June is known to be the National Dairy month, but before you go and drink a cup of Borden, this month is also known as National Dairy Alternative Month. Yes, you heard right.

Everyone drinks milk right?

More and more americans are switching to a dairy-free life, and well … I’m right along there with them. Besides being lactose intolerant, years ago I’ve come to conclude that milk is not what it is all cracked up to be.

Consider this, of all the mammals, only humans and for that matter mostly Caucasians, drink milk beyond their childhood. In nature, full grown adult mammals cannot be found drinking milk. Not only that, it has been proven that cow’s milk is specifically designed for calves, not humans.

I mean, why do we not drink cat’s milk, camel’s milk, or how about rat’s milk …. I think the dairy industry has the answer to that question.

The cow: docile, plentiful, and not to mention its abundant supply of milk! Add to the fact, if we inject it with enough hormones, we can up the supply from about 2,000 pounds/year to over 50,000/year! Yikes! That can’t be healthy or natural.

So why do we continue to drink milk?

When we see Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Cal Ripken, etc… all with their milk mustaches, while at the same time we hum in our minds “Milk it does a body good”. Who can you blame? Ever since I was a kid, it’s been drilled in my head to drink milk. Didn’t they tell you this in elementary school? I need it to be healthy and for strong bones right?

What about my daily calcium?

Believe it or not, in nature milk is not the only calcium-rich food. If your looking to go dairy free, add these healthy foods to your diet, and you’ll have all the calcium you need:

• Leafy greens: kale, spinach, collard greens
• Fortified cereals: Total, Raisin Bran, etc…
• Fortified juices
• Soybeans and legumes
• Enriched grains, breads, waffles
• Fish such as salmon
• Almonds

These foods are not only more healthy and loaded with calcium, you don’t get all that saturated fat, that milk contains, which leads to heart disease and well unwanted fat.

So no more dairy, ever?

Going dairy-free, is not as easy as it sounds. I mean you would have to literally stop eating all cheeses (that’s a tough one for me), ice cream, yogurt, butter, etc…

While I can definitely see the benefit from a health point of view, I still need to have my occasional bite of cheese or slice of pizza. Just stop fooling yourself that milk does a body good, because quite frankly it doesn’t.

If this is the first time you are hearing this, you might want to check out Notmilk. You will see this is just the tip of the iceberg and how deep the rabbit hole goes. Who knows it just might convince you to stop drinking milk altogether. Your body will be glad you did!

I will love to hear from my readers on this subject .. please post a comment and give your opinion!

Most of you probably don’t know who is Jamie Gold.
Well in 2006 he won the World Series of Poker Tour and pocketed $12,000,000! At the final table, he was seen scarfing down handfuls of blueberries throughout the round as he was playing his cards.

When asked after he won why the blueberries, he responded, “blueberries are the best type of brain food, and that he couldn’t have won without them!”

Wow … there’s some motivation to eat blueberries! There’s a major health benefit of blueberries!

Top Antioxidant Foods

Not only are they an excellent brain food, they’re loaded with antioxidants. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2004), blueberries ranked #2 among the top 20 foods surveyed for antioxidants.

Here is the top ten list with their antioxidant count per serving:

1. Small Red Bean ——-13727
2. Wild Blueberry ——-13427
3. Red Kidney Bean —–13259
4. Pinto Bean ————11864
5. BlueBerry (grown) —-9019
6. Cranberry ————8983
7. Artichoke ————-7904
8. Blackberry ————7701
9. Dried Prune ———–7291
10. Raspberry ———–6058

You can see our beloved blueberry lost to the small red bean. That’s ok, I’d much prefer to munch on blueberries than a cup of small red beans!

Benefits of Blueberries

Here are some other noteworthy benefits of the blueberry:

• Decrease your risk of cancer
• Prevent heart disease and stroke by reducing your ‘bad’ cholesterol
• Promotes optimal vision
• Strengthens the immune system
• Guards against Alzheimer’s and short term memory loss

So, next time you walk down the aisle at your local supermarket, grab a box or two of blueberries. Whether your playing a cutthroat game of poker, or just want to pour them on your morning cereal, you can’t go wrong by eating blueberries!