Finally, national media coverage showing an accurate milk nutrition fact that Milk Does NOT Do the Body Good after a study from Sweden that followed a huge number of people (one study with 61,433 people and another with 45,339) for 20 years and showed that high milk intake (the current 3 glasses a day recommendation) was associated with a 60% higher risk for developing hip fracture and increased mortality risk (2014).
This research goes against everything we’ve been taught about the nutrition in milk.
Milk Nutrition Facts
In this 2 minute clip, Holly Phillips, MD joins CBS News to discuss a study that raises the possibility that high milk consumption may be linked with more fractured bones and a higher death rate. For those in Canada, try this link to watch the news clip.
National Media Coverage on CBS News
From the latest study out of Sweden in the British Medical Journal, September 2014.
“High milk intake was associated with higher mortality in one cohort of women and in another cohort of men, and with higher fracture incidence in women.
Given the observational study designs with the inherent possibility of residual confounding and reverse causation phenomena, a cautious interpretation of the results is recommended.”–BMJ
NutritionFacts.org — Is Milk Good for Our Bones?
Cancer Concerns
Studies are also showing increased risks of breast and prostate cancers in milk drinkers.
When you drink milk, it does in your body just what it does in a calf’s body, which is something that has caught the attention of cancer researchers.
That is, milk causes the amount of insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-1, in your bloodstream to rise. As its name implies, IGF-1 makes things grow (even in grass fed cows).
That’s great if you are a calf too small to eat grass. But it’s not so good if you are an adult human. In your body, rapid growth can mean the growth of cancer cells. Indeed, men with higher amounts of IGF-1 in their blood have higher risk of prostate cancer. Women with more IGF-1 have a higher risk of breast cancer.
In two Harvard studies, men who had two or more dairy servings per day had 30-60 percent higher prostate cancer risk than did men who generally avoided milk.
Studies in other locations have found similar association. –Dr. Neal Barnard, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Type 1 Diabetes Concerns
There are also studies indicating that cow’s milk proteins trigger type 1 diabetes.
A new study adds more evidence that cow’s milk proteins trigger type 1 diabetes. Marcia Goldfarb of Anatek-EP, a protein research laboratory in Portland, Maine, reports having found antibodies to bovine beta-lactoglobulin in the serum of children with diabetes. Individuals without diabetes did not have the antibody.
Type 1 diabetes is believed to be caused when antibodies destroy the insulin-producing pancreatic cells. Several studies have suggested that cow’s milk proteins may trigger the production of these dangerous antibodies.
Larger studies are currently testing this theory.” — oldfarb M. Relation of time of introduction of cow milk protein to an infant and risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus. J Proteome Research. 2008;7:2165-2167.
*Originally published July 14, 2015.
