What's the real deal about dairy?

Good? Bad? Inflammatory? People from India consider the cow sacred (hence the saying "HOLY COW") and say that if you could only survive off one food that it would be milk from a cow. Everyone from the West seems to demonize dairy. Which is strange considering many of our ancestors came from Eastern Europe, where it is too cold for many fruits and vegetables to be grown or to hunt a lot of game so we survived off lots of dairy (milk, cheeses, butter). What are your thoughts?

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If you don’t have lactose intolerance or milk protein allergy it is very nutritious. I love dairy, more the yogurt type than milk. But I consume a good portion daily and my doctor says it very healthy. But not sure it’s because of the dairy. Probably a lifestyle with lots of veggies. Enough protein. Little junk. Lots of exercise.

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Many cultures owe their debt to dairy products for survival. Especially in the temperate zone. Historically speaking we have been dependent on milk and milk products for survival.

Many spiritual traditions also advocate lacto vegetarianism.

I see milk products as great. But modern practices have made them less than ideal. You would ideally look for organic.

The better products imho are the high fat content (butter and ghee) one full of fat soluble vitamins and the fermented ones (yogurt, buttermilk etc.) with live cultures, being low lactose and ‘predigested’. These two criteria combined gives you the cheeses and the sour creams like smetana.

Since there is no ‘raw milk’ easily available, I only use plain milk only in my coffee… Culturing milk is one way of giving it life again and the plethora of ways milk can be cultured surely makes it special and unique in nature aka ‘holy’. ;)

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Milk has all the nutrients required for a calf to grow and develop quickly. It is essentially a superfood. A few points though:

Source is important - you want grass fed, organic cows that live well. (Not just from an ethical perspective, but the nutritional quality is better. Avoid hormones etc.)
Some people struggle to digest milk protein. Reportedly, raw milk contains enzymes that help with digestion, but these are ruined in the pasteurization process. A2 protein is reported to be easier to digest (certain breeds of cows have this).
Raw milk retains more nutritional value, but can transmit bacteria. If you’re able to source raw milk from healthy, grass fed cows, this is an extremely beneficial addition to your diet.
Milk is made for weight gain. It’s packed with protein, fat and carbs. If you’re trying to lose weight I would avoid it.
Trim / Skim milks shouldn’t exist

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Research has found that the hormones ingested from dairy can be harmful to our body. Research also finds that the way a cow was treated (grass fed or soy/corn, gmo, etc) will manifest in the consumers health. So, if you have a soy allergy and drink the milk from a cow who ingested soy, that can be a problem area. Or if the cow was confined to a small pen and pumped with hormones, the consumer is ingesting the cow’s stress hormones and GMO’s. These are just examples on how drinking the milk from a cow can have a negative effect on body.

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Full of estrogen. In its raw form, some long lived and hardy people thrived on dairy. But sedantary modern (domesticated / lab rats) will be affected by foods differently than active and “wild” peoples. Not everyone will be affected negatively by dairy, but plenty of people seem to be.