Milk...Does a Body Bad

The dairy industry spends $190 million per year in advertising.  The promotion of eating fruits and vegetables by the National Cancer Institute is $1 million per year.  I'm sure you could recall all the “Got Milk” mustache billboards, commercials, and ads claiming that cow's milk is vital for health and reaching calcium requirements.  However, have you ever wondered why the milk cartons and yogurt tubs do not contain any claim of health benefits whatsoever?  The reason why is that it would be against the law to put false and misleading health claims on packaging because the packaging laws are much more strict than advertising regulations. Packaging laws actually require there to be scientific backing to claims.  In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found zero evidence that consuming milk lowers the risk of osteoporosis. In fact, dairy is extremely inflammatory to a person's body – causing all sorts of inflammation related problems such as arthritis, hives, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's, and more importantly cancer.

Get this, a 12 year Harvard Nurses' Health Study reported that 78,000 women who drank at least 2 cups of milk per day almost doubled their risk of bone fractures.  The scientific evidence is very far off from the highly misleading and false “Milk, Does a Body Good” claims.

Did you know that cow's milk is meant to turn a 90 lb calf into a 450 lb cow in one year?  Well-known and outspoken physicians are publicly recommending to not consume diary products – these physicians include: “Frank Oski, MD (former Director Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief, John Hopkins Children's Center), Benjamin Spock, MD, Neal Barnard, MD, John McDougall, MD, Michael Klaper, MD, Robert Kradjian MD, Charles Attwood, MD, and many others” (The Food Revolution).
 
If you're still wondering about Calcium, this should help to clarify:

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people are only able to absorb 32% of calcium from milk.  Whereas 64% is absorbed from brussel sprouts and 53% is absorbed from broccoli. Actual scientific research is grotesquely opposite from the marketing claims of the dairy industry.  Ironically, a dairy funded study (that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) found that postmenopausal women who drank 5 glasses of milk per day (containing 1500 mg of calcium) actually lost more calcium than the control group! Nice job dairy industry - money well spent!

Fact:  Finland, Sweden, US, and UK have the highest rates of dairy consumption.  These same exact countries also have the highest rates of  osteoporosis! Coincidence, I don't believe so. Believing the false claims of the dairy industry is costing Americans their health.

-Kimberly Garrett

References:  
Campbell, T. C. (2006). The China Study. Dallas: BenBella Books
Robbins, J. (2011). The Food Revolution. San Francisco: Conari Press