GOT MILK????

Milk.  From birth we were raised to worship milk as nectar from the gods.  Women are afraid they will develop Osteoporosis without it.  Men think without milk their strength will fade.  Parents think milk is needed for their kids to grow.  At almost every turn, milk ads scream in your face “buy me”.  Doctors heartily advocate it, and educators can’t recommend it enough.  Got milk?  Since the inception of the “GOT MILK” campaign, more and more throats have been gulping down this well-touted white liquid.  Milk consumption has virtually doubled.

So getting to the point, milk is the perfect drink?  Isn’t it the ultimate drink without which kids can grow, and adults can’t stay healthy?  Besides, don’t you need milk to get calcium for stronger bones?  Well….I would hate to bring you the news but recent studies show something the dairy industry wouldn’t want you to know.  After endless years of rampant myths about the healthfulness of milk, reverse data and facts are starting to emerge.  Various studies conducted suggest milk drinkers suffer MORE symptoms and health problems than those who stay away from this “health-giving” drink.

A Harvard study done on 78,000 women over a 12-year period showed that the milk drinkers broke more bones than those who drank it only rarely.  Following this study, D. Barnard, the president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, stated: “it is vital to understand that milk is useless against Osteoporosis…” (strongbones.org)

It was observed that countries known for their high dairy intake also had a higher incidence of Osteoporosis.  While there is the probability milk may be a contributing factor to Osteoporosis, we can at least safely assume that it surely doesn’t remedy the situation.

So much for the theory of milk and strong bones…  A better question will be “why are we told all this tapestry of fairy tales?”  Better yet, we can ask “who is behind all these “healthy facts?”, “is there any commercial connection I didn’t think of?”

Don’t want to be a Judge

I better make it clear from the outset:  I have no intention of appointing myself a judge to assert whether it’s natural or not, logical or not to consume animal products, whether meat, dairy or otherwise.  This I leave, to you, the readers (and you can e-mail me your feedback on this).  My only concern in this report is the facts, the statistics.  Many will argue man was never meant to consume cow’s milk, that it was made for calves.  I decided to take no side in this issue.  Nowadays, we have to rise above theories alone and seek the facts, the statistics.  This is the true test.  Theories and facts can conflict.  Here is an example: I will call it “the meat theory”.  This theory suggests that the human body was never meant to digest animal meat.  While sensible and logical, this theory failed the test.  Direct experience with hundreds of people showed me clearly that many people do better on meat.  Yes, quite a few do better without it, but it is a personal issue and not a hard and fast rule.  Three close associates of mine did much worse as vegetarians for years so it must be a personal issue.  So what about milk?  Ok, let’s not keep the cows waiting.  Moooooo!

Bad for kids

We’ll start with this:  The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology reports that cow’s milk is the most common food allergy amongst children.

IOMD, a California based clinic, led by Dr. Van Bencholen considers the elimination of dairy from ones diet, as the most important dietary change one can make.  They report on how their patients would often get antibiotic toxicity from dairy products, and that even a single piece of cheese was found to trigger bacterial infections, and immune system injury.  They found that antibiotics, residues and pesticides in dairy contribute to sinusitis, ear infections, asthma, bloating, menstrual problems, heart disease and diabetes.  Their clinical experience suggested that dairy products trigger damage to the lungs, heart and pancreas.  The symptoms linked with its consumption were allergies, arthritis, childhood anemia, chronic ear infections, colic, diabetes, hyperactivity, osteoporosis, vitamin D toxicity, pesticide poisoning, ovarian cancer, infertility.  The ads say milk does the body good.  Does it really?  IOMD specifically instructed all of their patients to be off dairy.

Wathington DC pediatrician, Russel Bunai, also considers that elimination of dairy products will produce the greatest health benefits as a dietary change.  For over two decades Bunai followed the effects of dairy products on children and on their families, and noticed certain diseases were prevalent in areas where milk consumption was high as compared with areas which were free of its consumption.

In the high dairy areas, asthma and allergic reactions were common.  Arthritis, he said, seemed to be linked too.  Milk appears to be harmful especially for babies and kids.  Chief of pediatrics at John’s Hopkins hospital cites evidence that at least 50% of all children in the United States are allergic to milk.  A study conducted in 1976 showed that a single dose of cow’s milk could destroy the normal function of the stomach of several weeks to months in susceptible children.  When you are not aware of the cause of such ill symptoms and keep consuming the milk, you may potentially end up with chronic problems no doctor can identify and thus fail to handle.  The study suggested that kids in general can’t handle milk.

Pasteurized Milk

It is important to note that the ordinary milk, the milk that everybody drinks, the one we all buy in our local food store and various supermarkets is pasteurized milk.  This article and all of the studies conducted refer specifically to pasteurized milk.

Harmful for everybody?

I have contacted several doctors in the LA area.  They all suggested tolerances vary individually.  Dr. Hensel from Shaw Health Center finds fairly high accuracy in the blood type diet theory asserting the general (as opposed to all inclusive) intolerance of dairy products by most blood types O and A.  This will cover most of the American population.  Dr. Cindy Clayton found from her experience that up to 30% of her visitors may handle milk safely.  This means that milk weakens 70% of the population to a smaller or greater degree.

–Eric Daniels