Vegetarian Star

Three months ago Mark Bittman gave up dairy. His heartburn has since disappeared, allowing him to give up a host of remedies for it, over the counter, prescription and old wives tales, including Prevacid, “licorice pills, lemon juice, antibiotics, famotidine (Pepcid).”

Now he’s using his popular New York Times food opinion column to share the good news on this new home remedy that doesn’t just work on heartburn, but a lot of health problems Americans may be facing.

Bittman quotes two physicians that also promote a dairyless diet, his practitioner, Dr. Sidney M. Baker and Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

“Conditions like mine are barely on the radar. Although treating heartburn is a business worth more than $10 billion a year, the solution may be as simple as laying off dairy. (Which, need I point out, is free.) What’s clear is that the widespread existence of lactose intolerance, says Dr. Baker, is “a pretty good sign that we’ve evolved to drink human milk when we’re babies but have no need for the milk of any animals. And no matter what you call a chronic dairy problem — milk allergy, milk intolerance, lactose intolerance — the action is the same: avoid all foods derived from milk for at least five days and see what happens.”

“Adds Dr. Barnard, “It’s worth noting that milk and other dairy products are our biggest source of saturated fat, and there are very credible links between dairy consumption and both Type 1 diabetes and the most dangerous form of prostate cancer.” Then, of course, there are our 9 million dairy cows, most of whom live tortured, miserable lives while making a significant contribution to greenhouse gases.”

Read Bittman’s entire article over a glass of soy, rice or almond milk at the New York Times.

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