Milk’s unquestioned health status which it has enjoyed for
decades is in jeopardy as recent studies point to serious nutritional
drawbacks.
By Stephen Leckie
Reviewed
by Mark Fromberg M.D.
Canada has one of the highest rates of milk consumption in
the world, but maybe not for long. Milk consumption has slipped to 103.75
liters per person per year. Consumption of butter has less than three
kilograms a year from a high of eight 30 years ago. This parallels a drop in
the incidence of coronary artery disease over the past 25 years. The dairy
industry had sales $7.2 million in 1990.
High-protein foods, such as meat, eggs and dairy
products leach calcium from the body by causing excessive calcium loss
through the kidneys making the kidneys work harder and causing loss of
minerals such as calcium.
Child care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock, 89, once an advocate
of drinking cow’s milk, has joined several doctors in questioning its
nutritional value and warning of a possible link to juvenile onset diabetes
and allergies. “Breast feeding is the best milk feeding for babies,” Dr.
Spock.
Dr. Spock was backed up by Dr. Frank Oski, director of
pediatrics at John Hopkins University and Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the
2000 member Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine. At a news
conference on Sep. 28, 1992, Dr. Oski stated that cow’s milk is overrated as
a source of calcium, is often contaminated with traces of antibiotics, can
cause allergies and digestive problems and has been linked to juvenile
diabetes.
Health problems associated with cow’s milk are perhaps not
so surprising if one considers that human beings are the only species to
drink the milk of another species, and the only species to drink milk beyond
infancy. Whole cow’s milk is suited to the nutritional needs of calves that
double their weight in 47 days and grow to 300 pounds within a year. Cow’s
milk contains about three times as much protein as human milk, and almost
50% more fat.
After four years of age, most of the world’s people develop
lactose intolerance, inability to digest the milk sugar lactose. If they consume
dairy products after early childhood it can cause diarrhea, gas and cramps. As
many as 20% of Canadians are lactose-intolerant, while another 5% to 10% may
have allergies to milk proteins according to Dr. Milos Kranjny, secretary of the
Ontario Allergy Society.
Virtually every major allergy study implicates milk and
dairy products as the leading food allergen. Dr. Kranjny often recommends
that his patients simply avoid milk for a trial period. His patients’
typical complaints are: migraines, post-nasal drip, car infections,
gastro-intestinal problems and asthma. “I ask people to stop drinking milk
and 70% of them fantastic “after they do so”.
Cow’s milk and other dairy products are high in saturated
fat and cholesterol. The dairy in saturated fat and cholesterol. The dairy
industry has cleverly expressed fat content as a percentage of weight. Using
this system, 2%-milk, which is 87% water by weight, sounds like a low-fat
product. Expressed as a percentage of total calories, 2%-milk is in fact 31%
fat. Whole milk is 49% fat. Yogurt is 49% fat, cheese is 60-70% fat and
butter is 100% fat.
John A. McDougall, M.D., calls dairy foods “liquid meat”
because their nutritional contents are so similar. Eating foods high in fat
contributes to the development of heart disease, certain cancers and stroke
and our country’s three deadliest killers.
Osteoporosis is bone loss due to calcium resorption, which,
contrary to the advice of the dairy industry, is not halted or prevented by
an increase in the intake of calcium so much as by a drop in protein
consumption. High-protein foods, such as meat, eggs and dairy products leach
calcium from the body by causing excessive calcium loss through the kidneys
making the kidneys work harder and causing loss of minerals such as calcium.
Societies with little or no consumption of dairy foods and animal proteins
show a low incidence of osteoporosis. Vegetarians and vegans in North
America also have a lower than average incidence of osteoporosis.
We need calcium in our diet, but sufficient calcium is
easily available from many nondairy sources. Hard drinking water generally
contains plenty usable calcium. All green vegetables contain calcium, as go
all nuts, legumes and beans. Raw sesame seeds contain more calcium than any
other food on earth. Most fruit also contains calcium.
A recent study of milk drinking patterns concluded that
drinking cow’s milk during infancy may trigger juvenile diabetes. The study
suggests that consumption of milk triggers destruction of insulin-producing
pancreas cells by the body’s immune system. The study was conducted jointly
by researchers in Toronto and England.
A link between diabetes and cow’s milk had been suspected
because populations with high rates of milk consumption (such as the Finns)
also have high rates of this disease. Also case histories of identical twins
have shown that if one twin gets type I-diabetes, there is only a 50% chance
of the other win having it as well. Since identical twins have the exact the
same genetic make up, this suggests that diabetes can not just be due to
genetics.
There is also increasing evidence of a link between milk
consumption and cataracts. According to scientific studies, human
populations that consume large amounts of dairy products have a higher
incidence of cataracts than do those that avoid dairy products.
It is the galactose in milk which is suspected to be
causing the problems. High levels of it in the blood stream have been
associated with the formation of cataracts. Galactose has also been
implicated in cancer of the ovary. Women with the disease have been shown to
have a history of greater consumption of dairy products, particularly
yogurt, compared to women without ovarian cancer.
Most Canadians have grown up believing that diary goods are
healthy. This is primarily due to outmoded conventional wisdom but it is
also the result of a successful advertising campaign by the diary industry.
In the face of scientific fact and common logic, they have convinced most of
us that calves’ food is essential for good human nutrition.
There are many delicious vegan products available to today
which are similar in texture and appearance to dairy products. Check out
health food stores for a verity of soy milks, rice milk, almond milk and
non-dairy ice creams. Soy cheese is available but most varieties contain the
milk protein casein. Instead of buttering your toast try using a basting
brush and a small dish of vegetable oil, such as canola, flax seed or olive
oil. Dark chocolate, sorbet and many types of bread are usually non-dairy,
but check the labels first.