Dairy products - Research

Here is the paper on milk and dairy products. I didn't write this paper. It was produced by one of the organizations in this country.

Osteoporosis: Why dairy products won't help you maintain healthy bones.

This presentation focuses on debunking a myth sold to the American public by a multibillion-dollar industry - - - an industry that has repeated its marketing message so often and for so long that most people now believe that dairy products are essential to bone health, despite extensive evidence to the contrary. The dairy industry has an army of dieticians, public relations consultants, and lobbyists on its payroll but does not have the scientific evidence on its side.

The dairy pushers pay dieticians, medical doctors, and researchers to endorse dairy products, spending more than $150 millions annually, just at the national level, to retain a market for their products. The dairy industry provides free teaching materials to schools and pays sports stars, celebrities, and politicians to push an agenda based on profit, not public health.

Dr. Walter Willet, veteran nutrition researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, says that calcium consumption via dairy-product intake "has become like a religious crusade," overshadowing true preventive measure such as physical exercise. To hear the dairy industry tell it, if you consume three glasses of milk daily, your bones will be stronger and you will be able to rest assured that osteoporosis is not in your future. Not so. (Absolutely, not so.)

After examining all the available nutritional studies and evidence, Dr. John McDougal concludes: "The primary cause of osteoporosis is the high-protein diet most Americans consume today. As one leading researcher in this area said, 'Eating a high-protein diet is like pouring acid rain on your bones'" Remarkably enough, both clinical and population studies show that milk-drinkers tend to have more bone breaks than people who consume milk infrequently or not at all. For the dairy industry to lure unsuspecting women and children into complacency by telling them to be sure to drink more milk so that their bones will be strong may make good business sense, but it does the consumer a grave disservice.

Much of the world's population does not consume cow's milk, and yet most of the world does not experience the high rates of osteoporosis found in the West. In some Asian countries, for example, where consumption of dairy foods is low, fracture rates are far lower than they are in the United States and in Scandinavian countries, where consumption of dairy products is high.

It should be kept in mind, that dairy products contain no complex carbohydrates or fiber but are packed with saturated fats and cholesterol and have been linked to heart disease, cancer, Crohn's disease, and a host of childhood illnesses from asthma to diabetes.

For details on how consumption of dairy products causes animal suffering, pollutes and depletes our land, water, and air, and increases one's risk for many other health problems visit: DumpDairy.com

Don't take our word for it --- examine the scientific studies for yourself. In one study, funded by the National Dairy Council, a group of postmenopausal women were given three 8-ounce glasses of skim milk every day for two years, and their bones were compared to those of a control group of women not given milk. The dairy group consumed more than 1,400 mg of milk calcium per day and lost bone at twice the rate of the control group. According to the researchers, "This may have been due to the average 30 percent increase in protein intake during milk supplementation. ...The adverse effect of increases in protein intake on calcium balance has been reported from several laboratories, including our own." (They then cite ten other studies.) Says McDougall, "Needless to say, this finding did not reach the six o'clock news." This is one study that the dairy industry won't be repeating any time soon.

"Milk, it now seems clear, is not the solution to poor bone density. To the contrary, it's part of the problem." Dr. Charles Attwood, pediatrician

After looking at 34 published studies in 16 countries, researchers at Yale University found that the countries with the highest rate of osteoporosis --- including the United States, Sweden and Finland --- were those in which people consumed the most meat, milk and other animal foods. This study also showed that African-Americans, who consume, on average, more than 900 mg of milk calcium per day, are nine times more likely to experience hip fractures than are South African blacks, whose daily milk calcium intake is only about 196 mg.

Says McDougall, "On a nation-by-nation basis, people who consume the most milk products have the weakest bones and the highest rates of osteoporosis. ...Only in those places where calcium and protein are eaten in relatively high quantities does a deficiency of bone calcium exist at such epidemic rates, due to an excess of animal protein."

Harvard University's landmark Nurse Health Study, which followed more than 77,000 women over a 12-year period, found that women who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk. Summarizing this study, the Lunar Osteoporosis Update (November, 1997) explained: "This increased risk of hip fracture was associated with dairy calcium. ...If this were any agent other than milk, which has been so aggresively marketed by dairy interests, it undoubtedly would be considered a major risk factor."

A National Institutes of Health study at the University of California, published in the American Journal of Nutrition (2001), found that "women who ate most of their protein from animal sources had three times the rate of bone loss and 3.7 times the rate of hip fractures as women who ate most of their protein from vegetable sources." Even though the researchers adjusted "for everything we could think of that might otherwise explain the relationship...it didn't change the results." The study's conclusion: "Increases in vegetable protein and decreases in animal protein intake may decrease bone loss and the risk of hip fracture."

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) looked at all aspects of diet and bone health and found that a high consumption of fruits and vegetables positively affected bone health and that dairy consumption did not. Such findings do not surprise nutritional researchers. The calcium absorption rate from milk is approximately 32 percent, while figures for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale and some other green leafy vegetables range from 40 percent to 61 percent.

After reviewing studies on the link between protein intake and urinary calcium loss, dietary researcher Dr. Robert P. Heaney found that as consumption of protein increases so does the amount of calcium lost in the urine (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1993): "This effect has been documented in several different study designs for more than 70 years," he writes, adding, "The net effect is doubled without changing intake of other nutrients, urinary calcium content increases by about 50 percent."

Researchers from the University of Sydney and Westmoreland Hospital discovered that consumption of dairy foods, especially early in life, is associated with increased risk of hip fractures in old age (American Journal of Epidemiology, 1994).

In Pediatrics (2000), Pennsylvania State University researchers showed that dairy calcium intake, which ranged from 500 to 1,500 mg per day, had no lasting effect on the bone health of girls in their teens. "We had hypothesized that increased calcium intake would result in better adolescent bone gain. Needless to say, we were surprised to find our hypothesis refuted," one researcher explained.

Finally, a review of all research conducted since 1985 published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000), concluded: "If dairy food intakes bone health, one might expect this to have been apparent from the 57 outcomes, which included randomized, controlled trials and longitudinal cohort studies involving 645,000 person-years." The researchers go on to lament, "There have been few carefully designed studies of the effects of dairy food intakes on bone health" and then to conclude that "the body of scientific evidence appears inadequate to support a recommendation for daily intake of dairy foods to promote bone health in the general U.S. population."

What we do know is that osteoporosis rates decline markedly as body weight, exercise, and caloric intake rise. Corroborating the researchers' concerns about poorly controlled studies, only three studies have factored caloric intake into the analysis. None of these studies found a correlation between dairy intake and bone mass or health.

Is the dairy industry ignoring these factors by design in its clinical studies, perhaps because dairy-product consumers tend to be heavier and have a higher caloric intake than those consuming fewer (or no) dairy products? Despite the fact that so many dairy researchers ignore this information, most studies still show no correlation between cow's milk consumption and a lower risk for osteoporosis, and some actually indicate that milk is associated with an increased risk. Perhaps if these factors were taken into account, the studies indicating no link would instead show, in fact, that dairy-product intake is linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis, as does the Harvard School of Public Health study. That would bring clinical analysis in line with the population analysis, which clearly states that increased dairy-product intake is linked to increased risk for osteoporosis.

Conclusion

Drinking milk builds dairy producers' profits, but it is not likely to build your bones and may even harm them. Dairy foods are linked to all sorts of other problems, too, including obesity, heart disease, and cancer, and are likely to be contaminated with antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals, including dioxin, one of the most toxic substances in the world. On April 12, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "the latest EPA study concludes that people who consume even small amounts of dioxin in fatty foods and dairy products face a cancer risk of one in 100." These consumers may develop other problems, too, including learning disabilities and susceptibility to infections.

Of course calcium is an essential mineral. According to Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, "Milk, in particular, is poor insurance against bone breaks...the healthiest calcium sources are green leafy vegetables and legumes. (and carrots) You don't need to eat huge servings of vegetable or beans to get enough calcium, but do include both in your regular menu planning." To learn more or for a free vegetarian starter kit - which includes information on nondairy sources of calcium - visit DumpDairy.com

So what can you do to maintain strong bones?

1. Get plenty of exercise. Studies have shown that exercise is the key to building strong bones...maybe more important than any other factor.
2. Get enough vitamin D. About 20 minutes a day of sunshine...or take a supplement...or both.
3. Eliminate animal protein. For a variety of reasons, animal protein causes severe bone deterioration.
4. Limit table salt intake. Excess sodium can leach calcium out of bones.
5. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. They contain vitamin C which is essential for building collagen, the underlying bone matrix.
6. Do not smoke. Studies have shown that women who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day have 5 to 10 percent less bone density at menopause than do nonsmokers.