Don’t "GOMAD"

It has recently been brought to my attention that there is a “diet” (yep, another one) out there floating around the internet and between gym rats (I mean that in the best way possible as I could probably be placed into that category as well) that involves drinking a Gallon Of Milk A Day, or GOMAD. How it came about, I’ll never know, but the idea behind it is that it will make you JACKED.  Now I’d like to start by saying that many Americans arent getting the recommended 3 servings of dairy a day and that I am a huge proponent of dairy farmers and their products as they are a large part of an overall well-balanced diet. That being said, however… A GALLON A DAY!!!!

It’s really difficult as a dietitian to know where to start here. So let’s just jump right into the numbers… and for those of you who know me, jumping right into the numbers is HIGHLY unusual.

1 gallon of SKIM milk contains approx:

-128 fluid ounces
–1,280 calories
–0 grams fat
–0 grams saturated fat
-560 mg cholesterol
-2,080 mg sodium
-192 grams carbohydrate
-176 grams of sugar
-128 grams of protein

For the fun of it, let’s compare to WHOLE milk:

–2,400 calories
–128 grams fat
–80 grams saturated fat
-560 mg cholesterol
-2,080 mg sodium
-192 grams carbohydrate
-176 grams of sugar
-128 grams of protein

These are interesting numbers, obviously. And they should be cause for concern… here’s why:

My first thought after running these numbers was “So where else do they plan on getting their nutrition from?”Ok, I lied that was my second thought. My FIRST thought was actually “How in the world could someone stomach that over a period of time, let alone a singe day!”

But let’s go to what the research says. The USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend the following on a daily basis:

– < 2,300 mg sodium (and < 1,500 for those 51 and over, African Americans, and those with hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease)
– < 10% of TOTAL calories coming from saturated fat
– < 300 mg of cholesterol This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but I thought I’d pick these out. So now that we have this information, let’s compare the two what do you say? For the reason that people’s calorie needs can vary so widely, I am leaving that part out. So for SKIM milk here’s what were looking at (sorry mom, I know I just ended the sentence in a preposition). -187 % of your recommended cholesterol for the day
-90 % of your recommended sodium for the day for about half the population
-139 % of your recommended sodium for the day for the other half

NOTE: Again, I’m not hating on milk, its AWESOME! But this is just too much and although the sodium seems high in all of this, in normal amounts, it is very minimal. This is especially true because of milk’s abundance of sodium-neutralizing POTASSIUM.

For WHOLE milk:

-Well, I’ll just say this… Too much fat, WAY too much saturated fat, and just flat out too many calories I dont care who you are.

There are many other things wrong with this “diet”. These include busting through your upper limits on certain other nutrients and micronutrients (eg. calcium). But I could be here forever writing a book on all of this and I have work to do. Or maybe I should write a sweet, super cool book that everyone will love, get me on Oprah’s new network, land me my own show and… Yeah, you’re right I should just get back to work.