Why those who eat lowfat are at significantly higher risk for stomach bugs, food poisoning and gastrointestinal disease, and how a specific fatty acid in dairy powerfully inhibits intestinal pathogens.
Have you ever noticed how some people seem to catch every single stomach bug that passes through the community while others seem completely immune?
How about the curious fact that some people get food poisoning all the time while others rarely succumb even if they ate the identical dish at the same restaurant?
It may not just be bad luck if it seems that you’re getting more than your fair share of stomach bugs.
Food Selection Impacts Gastrointestinal Risk
While “eating organic” is great, it actually doesn’t offer much protection against intestinal pathogens.
Folks who rarely eat processed foods and take great pains to make their own meals from scratch can still be plagued with more than their fair share of stomach bug woes.
Why is this?
I used to ponder this very question as to why I kept catching so many tummy bugs despite eating everything organic in my twenties.
While important, it appears that food quality is not necessarily the best way to prevent gastrointestinal illness.
Could it be the composition of the foods that we eat is a major contributory factor in the frequency of intestinal illness?
For example, is it possible that a very simple change such as increasing the amount of butterfat in the diet could actually be of benefit in avoiding gastroenteritis?
Milk Fat Protects the Gut from Pathogens
Glycosphingolipids are a special type of lipid found in bovine milk fat.
Sources include butter, cream, whole milk, whole yogurt, kefir, ghee, and cheese.
These foods offer protection against gastroenteritis because they include anti-pathogenic fatty acids.
Children who drink lowfat or skim milk suffer from acute gastrointestinal illness at a rate 3-4 times higher than children who drink whole milk. (1)
This is an incredibly significant difference!
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation:
Glycosphingolipids are lipids with single sugar molecules attached found in cell membranes, especially in the brain. They also protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in infants and children. (2)
According to in vitro studies of milk fat, glycosphingolipids are not only protective against pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella and listeria but also against viruses and fungi as well. (3)
Taking a therapeutic quality probiotic every day is also highly protective.
Whole Dairy is Best
I experienced this same effect even as an adult.
Once I switched to whole milk products and butter and away from butter substitutes and lowfat dairy, my tendency to succumb to stomach flu vanished.
In fact, in my household, no one has had a tummy bug or gastrointestinal illness of any kind in many years!
This is not to say that consuming plenty of milkfat in the diet will guarantee complete avoidance of gastroenteritis. It will, however, significantly increase your resistance to it.
In essence, butterfat is a functional food in that it works as a broad spectrum anti-microbial agent in the gut.
What About all that Butterfat?
Concerned that all that butterfat might be bad for your health? Take heart (literally)… it’s all a myth!
Unfortunately, it’s taking decades for the public to finally awaken to the fact that those who eat butter and drink whole milk have HALF the heart attack risk as those who drink lowfat milk and eat margarine. (4)
This study followed 5,000 men between the ages of 45 and 59 for 10 years.
Of those who drank at least a pint of whole milk a day and ate butter, there was only a 1% risk for a heart attack!
What do heart doctors say?
This prominent cardiologist’s opinion of a lowfat diet is that it is “scientifically and morally indefensible”.
In summary, then, it’s not just any milk that does a body good, It’s whole milk!
(1) Milk fat and gastrointestinal illness
(2) Digestion and absorption of food fats
(3) Bactericidal Activities of Milk Lipids
(4) Milk Decreases Heart Attacks
More Information
We haven’t had that yet, but the flu hit us back in December. It was mostly a non-event for me and my kids, except my still vegetarian husband.
I don’t generally get them, and when they do they are usually mild. Except for this one I got a couple years ago! I was sick for weeks and had to be hospitalized. Bad bad bad.
Good to know–my family got hit with the respiratory flu bug–right after my daughter’s sugary 12th birthday party, hmmmm. All except me, actually–I just got a cold, but no flu symptoms. that’s probably because I’m the one with the restricted GAPS-like diet. Anyway, I’ve been worried about the rest of them being susceptible to the norovirus–good to confirm that if I can get everyone else to partake of my bone broths we all should be okay.
^ditto! It amazed me how the kids recovered in hours, not days. And the adults in my family who follow a high fat, full dairy diet were down 24 hours, tops. The adults who are not believers and who eat more junk have had several reoccurrences, as much as two weeks apart. One would think the evidence speaks for itself.
Hope you are right. The time I got it I was still eating SAD
thehealthyhomeeconomist- unfortunately, my travel and work schedule makes it so that the amount of broth I’d like to consume is far less than I actually consume. Luckily I’m in one place for the next month- and broth will be in the slow cooker tonight! 🙂 MMM…
The new norovirus hit our home about a month ago. A total nonevent. It was over in a couple of hours. No big deal.
I think this bug got me, but it came and left in about 2 days thanks to some mild fasting and bone broth!
I think this article only speaks for one side of the equation … there is an ethical delema for those who are aware of the true costs associated with the dair industry. Please check out the following website and reflect on what you read.
http://www.exploreveg.org/issues/dairy.html
also have a look at where the dairy cows end up once they are used up producing milk
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/mcdonalds-stops-buying-burger-meat-from-us-slaughterhouse-amid-mad-cow-disease-concern-8075769.html
So, if someone is lactose intolerant, will they be able to get what they need from ghee? I’m assuming so since you said it’s the lipids that are beneficial, not the milk solids. I have a friend that was asking me what to do because she is lactose intolerant. I’m going to try to convince her to give raw milk a try, but I think she’s pretty scared of dairy.