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Chef Olivia Cruickshank is the co-owner of Pure Kitchen. (Photo courtesy of Olivia Cruickshank)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting, when we opened three years ago we did not think we were going to be this busy,\u201d says Cruickshank.<\/p>\n
Cruickshank says the success of Pure Kitchen is a reflection of changing attitudes towards vegetarianism and veganism. While vegetarians abstain from meat, vegans don\u2019t eat any animal products \u2013 meat, dairy, eggs, or honey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere really has been a huge shift in the last several years, not just for veganism and vegetarianism, but for healthy eating in general,\u201d Cruickshank says. \u201cEven when you look past our restaurant, there are so many restaurants focusing more on vegetable centric cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a poll conducted at Dalhousie University, two-point-three per cent of Canadians now consider themselves vegan.<\/p>\n
But a diet without dairy defies the Canada Food Guide, which has long been a the government-approved formula for healthy eating in Canada, followed by registered dietitians and school nutritionists. The current Food Guide, last updated in 2007, categorizes dairy as its own food group and recommends daily consumption of anywhere from two to four servings a day, depending on age.<\/p>\n
The official dairy recommendation dates back to 1942, when the first-ever Canada Food Guide was introduced as a way to prevent nutritional deficiencies during wartime rationing. Although Health Canada says that \u201clittle [was] recorded about the process used to develop the earliest food guides for Canada,\u201d the guide was designed by medical and welfare workers. Since 1942, dairy has always been its own food group. The Canada Food Guide has been redesigned seven times since then. Veggies and fruit merged into one food group in 1977, and meat expanded to include \u201calternatives\u201d in 1992. Dairy expanded to include \u201calternatives\u201d in 2007, advising Canadians to \u201cdrink fortified soy beverages if you do not drink milk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Food Guide may finally be catching up with vegan diet trends however, as Health Canada revealed that it is removing dairy as its own food group, and creating one \u201cprotein\u201d group that emphasizes plant-based alternatives. Canada hasn\u2019t confirmed exactly when the revamp will be released, however they have committed to putting out the general Canada Food Guide in winter 2018, and a supplement focusing on Indigenous nutrition in spring 2019.<\/p>\n
Doug Goff, professor of dairy science at the University of Guelph, disagrees with the upcoming changes. He says dairy is simply the easiest option for most time-crunched Canadians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to put together a diet that provides the [Recommended Dietary Allowance] for calcium in the absence of dairy,\u201d says Goff.<\/p>\n
Goff points to children\u2019s food preferences as one big source of concern. While most kids are happy to snack on a grilled cheese or strawberry yogurt, far fewer would enjoy a large serving of calcium-rich broccoli, kale, spinach, or tofu.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany kids drink lots and lots of milk and eat yogurt tubes, and it provides a convenient, usually enjoyable way of packing a pretty big nutrient punch into your diet,\u201d says Goff. \u201cIt\u2019s a great source of nutrition, but it\u2019s also a very enjoyable and easy food to consume.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As for adults, \u00c9melie Jadot, communications coordinator at the Dairy Farmers of Canada, says most Canadians don\u2019t get enough calcium, magnesium, zinc, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, or fibre. \u201cIt is important to highlight that milk and dairy products are a valuable source of up to 6 of these 8 nutrients, which explains why their consumption is an easy way to address these deficiencies,\u201d says Jadot.<\/p>\n
Ottawa-based registered dietitian Deborah Sloan agrees that calcium is important, but says families can also get it through fortified plant sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that milk is 100 per cent necessary, but some sort of fortified dairy alternative is,\u201d says Sloan.<\/p>\n
Goff, however, questions whether the average Canadian has the time it takes to construct a healthy vegan diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you choose not to consume dairy at all, or even to consume low levels, then you need to think about the consequences of that in terms of overall diet,\u201d says Goff. Whether or not people actually have the time to be mindful about food? \u201cThat\u2019s the big question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even aside from it\u2019s well-known calcium content, Goff says dairy is a lot more nutritious than naysayers give it credit for, particularly when it comes to creating a complete protein.<\/p>\n
Plant proteins like those from grains and vegetables are usually lacking in two important amino acids: lysine and methylamine. If the body doesn\u2019t get all of the amino acids it needs, it can\u2019t turn food protein into usable protein, which can lead to malnourishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why you add milk to cereal is to make sure you get that lysine content that you need, and so that the cereal\u2019s protein is all absorbable,\u201d says Goff.<\/p>\n
Milk fat is another boon to dairy, says Goff. While some people may be wary of milk\u2019s fat content \u2014 and therefore high caloric value \u2014 Goff says it\u2019s actually a great source of nutrition.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, we\u2019ve deemphasized fat,\u201d says Goff. \u201cMilk fat is very good in terms of risk reduction of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, and blood pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the studies don\u2019t all confirm Goff\u2019s position. For example, 2016 study by Harvard public health researchers in the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/em> found that while dairy didn\u2019t worsen the risk of heart disease or stroke, it also didn\u2019t lessen it. In fact, replacing dairy fat with vegetable fat or polyunsaturated fat \u2013 the kind present in nuts, seeds, and fish \u2013 reduced heart disease risk by 10 to 24 per cent. A similar 2015 review by Health Canada found that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats could help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes; dairy products can be high in saturated fats.<\/p>\n Goff himself has been called the world\u2019s leading expert in ice cream, and he grew up working in the ice cream factory his father managed. While Goff himself has turned down jobs in the dairy industry, he acknowledges that his institution, Guelph University, has strong ties \u2013 both historical and financial \u2013 to the Canadian dairy sector.<\/p>\n But for many Canadians, taste and nutrients might not be the most important factors. Even for people who want to avoid dairy, plant-based substitutes like nut cheeses and soy yogurts are simply too pricey to adopt as dairy substitutes.<\/p>\n \u201cComing from a parent who has had to go a soy-based route for my son, because he had an issue with casein as a baby, it is quite a bit more expensive,\u201d says Sloan. For low-income Canadians faced with a food guide that emphasizes plant-based dairy alternatives, which often cost more or are only available at high-end supermarkets like Whole Foods, alienation from the Food Guide or feelings of food-shame are concerns. \u201cThere could really be an issue there,\u201d adds Sloan.<\/p>\n However, Sloan says the Food Guide\u2019s focus on dairy can often worry parents of lactose or casein intolerant kids. \u201cThe education isn\u2019t there,\u201d around plant-based alternatives, says Sloan. \u201cIf there is an intolerance, [your kids] can be perfectly healthy without it.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite dairy\u2019s benefits and cheaper price point, Sloan still thinks Health Canada\u2019s decision to de-emphasize dairy is a good choice \u2014 and a far more inclusive one than keeping dairy as its own food group.<\/p>\n While some people choose not to eat dairy for environmental or ethical reasons, a large number of Canadians are lactose intolerant. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, around 65 per cent of people are lactose intolerant to some degree, with lactose malabsorption being particularly common in people with West African, Jewish, Greek, Italian, and Arab ancestry. Lactose intolerance affects up to 90 per cent of people of East Asian descent \u2014 an ethnic group that StatsCan says makes up roughly 11 per cent of Canadians. The current food guide\u2019s focus on dairy isn\u2019t just impractical for vegans; it could actually be racially insensitive.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at milk as its own category does somewhat alienate those people who are doing a plant-based diet,\u201d says Sloan. \u201cUltimately I think this way will be less judgmental.\u201d<\/p>\n As of 2018, the science doesn’t seem to sway either way. What we know for certain: humans need calcium, vitamin D, protein, and fat, and dairy is an easy way to get those things. But it’s far from the only way. If veganism continues to rise in popularity and fortified dairy substitutes such as soy milk become more affordable and more widely available, de-emphasizing dairy may become a more accessible choice for working class Canadians. And the decision to consume dairy is a highly personal one, fraught with not only health worries and individual lifestyle concerns, but emotional and ethical undertones.<\/p>\n Animal cruelty and environmental pollution in the agricultural business are also big issues, says Sloan. \u201cHow are the cows being treated? That\u2019s why a lot of people are moving away from dairy.\u201d<\/p>\n And then there’s the taste factor: cheese can be a hard thing to forgo.<\/p>\n For cheese lovers who think it\u2019s impossible to give up dairy, Cruickshank says cheese substitutes have come a long way in terms of replicating the taste and texture.<\/p>\n \u201cFaux cheese is really evolving right now, and it\u2019s really exciting. In house here we make cashew cheese. It\u2019s like a spread with a cashew base. Nuts are such a great substitute when making a faux cheese. It has the oil and the fats in it and nutritional yeast, which also contains B-12, which is excellent for vegans and vegetarians, and you get a really good flavour coming out of that\u201d Cruickshank says.<\/p>\n Cruickshank says at Pure Kitchen, she loves to prove skeptics of veganism wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, they think they\u2019re going to be hungry after or it\u2019s not going to have flavour or all they\u2019re going to eat is salad, and we\u2019re definitely demonstrating that there\u2019s a lot more to plant-based food than what maybe people\u2019s ideas were,\u201d Cruickshank says.<\/p>\n With the continued success of her restaurant, and Health Canada\u2019s more plant-centric Food Guide on the horizon, Cruickshank is confident that views on nutrition and healthy eating are turning away from dairy.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that as more restaurants open up and more food blogs support and promote plant-based foods, you\u2019re going to see a lot more of plant forward and plant centric views out there,\u201d says Cruickshank, \u201cand meat and dairy just aren\u2019t really the front runners anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.89″ background_color=”#ffca0c” background_layout=”light” custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset6″ border_width_all=”3px”]<\/p>\n On the internet, dairy has a lot of detractors. While some bloggers do their research, not everyone is so rigorous. Dr. Doug Goff and Deborah Sloan R.D. bust the four myths that bug them the most.<\/p>\n Myth #1: Milk is Inflammatory<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFlat-out classifying dairy as inflammatory is a biggie,\u201d says Sloan. \u201cI\u2019ve gone to the literature, and I haven\u2019t seen any strong evidence for that. In fact, it points to being anti-inflammatory in certain cases.\u201d Sloan says there is no published evidence for dairy causing inflammatory skin issues like eczema or acne.<\/p>\n Myth #2: Drinking Milk is Unnatural<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe one that really drives me nuts is when I see this statement that humans are the only species that drinks the milk of another species. That is just such nonsense,\u201d says Goff. \u201cWe\u2019re also the only species that cooks our food. You don\u2019t see bears sitting in the woods around a campfire.” Goff says that since humans have been drinking milk for thousands of years, and many populations have evolved to keep their lactase enzyme as adults, dairy consumption is nothing if not natural in 2018.<\/p>\n Myth #3: Pasteurized Milk is Worse For You Than Raw Milk<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that pasteurized milk is bad for you because of the processing is just\u2026 I almost don\u2019t even want to comment on that because raw milk is so dangerous,\u201d says Sloan. According to Sloan, the process of pasteurization doesn\u2019t remove any nutrients from milk, and just consists of heating the milk up to kill bacteria. Raw milk, or milk that hasn\u2019t been pasteurized, is often rife with potentially-deadly foodborne pathogens like E. Coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Listeria. While raw milk is trendy amongst some, it\u2019s actually illegal to sell in Canada.<\/p>\n Myth #4: Milk is Full of Growth Hormones and Antibiotics<\/strong><\/p>\n Growth hormones and antibiotics are a real concern for American milk-drinkers, but Canadians can breathe a sigh of relief. Giving growth hormones or antibiotics to a dairy cow is illegal in Canada. According to the Dietitians of Canada website, if a dairy cow does have an infection that requires antibiotics, such as mastitis, they are removed from the milking herd until the antibiotics are out of their system, and the contaminated milk is thrown out<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.89″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.0.89″ title=”on” meta=”on” author=”on” date=”off” categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”off” featured_placement=”below” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” meta_font_size=”20″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_image _builder_version=”3.0.89″ src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/catalyst\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Dairy-Substitutes-Small.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.89″ background_layout=”light”] When Olivia Cruickshank and her husband opened up a vegan and vegetarian restaurant in Ottawa, they had no idea how popular it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":3182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[135],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-3181","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/catalyst\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Milk-Alternatives-Prices-300x239.jpg\")
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Milk Myths & Quack Science<\/strong><\/h3>\n