What's Milk Got? - Health Risks and Environmental Issues

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Oct, 2002 by Rose Marie Williams

The GOT MILK? campaign featuring high profile celebrities sporting milk mustaches has been a very effective advertising tool in putting milk in front of the American consumer to reverse a decline in milk sales. The medical establishment endorses milk as a way to build strong bodies in children and prevent osteoporosis in later years, due to the high calcium content. Milk is said to be the "perfect food." For sure, there is much controversy about the benefits of dairy products. With great admiration for the enduring research done by Weston Price, DDS, who believed strongly in the nutritive value of milk and butter fat, (1) this treatise seeks to take an updated look at modern dairy production and consumption.

The primitive cultures about which he wrote got their dairy straight from the cow, unpasteurized and unhomogenized. TJS dairy production in the 1930s had not yet progressed to the high tech factory farms of today. Raw milk was readily abundant, with all the beneficial enzymes intact. Cows grazed on chlorophyll rich grasses nurtured by the sun's energy. All this has changed.

Today's milk may look the same, even taste the same, but it is quite a different product. Milk in the US contains myriad drugs, some approved and others not. Milk contains pesticides from treated grains, bacteria and pus from infected animals, in some instances - salmonella, and genetically engineered growth hormones designed to increase milk production, thereby shortening the life of a dairy cow from an average of 15 years to three or four. Plastic containers, and plastic wrap may leach dangerous chemicals into milk and dairy products. There is even a variable level of radiation in dairy products.

For years the US produced more milk than it could use with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) subsidizing the industry by buying up surplus butter, cheese, and non-fat dry milk, much of which is distributed to our children in school lunch programs. (2)

Ear Infections, Allergies, and More

Every year, about 10 million American children are treated for ear infections, making this second only to upper respiratory infections (colds & flu) as the most common illnesses treated by pediatricians. An infection to the middle ear (otitis media) results when ear secretions fail to drain properly and build up causing pressure in the ear to rise often followed by infection. Dairy products thicken and increase mucus, making it difficult for an infected ear to drain properly. Antibiotics are the first line of treatment by conventional medicine. Kids who are treated more frequently with antibiotics appear to have more infections. Alternative treatments may include keeping the child well hydrated with water, non-caffeine teas and diluted fruit juices, and avoiding dairy products. (3)

Besides ear and tonsillar infections, dairy products have been associated with allergy, sinusitis, headache, congestion, runny nose, rash/eczema, fatigue, lethargy, irritability, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, colic, childhood diabetes, even bovine leukemia virus, or AIDS-like virus. (2,4,5) Type 1 diabetes in infants under six months of age is linked to cow's milk. Finland is the world's highest dairy consuming country and has the world's highest rate of insulin dependent diabetes, striking about 40 children per 1000, compared to approximately seven per 1000 in the United States. Diabetic children were found to have eight times as many antibodies against milk protein as did healthy children indicating an autoimmune disorder. There are over 25 proteins in cow's milk, which can cause allergic reaction in humans. The body may react to these proteins as foreign invaders. Iron deficiency anemia in babies is associated with consumption of cow's milk. Pediatric guidelines now suggest that infants less th an one year old not be given cow's milk. (5)

Dr. Benjamin Spock, who helped parents raise the postwar generation of baby boomers, promoted milk's virtues for fifty years. Not only did milk change dramatically over that span of time, so did Dr. Spock's opinion of it as a perfect food. His later years were spent raising public awareness of milk's negative impact on health and declaring it an unfit food for infants. Noel Bernard, MD, the director of Physicians for Responsible Medicine, believes humans should not consume cow's milk, and that serious health problems can result from the proteins, sugar, fat, and contaminants in milk products. Milk consumption in adults is associated primarily with heart disease, arthritis, allergy, sinusitis, leukemia, lymphoma and cancer. (2)

Breast Milk vs Cow's Milk

Many studies indicate breast-fed babies have fewer, and less severe, illnesses than formula-fed infants, including gastrointestinal infections, respiratory and ear infections, eczema and asthma. Human breast milk promotes helpful bacteria that inhibit many disease-causing bacteria and parasites. Formula-fed babies have approximately one-tenth the level of bacteria-fighting lactobacillus. A ten-year follow-up study with premature infants showed the breast fed children scored ten points higher in IQ tests than the formulated group. (2)