Even with the lights on,
milk drinkers are in the dark
Milk - "the perfect food." It's good. It's wholsome. It'll strengthen our bones, ...right?
Wrong.
There is ample research to show that milk and dairy products are bad for us in so many ways. "Research" funded by the Naitonal Dairy Council aside, no outside, independent study has ever concluded that milk helps our bone density. Many credible studys, in fact, suggest the opposite.
A report released by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) entitled "what's wrong with dairy products" lists the numerous ways in which milk-based foods hurt human beings.
According to a wide range of credible medical studies cited by the report, milk can cause illnesses and disease. High dairy intake is even linked to higher risk for osteoporosis, the bone disease the dairy industry would have us believe milk prevents.
"A Harvard Nurses's Health Study which followed 77,000 women for 12 years showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. In fact, increased intake of calcium from dairy products was associated with a higher fracture risk," the PCRM report reads.
That's no typo. It's true that cow's milk has high calcum levels (nearly four times the levels found in human breast milk), but it also contains a lot of phosphorous. In humans' digestive tracts, phosphorous combines with calcium, preventing its absorption. Cow's milk is also low in magnesium, a necessary ingredient for human metabolization of calcium.
Add to that the fact that milk is high in animal proteins, which the body metabolizes into acids. When levels of acid in the bloodstream rise, as they do when we digest animal proteins, the body responds by leeching calcium (a basic substance) from our bones, weakening them.
"The U.S. has only 4% of the world's population but it consumes more dairy than the other 96% combined. If milk was good for our bones, we would have the strongest bones in the world. Instead we have one of the highest osteoporosis rates in the world," writes Raymond Francis, an M.I.T.-trained scientist and registered nutrition consultant, in a report entitled, "MILK - Does A Body Good?"
Yale University researchers back up Francis' claim. After looking at 34 studies published in 16 countries, the researchers found that the highest rates of osteoporosis occurred in nations where inhabitants consumed the most milk, meat and other animal foods. The United States, Sweden and Finland topped the list. The Yale researchers dubbed their study, entitled "Cross-cultural Association Between Dietary Animal Protein and Hip Fracture: A Hypothesis," significant enough for further study.
Along with osteoporosis, you can throw increased risk for heart disease (high fat and cholesterol in milk), heightened risk for cancer (especially breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers), and greater incidence of childhood-onset diabedes onto the pile of side effects, not to mention the contaminants milk introduces into our bodies: Synthetic hormones (including bovine growth hormone, or Bovine Somatotropin (BST), which can affect people, too), antibiotics (used to treat infections of cows' overworked mammary glands), pus, pesticides, and IGF-1, a hormone linked to acceleration of cancer in humans.
Damn that's gross.
Wrong.
There is ample research to show that milk and dairy products are bad for us in so many ways. "Research" funded by the Naitonal Dairy Council aside, no outside, independent study has ever concluded that milk helps our bone density. Many credible studys, in fact, suggest the opposite.
A report released by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) entitled "what's wrong with dairy products" lists the numerous ways in which milk-based foods hurt human beings.
According to a wide range of credible medical studies cited by the report, milk can cause illnesses and disease. High dairy intake is even linked to higher risk for osteoporosis, the bone disease the dairy industry would have us believe milk prevents.
"A Harvard Nurses's Health Study which followed 77,000 women for 12 years showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. In fact, increased intake of calcium from dairy products was associated with a higher fracture risk," the PCRM report reads.
That's no typo. It's true that cow's milk has high calcum levels (nearly four times the levels found in human breast milk), but it also contains a lot of phosphorous. In humans' digestive tracts, phosphorous combines with calcium, preventing its absorption. Cow's milk is also low in magnesium, a necessary ingredient for human metabolization of calcium.
Add to that the fact that milk is high in animal proteins, which the body metabolizes into acids. When levels of acid in the bloodstream rise, as they do when we digest animal proteins, the body responds by leeching calcium (a basic substance) from our bones, weakening them.
"The U.S. has only 4% of the world's population but it consumes more dairy than the other 96% combined. If milk was good for our bones, we would have the strongest bones in the world. Instead we have one of the highest osteoporosis rates in the world," writes Raymond Francis, an M.I.T.-trained scientist and registered nutrition consultant, in a report entitled, "MILK - Does A Body Good?"
Yale University researchers back up Francis' claim. After looking at 34 studies published in 16 countries, the researchers found that the highest rates of osteoporosis occurred in nations where inhabitants consumed the most milk, meat and other animal foods. The United States, Sweden and Finland topped the list. The Yale researchers dubbed their study, entitled "Cross-cultural Association Between Dietary Animal Protein and Hip Fracture: A Hypothesis," significant enough for further study.
Along with osteoporosis, you can throw increased risk for heart disease (high fat and cholesterol in milk), heightened risk for cancer (especially breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers), and greater incidence of childhood-onset diabedes onto the pile of side effects, not to mention the contaminants milk introduces into our bodies: Synthetic hormones (including bovine growth hormone, or Bovine Somatotropin (BST), which can affect people, too), antibiotics (used to treat infections of cows' overworked mammary glands), pus, pesticides, and IGF-1, a hormone linked to acceleration of cancer in humans.
Damn that's gross.
posted by RJ at 5:25 PM
1 Comments:
Most adult Japanese are lactose intolerant, since milk was never really a natural part of their diet. Mountainous archipelagos just don't have room for dairy cows. Anyway, we (the US, that is) did such a fine job arguing that milk is wonderful that now the government force-feeds everyone a carton of whole milk with their school lunch everyday. Don't know what it's done for them so far, but the obesity rate has been going up for awhile (though that might have something to do with the proliferation of McDonalds and KFC, admittedly).
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