One thing I feel like pointing out is that…more than 75% of world population have hard time drinking milk because “…the normal mammalian condition is for the young of a species to experience reduced lactase production at the end of the weaning period…”.

Meaning that milk was not supposed be consumed after that phase because you were expected to eat something else in lieu of milk, enabling you to get way from nursing mother’ breasts and let you be an independent entity instead of mommy’s boy all the time.

That is the mechanism the Mother Nature found to be successful and implemented throughout many many millions of evolutionally years. However with human race, with domestication of animals, reversal is happening with evolutionarily recent adaptation to dairy consumption.

I do not know whether that will be a good forced evolutionarily adaptation or not…only time will tell. When not clearly proven, I tend to go with Mother Nature-centric view since her ways have produced the reality we live in-meaning you, I, them and every shads of gray between. When you really think about it, in addition to going against proven and successful Mother Nature’s mechanism, you are really drinking something has been specifically tailored to the need of calves. Anyway, when it comes to the animal milk issue I think proponent and opposition both have some valid points and hopefully whatever the outcome, it will benefit human and animal too.

Second, what about milk variants like yogurt or kefir? I know that they aren’t a drink for rehydration, but in well made yogurt there is virtually no, if not no, lactose. My research shows that the carbs shown in nutritional data for yogurt is mostly lactic acid.

Greek style strained yogurt has the whey removed. Diluted yogurt with optionally, coconut milk is delicious and refreshing. Not saying about post-workout, just good.

Rambodoc, save the whey and use it in shakes or just drink it straight, just make sure you don’t overdo it since it can cause frequent number two bathroom trips

I’ll be honest that I’ve never cared to look into the prostate cancer link but 2500 mg is a honking lot of calcium per day.

And while I don’t recall seeing anything related to athletes having higher calcium requirements due to higher rates of bone turnover or what have you, I can’t honestly say I’ve ever bothered to look. Most micronutrient research bores me to tears; unless it relates to fat loss or performance, I just have a lot of trouble caring. I imagine this will change when I get older and have to worry about such things.

Lyle

Do you have a particular take on the state of play, Lyle? I’m taking stab in the dark but is it possible that trained individuals may require elevated calcium intakes at around that level anyway, due to…perhaps…adaptions in bone density, damage etc? Am I being stupidly optimistic in hoping that throwing the odd barbell around will save me from the ill-effects of milk addiction? I think perhaps so.

Thanks.

However, the increased calories from whole milk might be problematic while dieting, depending on where calories are set. I’d be more inclined to use fat free (or perhaps 1% milk) simply to keep calories down a bit and allow more at other meals. Then again, for 8 oz of milk, the difference in calories between skim and whole is like 50-60 or so (80 for fat free vs. 130-140 for whole). So it’s not like it makes all the difference in the world on your typical fat loss diet.

For bulking, whole milk would appear to be the best choice.

Lyle