From
Drink This, Not That:
Quick Question: Do you want to lose weight, build lean muscle, have more energy, live longer, and protect yourself from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and about a dozen other nasty diseases? Do you want to gain all of those benefits and more-- without ever exercising or dieting? And do you want to achieve all of those things in just 15 seconds a day, for less than 20 cents? No? Really? What's wrong with you?
Okay, let's just assume you answered yes. If so, we're going to teach you a simple habit that is going to change your life completely, making you slimmer, healthier, and more energetic all day long: Every morning when you get up out of bed, go stagger into the kitchen and fumble for your coffee mug-- just like you do already. But don't pour coffee in it just yet. Instead, go directly to the fridge. Grab some low-fat milk. Fill the coffee cup with it. Drink that milk down to the point where there's the right amount left for your morning coffee. Now, add the coffee.
You've just started your day with one of the most effective weight loss strategies known to man.
Seems crazy, but the perks of adopting that little habit are mind-blowing. First, you guarantee yourself the metabolism-boosting, energy-charging, hunger-suppressing, fat-burning, muscle-maintaining benefits of a high-protein breakfast-- even if you didn't get a chance to eat breakfast (And you should still eat breakfast if you can-- you want about 500 calories to start your day, and a cup of 2 percent milk has only 137). Second, you guarantee you're getting at least 300 milligrams of calcium-- almost half of the daily calcium amount shown to fend off weight gain, according to a Purdue University study (in the study, women who took in at least 780 milligrams of calcium a day maintained their weight over a 2-year period, regardless of their exercise habits. But women who took in less than that gained weight-- again, regardless of whether they exercised or not!) . . . .
So yeah, milk is a great start. But there's a way you can take the benefits of milk up another notch or two: Spend just a little bit more and buy organic milk. Why? Because the nutrients in milk come from the nutrients that cows eat, and organic, pasture-raised cows eat healthier diets, meaning they create healthier milk. Recent studies revealed that organic dairy contains 75 percent more beta carotene, 70 percent more omega-3 fatty acids (the stuff in those expensive fish oil supplements), and 50 percent more vitamin E than regular milk. It also provides 2 to 3 times the amount of the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin. Even though organic milk costs more (about an extra dollar a gallon), in this case you really are getting the bang for your buck.
So, yeah....I'm taking all of the excited claims with a big pinch of salt, but thought I'd try this anyway. I don't drink coffee, but am using the method for tea-- one cup of milk before anything, then a dose of milk with each cup of English Breakfast drunk afterward (usually 2 or 3).
As far as organic milk goes, the Cornucopia Institute has a
scorecard for various organic dairy producers in the U.S. Before seeing the scorecard I'd bought a 1/2 gallon of Horizon 1% organic. It tasted somewhat like milk that had already had cereal on it-- Cheerios, maybe. Not bad, but definitely different from "regular" milk. But then I noticed that Horizon had a rating of possibly being "ethically deficient," so decided to try Organic Valley instead.
Their 1% milk is the best milk I've ever had, hands down, and they received a rating of 4/5 "cows" from Cornucopia. So I think this is what I'm going to stick with. It's more expensive, sure, but I don't eat cereal and don't intend to use it for cooking, so a half gallon should take a reasonable amount of time to get through.
Anyone interested in trying this with me for a month, just to see what happens?