Value of Dairy? (article plus link)

[Guest guest]

This just in from the IVU-Veg-News.

love, pat

 

(US) Not milk? New research questions value

of dairy

 

You know it like the Pledge of Allegiance: " Milk helps

build strong

teeth and bones. "

 

But does it really? Or, as nutrition researchers from

Harvard and

Cornell Universities are radically suggesting: Have we

all been duped

by the dairy industry's slick, celebrity-driven " got

milk? "

advertising campaign?

 

Milk, the sacred cow of the American diet, is under

attack, and not

just by animal-rights activists. Though federal

dietary guidelines and

most mainstream nutrition experts recommend that

people age 9 or older

drink three glasses of milk a day, researchers are

examining the role

of dairy in everything from rising osteoporosis rates,

Type 1 diabetes

and heart disease to breast, prostate and ovarian

cancer.

 

Last March, the journal Pediatrics published a review

article

concluding there is " scant evidence " that consuming

more milk and

dairy products will promote child and adolescent bone

health. Some

leading practitioners of integrative medicine,

including best-selling

author Dr. Andrew Weil, suggest eliminating dairy

products from the

diet to help treat irritable bowel syndrome, asthma,

eczema and ear

infections. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock reversed his

support of cow's

milk for children in 1998 in his last edition of his

world-famous book

" Baby and Child Care. " One fact is indisputable: Our

bodies need the

mineral calcium to build and maintain bones and teeth.

Calcium also

helps with blood clotting, muscle function and

regulation of the

heart's rhythm. The debate centers on whether milk is

really the best

- or even a necessary - source. Ten thousand or so

years ago, cow's

milk was not part of the human diet.

 

For consumers, the issue is profoundly confusing,

especially when it

comes to osteoporosis. On one hand, we've had it

hammered home since

grammar school that milk is a health food. We're told

that increasing

calcium intake by drinking milk will prevent

osteoporosis, the

weakening of bones.

 

But researchers Walter Willett, chairman of the

department of

nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and

T. Colin

Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional

biochemistry at Cornell

University, say there is little evidence that shows

boosting your

calcium intake to the currently recommended levels

will prevent

fractures.

....

" The higher the consumption of dairy, animal protein

and calcium, the

higher the fracture rate - an indisputable observation

in my view, "

said Campbell, whose life work is compiled in " The

China Study "

(Benbella Books, $24.95), one of the most

comprehensive nutritional

studies undertaken.

....

Though dairy is high in saturated fat, the dairy

industry claims that

low-fat dairy products can encourage weight loss.

During the last few

years it has spent millions on a controversial " got

milk? " advertising

campaign, using milk-mustachioed figures such as

television's Dr. Phil

McGraw.

 

In response, the Physicians Committee for Responsible

Medicine (PCRM)

filed false-labeling petitions last June with the

Federal Trade

Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. They

maintain that

the " got milk? " weight-loss ads are " dishonest, "

because scientific

evidence contradicts the claims. The dairy industry

based its

assertion largely on the work of University of

Tennessee researcher

Michael Zemel, who received funding from the Dairy

Council and who

also has patented a weight-loss program using calcium.

 

" Our work promoting preventive medicine through

healthy eating - with

a focus on a plant-based diet - does overlap with

PETA's work in the

sense that they also are promoting vegetarian and

vegan diets and

compassionate living, " said Lanou, an assistant

professor of nutrition

in the department of health and wellness at the

University of North

Carolina.

....

" The depth and breadth of evidence now implicating

cow's milk as a

cause of Type 1 diabetes is overwhelming, even though

the very complex

mechanistic details are not yet fully understood, " T.

Colin Campbell

wrote in " The China Study. " " Human breast milk is the

perfect food for

an infant. "

 

--

full story:

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/living/health/13983987.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Oh, it's completely slick and too many Americans have been bought into

it. You go to China, Japan, they rarely eat dairy if at all, and yet

they don't have problems like osteoporosis and calcium deficiency.

 

Not to mention the question, " Well, where do the cows get THEIR dairy from? "

 

On 3/3/06, Patricia Sant <veggiehound wrote:

> You know it like the Pledge of Allegiance: " Milk helps

> build strong

> teeth and bones. "

>

> But does it really? Or, as nutrition researchers from

> Harvard and

> Cornell Universities are radically suggesting: Have we

> all been duped

> by the dairy industry's slick, celebrity-driven " got

> milk? "

> advertising campaign?