Vegans may have been right all along about avoiding dairy products. Although raw, natural milk has a lot of benefits;, a Harvard pediatrician and specialist David Ludwig maintains that low fat milk and dairy products pose a treat for your wellbeing due to the added sweeteners they contain.
As David Ludwig explained in his research (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics), there have been numerous research efforts that examine the negative impact of sugar-sweetened beverages. Excessive use of sugar has been related to various health problems such as weight gain, diabetes, and many others. 
In fact, due to the negative influence sugar has on our health, the United States Department of Agriculture, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other organizations discourage the consumption of sweetened beverages. Instead, they recommend low fat milk, and the association suggests drinking 3 glasses per day.
However, Ludwig actually questions this recommendation, and he says: “This recommendation is perhaps the most prevailing advice given to the American population in the last half a century. As a result, Americans are consuming billions of gallons of milk per year, presumably under the assumption that their bones would crumble without milk.”
The Dangers of Low-Fat Products
If the USDA is in favor of low-fat milk, they are in a way empowering the use of added sugars, which goes against all the research claiming sugar and sugar-sweetened drinks need to be avoided. This is why Ludwig is concerned. Drinking low-fat milk or chocolate milk completely contradicts the advice to avoid sugar since it is sugar that replaces the fats in low-fat products.
“The worst possible situation is reduced-fat chocolate milk: if the fat is removed-it is less tasty. In order to get your children to drink 3 cups per day, you give them sugar-sweetened beverages,”Ludwig said.
He also added, “We can acquire plenty of calcium from a wide range of foods. Moreover, cooked kale has more calcium than milk. Other sources of calcium are sardines, nuts, beans, green leafy vegetables and many others.”
A Case for Full-Fat Dairy
David Ludwig may be right to stand against the USDA’s proposals, which favor low-fat milk over whole milk. Individuals and businesses alike need to motivate themselves to keep their distance from certain fats such as the trans-fats and refined polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils like corn, soy, sunflower oil and canola oil.
However, proof for the safety of using immersed fat in milk, coconut oil, and meat from grass-fed animals is over the top. Immersed fat has been condemned for a long time, but a study from 2010 published in the American Journal of Clinical 
Nutrition stated, “There are no evidences which prove that dietary saturated fat is closely related with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases.”
Furthermore, consuming full-fat dairy products has quite a few benefits. When raw, (natural and originating from grass-fed dairy animals), full-fat dairy has been proved to improve the health of the heart, assist in vitamin intake, lower the risk from diseases, help weight loss efforts, and control diabetes.
Ingesting clean or organic dairy can improve your overall health, whereas processed dairy can have negative effects on your wellbeing. Therefore, always be careful in deciding which dairy products to consume since more than 20 antitoxins, painkillers, and various other dangerous ingredients can be found in milk.
References:
RealFarmacy, Today.com, DailyMail.co.uk
By: Violeta Pesic