Internal Mono(b)log

An interesting blurb from Michael Greger MD in my mailbox this morning.

Diet vs. Exercise: What’s More Important? | NutritionFacts.org.

and I agree w. him totally.  We all know a calorie isn’t a calorie and the composition, processing, additives, and personal food sensitivities around diet choices can make a MASSIVE difference in how your body is using those calories.

In that vein, I have recently been conducting a personal nutrition experiement (in the constant stream of them that I am continually doing), and cutting dairy from my diet.  I previously wasn’t a HUGE consumer of milk or cheese, but I did eat cottage cheese and yogurt pretty much daily and in pretty good quantities.  About 2 weeks ago I cut these “staples” from my diet.  The results?

Well, 1st and foremost I note that I feel mentally clearer like a light fog has been lifted.  This is surprising because I never felt that dairy had any negative impact on my physical or mental well-being, but it would appear that I’m wrong.  I’ve also noted lower morning resting heart-rate (this may just be due to being fully recovered from The North Face Endurance Challenge Ultra that I did in early December, so not too confident about this being dairy related, but noteworthy), less phlegm and muscus, reduced hunger, less frequent sleep interruptions, and least important but still happy-making, a drop in fat-mass without a loss in lean-mass.

All things considered, it would appear that the experiment is  having positive results and as such I’ll probably adopt it into my normal dietary regeme.  I still occasionally have a bit of cheese on my eggs or a drop of milk in a particularly medeocre restaurant coffee but my daily habitual consumption has, at least for now, come to an end.