Dairy Is, and Has Always Been, "Primal-Approved"

Farmer pouring fresh milk into a container while a cow looks on in the background.

Although the earliest versions of ancestral or paleo diets eliminated dairy, the Primal Blueprint has always made allowances for dairy. I stand by that today, and even go a step further: as long as you don’t have any intolerances, dairy is one of the healthiest foods we can eat.

Dairy is a relatively recent entrant into the human diet, yet much of the world is populated by those who can utilize it. The Indo-European expansion, which changed the genetic and cultural makeup of Europe and Central and South Asia, was led by a small group of foragers who had learned animal husbandry and could call on a steady source of calories and nutrients in the form of dairy. Most reading this have a significant portion of ancestry attributed to these dairy-eating former foragers.

Observational studies show that those who consume the most full-fat dairy have lower heart disease rates and live longer than those who do not. These observations hold true even across cultures and ethnicities with little to no tradition of dairy consumption. Studies also show that giving people access to dairy improves markers of bone health, increases bone density, and aids recovery from training. Senior citizens who eat dairy live the longest and remain the most vigorous. Kids who eat dairy grow the tallest.

I argue that a high-meat diet, one especially rich in heme iron from red meat, must also be rich in dairy to provide the calcium needed to buffer the potentially carcinogenic effects of heme in the colon. Studies show that colon cancer only occurs in the absence of calcium.

Assorted dairy products: milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, and several types of cheese.

Dairy is much more than fluid milk. It includes cheese, yogurt, kefir, whey protein, cream, and butter. Personally, I don’t consume much fluid milk. I can’t remember the last time I had a glass of it, but I eat dairy pretty much every day, whether it’s cheese, cream in my coffee, or a bowl of Greek yogurt. Even if you’re lactose intolerant, you can probably eat cheese and yogurt, especially the harder cheeses and yogurt made by bacteria that consume lactose and convert it into lactic acid.

Specific interventions with cheeses have shown that cheese is an anti-inflammatory food, despite being rich in saturated fat, animal protein, and salt. Classic cheeses like pecorino Romano actually lower markers of atherosclerosis and inflammation.

Fermented milk like yogurt and kefir has unique attributes and an entire literature of health effects supporting its consumption.

Most notable about dairy, despite all the studies showing its benefits, is that it is expressly designed to be food for mammals. Its entire purpose is to support the growth and development of mammals in the first year or two of life. Regarding breastmilk, it’s all humans are meant to consume during that early life period. It is, by design, the perfect food for humans. This doesn’t mean that cow milk is the perfect food for adult humans, but our physiologies are similar enough to make the case that dairy of any kind is a useful food for humans.

Dairy is a linchpin for the entire philosophical crux of the Primal Blueprint. It isn’t something we’ve been eating forever. It’s a modern development, a technology of sorts. On paper, you might think it would be off-limits, but that’s where the Primal Blueprint comes in. If it works, if all the evidence we have shows that it is good and useful, then we can include it. We are not limited to just the foods available during the Paleolithic.

I fully support the inclusion of dairy if it fits your goals, if you can tolerate it, and, most importantly, if you enjoy it.

What place, if any, does dairy have in your diet? Let me know on Instagram, Facebook, or X.