It Has Something for Everyone?o Worry About
As scientific investigators have traced the causes of heart disease,
cancer, arthritis, migraines, and digestive problems, the least
likely suspect had to be milk. We poured it on our cereal, pushed
it on our children, and couldn’t imagine it to be anything
but healthful. But more and more researchers now view milk with
skepticism about its benefits and concern about its risks. They
are linking the epidemics of prostate cancer, digestive problems,
and other ills to our habitual consumption of specific foods, including—and
especially—milk.
More and more researchers now
view milk with skepticism about its benefits and concern about
its risks. |
Certainly, every baby needs breast milk. But when northern Europeans
brought cow’s milk into their diets a few thousand years ago,
it was the first time any animal had consumed the milk of another
species. It was also the first time anyone had ever defied the weaning
process that stops adults from taking in the nutrient mix intended
for infants.
Cow’s milk consumption by infants and toddlers is linked
to type 1 (“childhood-onset”) diabetes and to anemia,
due in part to its interference with iron absorption in the digestive
tract. As children grow older, milk is a major source of saturated
fat, the “bad” fat that raises cholesterol levels and
increases the risk of heart disease and breast cancer. As children
reach their teen years, many experience cramps and diarrhea due
to lactose intolerance. This is especially true for those of African,
Asian, Hispanic, Native American, or Mediterranean heritage. Researchers
have more recently adduced evidence linking milk to acne, arthritis,
and migraines.
But it was the links to prostate cancer that made the scientific
community sit up and take notice. Abundant international data and
two huge Harvard studies showed that milk-drinking men have a significantly
higher risk of prostate cancer, compared to men who avoid milk.
The reason seems to be milk’s ability to alter a man’s
hormone function. Links with ovarian cancer have also come to the
fore.
People who care about animals have shunned the dairy industry because
it is the source of veal. In order to maintain maximal milk production,
farmers impregnate cows annually. Their male calves cannot join
the dairy herd and are placed in crates to be raised as veal. Environmentalists
have joined the chorus of critics of huge factory-like dairy farms.
The final nail in the dairy industry’s coffin may be its
failure to deliver on its number-one promise—“building
strong bones.” At Penn State University, Tom Lloyd, Ph.D.,
followed a group of girls from age 12 through age 22, and found
that milk did nothing to strengthen their bones. In a new review
in Pediatrics, PCRM’s Amy J. Lanou, Ph.D., summarizes
Dr. Lloyd’s findings and those of the many other researchers
who have put milk to the test. At the other end of the age spectrum,
Harvard’s Nurses’ Health Study followed women for 18
years, finding that milk-drinkers had no protection against fractures,
compared to women who drank little or no milk.
Like “hormone replacement therapy,” which turned out
to cause the very heart problems it was supposed to prevent, milk
fails miserably in its promise to “do a body good.”
The truth turns out to be precisely the opposite.
Neal D. Barnard, M.D.
President of PCRM
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