So you're basically asking if there are people who have some sort of dietary/metabolic requirement for dairy?

No, there aren't.

When you say "in the same way that it improves health for others", remember that the reason dairy elimination improves health is that some people have allergies or sensitivities to dairy, or are lactose intolerant (can't digest it). For dairy removal to be DETRIMENTAL in the same vein, some individual would have to get some magical health bonus from eating dairy. I know of no such magic.

There are no classes of foods that are absolutely required. By "class of food" I mean something like "dairy" or "birds" or "grains" or "green vegetables" - a grouping based on some attribute above the level of strict micro/macronutrient content. So long as you are getting the required nutrition, you can make up your diet with any combination of healthy food classes.

If removing dairy from your diet leaves you with no other healthy option to get calories/nutrients, then removing it could hurt you. So I suppose that would be the answer to your question: removing dairy can hurt if you have no other healthy food source available. But that's a pretty rare situation to find yourself in, since you can usually just up your intake of whatever else you eat to make up for the lack of what you are removing.

i think it's more complex than just being "unfavorable for health in the same way it improves it for others." what i mean is it first depends on whether the person has leaky gut, dairy sensitivities and/or issues associated with. if a person tolerates dairy well, then it being beneficial is dependent on what dairy products they are using and in what way they're using it. personally i, like many other people on this board, use heavy cream and butter from pastured sources as another source of saturated fat, k2, cla, and other good nutrients our bodies like. removing dairy from me would make it harder to get these nutrients since i'm not an avid grass-fed beef eater.

I would not be concerned about adding butter and Greek yogurt back into your meals. Your health, and skin tone is part of that, is important.

I am sure that some people would be worse off without dairy; others are worse with it.

You might try adding one or the other slowly back, then after awhile, slowly add the other .By "slowly", I mean not every day at first. I would try every other day, then two days on and one off; then five days on; then whenever you want some.

If you decide to go off butter and yogurt again, I wold do the same way. Start with one or the other, and skip it for a day, have some; then skip two, have some; then skip three, have some. Anyway I am sure you can work out a way that would work for you to add them back, then to remove the,

This is a tough call. I have reduced my consumption to heavy cream and butter only. I have MS so I want to keep the autoimmunity issues to a minimum, so given that I eat no grains/gluten, legumes and only this limited dairy I think my gut is likely in good shape. Alas I have not yet been able to source pastured dairy (I've got the pastured beef, pork, chicken and eggs but not the dairy) so I have to use conventional products (sub optimal, I realize). I use it as a good source of fat. Like luckbastard just noted it there are lots of issues for each person to consider as and individual, so I don't think there is a yes/no answer unless you ask a strict Paleo devotee!

I am currently pregnant and having dairy in my diet seems to help me out a lot with my fatigue and overall health. I eat cottage cheese, organic DHA fortified milk and greek yogurt. I tried to cut dairy out of my pregnancy diet and it just didn't work out. I felt miserable. so adding it back in was a proper option for me.

howeve3r, not pregnant I feel that dairy should be consumed regularly if other forms of protein and calcium aren't available. personally i don't care to eat 38 grams worth of protein (by animal meat sources) a day, as it upsets my stomach, so dairy is my alternative. greek yogurt has a high protein content so this tends to be my dairy of choice.

personally its all on how if effects your body. Grains do not sit well with me at all so thats why i have chosen this diet, even though i am considered to be on a pseudo-paleo diet.

I have always eaten a lot of dairy, including milk from our dairy goat.

I tried last week to give it up, wondering if it was causing some mild rather undefinable symptoms. After day 6 I went to the coffee bar in our piazza ordered warm milk and a brioche and said Viva il latte! I just can't give it up.

So now, after re-establishing whole milk, butter, yogurt and whole fat ricotta this week my sore joints have resumed their normal level which is much better than when I was not drinking milk. And the other symptoms such as ear ringing, is better also.

I tried to eat tons of spinach, which I try to eat a lot of anyway and grapes for calcium, nuts too. But no matter what, its darned hard to get a proper amount of calcium without eating milk products.

It must be very difficult to have a milk allergy, a lot of planning has to go into a diet when something like milk, or meat or fruit is illiminated.

My skin looks great for someone 61!

Well, I eliminated dairy when I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and it was an utter disaster (preaching to the choir I know).

More recently, I've stopped eating Greek yogurt every day and cut way back on my cheese consumption (while still eating tons of heavy cream and butter) and my skin is clearer than it's been in years.

Experiment and see what works for you.