stop assuming that just because something contains “protein”, that it is useful in your body. Proteins and amino acids exist in variety and they all work together differently. There is no single protein or amino acid that does everything. Last note of bone health: if you are over 30 years of age, you need to understand that statistically your bones ossify at a slower rate. So training for higher impacts should be taken with an appropriately amplified attention to resistance training prerequisites. Calcium is also a mineral that is essential for many other bodily functions. For example, muscles require calcium to contract AND the heart requires calcium to depolarize (electrically charge) for contraction. Milk has tons of Calcium. However, Calcium does not act alone in many cases - Calcium binding proteins help regulate its storage and use. There are Calcium binding proteins that aid in Calcium absorption during digestion that rely on Vitamin D to function - this is why people say that Vitamin D and Calcium should be consumed together, to aid absorption of the mineral. Milk had Vitamin D, so this dairy product is beneficial in this nutritional aspect. If you stop eating dairy, make sure that you get enough calcium from other products. From what I hear, people are worried about the following concepts when it comes to milk and their health: Growth Hormones: Growth hormones are not used to influence milk production in cows, in Canada. They are supposedly illegal or banned, check it out below. Milk info: albertamilk/ask-dairy-farmer/ive-started-buying-organic-milk-based-on-the-assum/ Lactic Acid: It is true that an abundance of acid can cause the blood plasma to become too acidic (acidosis). “Too acidic” would mean that your blood’s pH is past the level of optimal function. For example, blood pH levels effect functions of red blood cells such as their affinity for oxygen (ability to bind and carry oxygen). You would probably have to drink a significant amount of milk for this to be a problem. HOWEVER, theoretically, dairy products do not even contain much lactic acid initially (when made). Lactic acid is a product of “sugar breakdown”. Dairy products contain sugar (Lactose), which is why that over time they can also contain lactic acid as bacteria eats away at the sugars. This basically means that you should have less lactic acid build-up in fresh milk, than older milk. However, because they are aged: cheese, yogurt, etc. probably contain lactic acid. I wouldn’t worry too much about lactic acid, especially if you exercise aerobically regularly because your body will know how to deal with it. I mean, your body produces lactate as a result of activity anyway, and it is NOT yet known to be directly correlated with the increase in blood pH noticed during exercise (it may be due to other processes that occur during energy metabolism). We do know that lactate travelling through the bloodstream can be utilized by anaerobically inactive muscle tissue to fuel activity. In other words, increased blood lactate could potentially help fuel a person for an aerobic workout. Again, your body is producing blood lactate during exercise anyway - so how much lactate is too much? I can’t tell you, it depends on fitness levels and everything. So I would just read about it and if you are going to consume dairy, do so in a balanced manner - meaning that you are not consuming so much that your body becomes intolerant or allergic to it such as what can occur with many other foods as well. Dairy Info: dairyfree.me/jargonexplained.html Lactose Intolerence: Lots of foods have lactose in them, not just dairy. Lactose is a carbohydrate and a sugar - not a chemical/scarything specific to dairy products. For whatever reason (I don’t know right now), lactase (enzyme that breaks down lactose) can encounter problems in certain people which causes lactose intolerance. Watch out for too much lactose, along with too much of any other sugar molecule (we know that). - Chad McDonald
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 04:27:04 +0000
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