Three-a-Day Dairy Important to a Healthy Life, National Medical Association Leader Says

With the dietary guidelines for American Scientific Advisory Committee reviewing the science for the upcoming 2025 guidelines, better nutrition for diverse American communities is getting a lot of attention. Dr. Priscilla Mpasi, a Philadelphia physician and board member of the National Medical Association, said dairy’s essential to support in the dietary recommendations the guidelines make, given its importance to nutrition in families with diverse backgrounds.

“The science is very clear about the health benefits, from birth to our senior population,” said Mpasi, a primary care pediatrician, in a Dairy Defined Podcast released today. “The recommendations have been three servings of dairy a day, and we’re hoping it stays at three servings of dairy a day.”

Mpasi also addresses misperceptions regarding lactose intolerance, misinformation on dairy among consumers, and the contrasts between dairy and plant-based beverages.

You can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts, under the podcast name “Dairy Defined.”

Media outlets may use clips from the podcast on the condition of attribution to the National Milk Producers Federation.


Dairy Diversity Ready to Grow

It might sound crazy to think that a product that’s already in 94 percent of U.S. households has room to grow, but the numbers indicate it’s true. Here’s what we’re talking about:

This comes from a study done by the International Food Information Council, supported by NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association, on consumption habits among diverse U.S. populations. What’s striking is that, even though self-reported lactose intolerance among non-White populations runs at roughly 30 percent (according to the same study), clear majorities among Black, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander populations haven’t even tried milk that addresses that intolerance, forgoing an option that provides 13 essential nutrients. And presumably, some of those non-milk drinkers are in that 6 percent who don’t have it in their refrigerators.

(And conversely, some of that 94 percent must include lactose-intolerant consumers. Are they taking lactase pills to aid in digestion? Are other household members the milk drinkers? There’s still much to know.)

The point is this: At a time when the committee drafting recommendations for the next Dietary Guidelines for Americans is looking at nutrition science and contemplating recommendations that are appropriate to the lived experiences of a wide range of Americans, it’s important to meet people where they are. For the overwhelming majority of them, that means a place where they have milk in the fridge. Those who aren’t there are in a place where awareness of the numerous ways to benefit from dairy nutrition, regardless of lactose tolerance, isn’t what it needs to be.

That suggests a need to double down on offering dairy’s benefits in a way that’s tailored to the needs of individual communities. It means listening to communities that value dairy and wish it could be offered more readily, in more accessible forms. It means serving that 94 percent of households with milk — and using the tools available to raise that percentage. It emphatically does not mean de-emphasizing dairy as a critical nutritional option for all Americans — or even worse, suggesting it be replaced by sources that aren’t nutritionally equivalent.

NMPF has a call to action that dairy advocates can use to help get this message across. Public health, and the best public health guidance, is important to all Americans. And dairy is ready to provide high-quality nutrition that’s affordable and accessible to all.

 

Lactose Misinformation is Intolerable

Dairy’s opponents have a new bad-faith argument — that because of lactose intolerance, dairy is inappropriate for diverse communities. It’s a bogus case, but it seems to be seeping into public policy discussion. Before regretful decisions start to be made to the detriment of public health, let’s make it clear: Dairy is a socially inclusive, equitable solution that can benefit all communities.

By the standards of contemporary misinformation, it’s easy to see how lactose-intolerance arguments have gained traction. They include a fact — that some populations have difficulty digesting lactose, a natural sugar found most commonly in milk — and turn it into a myth: that because of this intolerance, dairy should be de-emphasized as a source of nutrition.

But what suits the need of an activist group that may or may not be focused on nutrition doesn’t suit the public interest. A closer look at what dairy provides, and how it can be provided in a way that respects people’s lived dietary experiences and nutritional needs, shows just how misguided, and potentially damaging, an anti-dairy message cloaked in equity rhetoric can be.

A few points to ponder:

  • Dairy is an important source of 13 essential nutrients, including three of the four identified as of public health concern among Americans in the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Overall, 89 percent of Americans under-consume dairy, according to that guidelines committee’s report.
  • Dairy beverage substitutes, such as plant-based beverages, are not nutritionally equivalent to dairy and are in fact inferior in significant ways. Even fortified soy drinks, currently recommended as a substitute for dairy under the U.S. dietary guidelines, are chemically dissimilar and may interact with human bodies differently.
  • At the same time, a lactose-free substitute for traditional milk is available that offers true nutritional equivalence. That substitute is called… lactose-free milk, and it solves tolerance issues for most people. It’s hard to imagine a more equitable nutritional solution than giving everyone the same beverage, tailored to their needs — unless, of course, you’re either misinformed or not truly concerned about equity.
  • Beyond milk, lactose is far from predominant in dairy products, giving lactose-intolerant consumers even more options. Butter, for example, has only trace amounts of lactose. Yogurt has much less lactose than milk, and many varieties of cheese, including Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, mozzarella and Swiss, are also low-lactose. Kefir, a thicker, creamier beverage, is lower-lactose than milk, and includes probiotics that help with lactose digestion. These options provide abundant nutrition within healthy dietary patterns, even for many who experience varying levels of lactose intolerance. Here is a helpful guide to lactose in dairy and how to consume dairy with confidence.
  • Awareness of lactose-free options is low in diverse populations, which shows a need for education, not deprivation. According to research done last year by the International Food and Information Council, more than half of members of U.S. racial and ethnic minority groups have never tried lactose-free milk, despite having higher reported percentages of lactose intolerance than White Americans.
  • With increasing sales and newer production practices, the traditional price premium between traditional and lactose-free milk is showing signs of fading, with store brands now offering lactose-free milk.

Nutrition science is challenging, and nutrition policy even more so, as different interest groups try to mold eating habits in ways that sometimes are meant to achieve goals other than effective nutrition. In the end, federal food policy is meant to help people nourish themselves — and for the highest quality nourishment, dairy still provides an unparalleled package, for everyone.

It’s a fact: A healthy, rich-in-dairy diet can be low in lactose or lactose-free. Be wary of arguments that are truth-free instead.

 

 

Whole and Lactose-Free Milk Shine Bright

By Alan Bjerga, Executive Vice President, Communications & Industry Relations, NMPF

This is shaping up to be an exciting year for both whole and lactose-free milk, two growing segments of fluid milk consumption that are poised for further gains in grocery aisles as well as Washington, D.C. policy circles.

First, the facts: Even as fluid milk continues its decades-long challenge of eroded consumption as beverage markets diversify and consumer preference shifts to other forms of dairy, both whole milk and lactose-free varieties are bucking that trend. According to data from Circana Inc., which tracks retail sales, whole milk sales rose slightly (up 8 million gallons, or 0.6%) in 2023 over 2022. Because overall fluid sales declined, whole milk now makes up 45.4% of total fluid volume sold and is easily the most popular variety.

Lactose-free milk, meanwhile, reached a milestone. By climbing 6.7% to 239.2 million gallons last year, it surpassed the sales volume of almond beverages, by far the most popular plant-based milk alternative beverage. Almond’s annual decline of 9.8% is a big part of an overall consumer move away from plant-based alternatives, which have now seen two straight years of sales volume drops. Buyers are emphatically rejecting years of misleading claims that these beverages are a worthy substitute to dairy.

What’s next?

The National Milk Producers Federation is pushing for full congressional passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House in December and stands good prospects of passage in the Senate — if the right legislative vehicle can be found in a jam-packed election year. Bringing whole and 2% milk back to school meal menus is a great way to improve the nutrition of the next generation of milk drinkers. We have a call to action on our website urging senators to take up the bill.

Lactose-free milk is becoming the industry’s spearhead in ensuring equitable access to milk across diverse populations in federal nutrition programs. It is simply asinine federal policy to do what some vegan activists are proposing — increase access in federal programs to plant-based beverages that are both nutritionally inferior and now falling out of favor with consumers — when a beverage exists that circumvents lactose intolerance and offers all of milk’s benefits because it is, after all, milk. You will be hearing more about this in upcoming months as we strive to make 2024 a year when people become more broadly aware of just how critical lactose-free milk can be for effective and fair nutritional choices.

In what’s been a challenging time for the industry, what can the success of whole and lactose-free milk tell us? It shows that, for all the proliferation of alternatives, consumers like milk that’s most like milk, in taste and composition. They also like milk that’s accessible for everyone who wants its benefits. Quality and diversity are promising building blocks for a prosperous future. That’s plentiful in dairy, and this year, what consumers are choosing also can inform better federal policy.


This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Jan. 18, 2024.

Milk’s Lead Rises as Plant-Based Beverages Sink

The final numbers are in, and they confirm what we’ve anticipated all year. In 2023, consumers emphatically turned away from plant-based beverages at an accelerating rate that caused the category to lose market share to milk, where whole milk and lactose-free varieties are thriving and surpassing their competitors.

The numbers give even more reason to put a stake in all that overprocessed hype – and to push even harder for integrity in labeling beverages that are being abandoned by consumers tired of inferior alternatives to dairy.

With full year data now available from Circana Inc., which tracks grocery-store spending, plant-based beverage consumption in 2023 fell 6.6 percent to 337.7 million gallons. It’s the second straight year of declines and the lowest consumption since 2019.



Sales volumes for almond drinks, the biggest plant-based category, fell 10 percent, and the soy beverages that vegan activists weirdly want in school lunches declined 8 percent. Even the once-Next-Big-Thing, oats, only rose 1.4 percent last year.

Sorry, Oatly – the froth has left your latte, and all that’s left is the drain.

Meanwhile, fluid milk – the real kind – keeps chugging away. To be fair, like plant-based, its consumption also declined, and like plant-based, its sales volume number starts with a 3. However, that 3.137 is followed by the word billion – not million, which is where plant-based is stuck – and the drop was 2.7 percent, less than half the rate of decline for plant-based beverages. That means fluid milk last year lengthened its lead over plant-based. In 2022, fluid milk had 89.9 percent of the pie. In 2023, it rose to 90.3 percent.

Beyond the overall number, fluid milk had more good news. Sales of whole milk, the most popular variety (and the one we need back in schools), rose last year, and lactose-free milk – the one tailor-made for people with dairy sensitivities – jumped 6.7 percent to 239.2 million gallons. With that, lactose-free milk surpassed almonds; it’s now a bigger category on its own than any plant-based alternative.



(You’ll hear a lot about that in the next year. We’ll make certain of it.)

The idea that milk was losing market share because consumers were turning to plant-based alternatives was always off-base. Now, it’s just a lie. And the decline of plant-based beverage isn’t likely to be an aberration: Once the initial hype is gone, and the sustainability claims are debunked, and the nutrition fallacies are exposed, what, exactly, does over-processed sugar water have going for it?

Oh, right, their misleading labels.

For now.