All Articles, Food & Nutrition
Why Pinocchio Must Never Work for the Dairy Association
| September 15, 2007 | |
| Dr. Gary Huber : Head Medical Ego |
Got milk? Short, sweet, and to the point. Now that’s the kind of slick advertisement I would expect from an industry that spends in excess of $165 million dollars a year on marketing. I am not here today to discuss all the known problems with milk. I am not going to discuss the “pus” issue (1.5 million pus cells in every teaspoon of milk). I will not be exploring the proven cancer link between the casein protein found in all dairy products that increases risk for prostate, breast, ovarian and colon cancer. You already know about the hormones artificially given to dairy cows that end up in our milk and may contribute to the development of premature menstrual cycles in our young girls. Milk’s direct link to type 1 diabetes and cardiovascular disease have been discussed for years. I will not bore you with the remaining list of ailments linked to milk (asthma, ear infections, etc.). My focus today is “integrity” and simple truth in advertising. If the dairy industry is going to spend $165 million dollars trying to reach me, I want to know if it’s worth listening.
The “Milk Mustache” ads featured many prominent athletic stars and celebrities. Including Dennis Rodman (didn’t he kick a cameraman in the groin), Serena Williams (raising “trash talk” to new levels), Mark McGuire (steroid scandal participant who pleaded the 5th amendment at a congressional hearing) and of course President Bill Clinton (a man of high moral character). They promoted the message that milk builds strong bones and reduced osteoporosis. But a view of the FACTS shows that the Nurses Health Study, which looked at 78,000 nurses over 12 years found no evidence that higher milk intake reduced osteoporosis or fractures. In fact the risk for hip fractures increased with greater milk consumption. An article in the journal of Pediatrics in 2000 followed a group of girls from age 12 up to age 18 to observe strength of bone formation in those formative years and found higher calcium consumption either as milk or as supplements did NOT result in greater bone density.
The Dairy Bureau reported that it would be very difficult for us to get the calcium we need without consuming milk, sighting that bioavailability (absorbability) is low with other foods. The TRUTH is that only 32% of the calcium in milk is bioavailable whereas the bioavailability of calcium from vegetables is much higher:Â brussel sprouts 64%, mustard greens 58%, bok choy 52%, broccoli 53% and kale 50%.Â
Another dairy ad reports that there are 300 mg of bioavailable calcium in a cup of milk and that it would take 2 and half cups of broccoli to get the same content. The TRUTH is that a cup of milk only has 96 mg of bioavailable calcium and that can be obtained from only one and a half cups of broccoli.
The Dairy Bureau has posted information reporting that without milk products it is difficult to achieve calcium intakes above 300 mg per day. The TRUTH is that many studies that have analyzed the diets of vegans who don’t ingest any milk or milk products have more then adequate calcium and average 627 mg of calcium per day.Â
The Dairy Council has offered ads which state that dairy products will build stronger bones in the elderly. The American Journal of Epidemiology found that elderly people with the highest dairy product consumption actually had double the risk for hip fracture.
One of my personal favorites is a study funded by the Dairy Council that had post-menopausal women drink 3 additional 8 ounces glasses of skim milk per day compared to a control group that did not. The results were disastrous. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition and I have read this article more than once and done the math. Despite the dairy industries best efforts to spin this report into something positive it seems that the women drinking the extra 3 glasses of milk where in “negative calcium balance,” meaning that they were losing calcium faster than they were taking it in. Not so with the control group.
The latest and greatest claim from the dairy industry as seen in recent ads is that “milk helps you lose weight.” The funny thing about that is that there are only 2 studies to support this claim and both of them come from Dr. Zemel at the University of Tennessee. There are more than 30 other studies in the literature that look at the same issue and surprisingly they do not show any support for the theory that milk leads to weight loss. I wonder if Dr. Zemel’s close relationship with the Dairy Council had anything to do with his results. His studies were funded by the Dairy Council.Â
Want to hear something funny? The dairy industry is suing the manufacturers of soy milk for using the word “milk.” They claim that only the dairy industry has the right to use that word since soy products aren’t really milk at all. Seems odd to me how the dairy industry has suddenly become concerned with “TRUTH in advertising.”Â
Hey kettle . . . pot calling . . .
Got milk? Here’s a better question. Got truth?
[2 Comments] [2 Comments]
I really like how everything is explained. Question so soy milk is really good and better for my kids? Please do send pictures.
Milk is not an necessary part of your diet and in cultures where they have little to no cows milk dairy products, their kids grow up healthy and with less bone issues than Americans. I say this because I know that milk is so embedded in our American culture that mothers often feel a huge void and are concerned that they aren’t being good care givers if they don’t feed their kids milk.
Your question was more to do with soy. That issue is not as clear as I would like. More than 90% of the soy in this country is genetically altered. They are putting genes into soy plants that allow the soy plant to produce it’s own herbicides. These genetically modified foods (corn, soy, cottonseed, canola) are very dangerous to human health. So ALWAYS be certain that the soy you consume is organic.
Secondly the processing of soy in this country uses a number of chemicals and the result is a toxic residue that is often a part of soy products called hexane. I am just exploring this issue now myself and will offer a soy report in the near future. Some of the reports of soy containing too much estrogen are simply overstated and a manipulation of the truth. Soy contains phytoestrogens which are plant estrogens and do not work as estrogen in a human body. They can actually modify our estrogen receptors response to estrogen in a beneficial way.
I prefer fermented soy products over soy milk for their beneficial health effects. Fermented soy are products like tempeh and miso. Other milks that you can offer your kids are almond milk, rice milk and my personal favorite, coconut milk. These are safe substitutions while you teach your kids that milk is just not needed in a health promoting diet.
I still feel that a small amount of organic cow’s milk can be consumed for pleasure as cheese or in other products but keep the amounts small, be sure they are organic and avoid eating it every day. Cow’s milk is still one of the worlds most common food allergens. So I apologize if the answer is not black and white but what in life is?
My kids drink small amounts of rice, almond or coconut milk as it is mixed in different dishes that we prepare. They don’t drink it by the glass. Water is served with meals. Once in a blue moon we may enjoy some sheep or goat cheese as a treat with chips while watching a movie, etc. There are no cow dairy products in my home.