Is Dairy Primal?

Should primals or paleos consume dairy? If so, which kind is best?

Let’s be honest: dairy is not paleo. Grok would not have caught a wild bovine or ovine and milked it.  Said animal would have violently protested.  Grok is not stupid. Further, most peoples lose their ability to metabolize dairy as they mature.

On the other hand, some retain the ability to metabolize dairy.  This puts dairy in the squishy primal zone: decide for yourself.  Try it out and, as Robb Wolf says, see how you look, feel, and perform.

Why test it?

Dairy can be useful to the human body (that is why babies drink it).  Dairy can help build muscle.  It provides healthy fats.  On the other hand, it can stimulate the dreaded insulin response that packs on fat.  It also brings gastronomic pleasure, which, I think, is quite a good reason to give it a whirl.  Still, care must be taken.  The decision must be made by brain and body.

The following links provide some information to help your brain decide.

Info on Dairy and Primal

• The Definitive Guide to Dairy on Mark’s Daily Apple
• Got Milk? on Free the Animal
• Paleo and dairy on Conditioning Research
• “dairy” tag on PaleoHacks
• Using Dairy to substitute Fats for Carbohydrates on PaNu

Decide

If dairy helps your body feel better, then consume dairy.

If not, don’t.

To help your body decide, I invite you to join me on my month without cow dairy.

Cow photo by law keven on Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.