MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS

Milk - The controversy

A great debate rages over the benefits or otherwise of drinking milk beyond the age of weaning. One argument states that we need dairy products to supply enough calcium to survive, and indeed we should drink more milk to stave off the likelihood of osteoporosis. The opposing argument states that we do not need to drink the milk of animals as not only is it unnecessary as a calcium source, but it is also potentially harmful.¹

To understand this debate it is necessary to look at both the benefits and side effects of milk. As we are constantly bombarded with information telling us about the its health-giving benefits, what follows is weighted towards the negative aspects in order to balance the argument.

It is now common knowledge that breast milk is best for the new-born, and that cow’s milk should be avoided until the gut is developed enough to deal with it, so let’s look at the differences between these two substances in a little more detail.¹

Human Milk

Breast milk is the perfect food for the new-born, ideally suited to meet all its needs until such time as it can start to partake of adult foods. For some time now it has been accepted that `breast is best’ and that milk is a richly nourishing food. Problems may occur, however, when this belief in the value of milk is expanded to cover the milk of other animals, particularly cows.¹

Animal Milk

By its very nature the milk that is suitable to support the different needs of different animals has a different chemical composition to human milk. It is true that animal milk is full of nutritious elements and nourishing properties, but in different levels to human milk and therefore it is not a perfect food for humans. It has a higher protein and lower essential fatty acid content compared with human milk as it is designed for the faster growing skeleton and body and slower mental development of the animal (a calf will quadruple in weight during the first six months, whereas an infant’s weight will only double). Mother’s milk with four to five times the linoleic acid encourages faster development of nervous system and brain. When this milk is further changed by pasteurisation or homogenisation or the addition of synthetic vitamins such as A and D it becomes a totally different substance from the human milk that goes straight from the mother’s nipple into the baby without even being exposed to the air. As such it cannot have the same effect or provide the same benefits.¹

Taking on board the differences between human and animal milk mentioned above it is worth looking a little more deeply at cow’s milk to see how the macronutrients and main minerals are present at such different levels.¹

Comparison of Nutrients in Human and Cow’s milk^[1]

Macronutrients in g/100g

                                      Protein                 Fat                   Carbohydrate

Human Milk                        1.1                     4                                      9

Cow’s Milk                            4                  3.5                                   4.9

Micronutrients in mg/100 g ¹

                                      Calcium          Phosphorus                   Sodium

Human Milk                         33                   18                                   16

Cow’s Milk                        118                   97                                   50

These values show the diverse differences between the two forms of milk at the purely scientific level, without even looking at other micronutrients, the colostrum and the warmth of human life that flows with breast milk into the baby.

However, these figures do provide plenty of ammunition against the claim for cow’s milk as the perfect food:

1)         Cow’s milk has 3 times more protein and almost four times more calcium than human milk, because it meets the needs of the growing calf not the growing human.

2)         The ratio of calcium to phosphorus in human milk is 2.35:1 compared to 1.27:1 in cow’s milk. It is a well known fact that an ideal ratio of calcium to phosphorus is around the 2:1 plus level, because phosphorus binds to calcium in the gut making it unavailable for absorption. Therefore the more phosphorus and less calcium present in a food the less calcium will be free for absorption. As the modern western diet is already full of phosphorus, unbalancing the ratio further will not help in calcium uptake. Human milk on the other hand, although it has a lower calcium level, will provide more  of this building mineral for the baby, as it is not swamped by phosphorus^1.

Whole milk contains marginally less fat than human milk, which is why authoritative bodies advise against human babies being given skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, as this would lower the fat levels even further. It is apparently perfectly all right for human adults to drink fat-reduced milk, however, even though this pushes cow’s milk even further away from the ideal and increases the relative proportion of protein and carbohydrate, calcium, phosphorus, and sodium amongst others.¹

A large difference is seen between the carbohydrate values in human and cow’s milk, so much so that cow’s milk can be seen as deficient in this nutrient. This may explain why cow’s milk is often sweetened or taken with simple carbohydrates such as `milk and cookies’ to make up for the natural shortage. Another problem with the carbohydrate fraction is the presence of lactose (milk sugar), which a large proportion of the world’s population have difficulty digesting.¹

Lastly in this section comes sodium. Along with a call for a reduction in salt consumption, people are being told to drink more milk. Here lies a direct contradiction, made worse by the fact that salt is often added to cheeses to give them flavour. Therefore milk and salted cheese could be among the most common sources of excessive sodium in the average diet.¹

Potential Problems from over indulgence

All nutrients work best in the body when they are present at suitable levels for the body’s current needs. An excess of one mineral over another can have negative effects (as seen with the calcium and phosphorus above). But this is also the case with the macronutrients, particularly protein, which when given in excess and out of proportion needs to be excreted. If there is no problem with the kidneys and liver then elimination of these excesses can continue, and however much, any excess won’t matter.

Unfortunately, after years of neglect and over-exposure to heavy foods such as meat, cheese, fried potatoes and milk, our organs become less able to deal with excreting the excess through normal channels. Eventually the liver, kidneys, intestines and lungs look for other ways to excrete the waste and unwanted intake via the skin and the mucus membranes of all our body orifices. The excess that cannot even be excreted via these routes remains inside the body, which turns into mucus or pus - the perfect culture medium for bacteria.¹

Many of today’s common problems, such as asthma, allergies, tonsillitis, ear infections, pimples, acne and weight problems, have been attributed to this ineffectiveness of the body’s waste systems to keep up with demands.¹ A recent study has linked the consumption of cow’s milk to chronic constipation in children.²

Not surprisingly many healthy eating programmes are appearing now as people try to find a way to clear out the system and unblock the excretion processes so that they can cope better in today’s fast-moving world. Take vegetarianism, the most popular diet regime sweeping the country; the main things banned are meat and dairy products and although some people adopt it for ethical reasons the results are the same - less of a load is placed upon the system and our organs of elimination become less stressed and more able to cope with the demands placed upon them.¹

Fortification

Milk consumption may not provide a consistent and reliable source of vitamin D in the diet, thus vitamin D is added to milk with the intention of preventing rickets in children, as it increases the absorption of calcium and magnesium in the body. Sampling has shown that the indicated level of vitamin D content in milk can differ by a factor of 500 times, with some samples having little or none at all. Too much vitamin D can be toxic and may result in excess calcium levels in the blood and urine.^3,4 Being artificially encouraged the extra calcium may deposit itself in the wrong places in the body. Indeed, added vitamin D has been identified as a causative factor in extensive injury of the cardiovascular system and calcification of the kidneys, resulting in the production of kidney stones.⁵ In addition, links have been drawn between calcification and deposits left in various areas of the female reproductive organs, and in the worst cases it is possible for these deposits to harden into cysts.¹

The consumption of dairy products appears to be strongly linked to various disorders of the female reproductive system, such as fibroids, cysts, menstrual cramps and heavy flows, and interestingly, fertility itself. This is not that surprising when one thinks of the amount of mucus which can theoretically build up in the fallopian tubes, thereby blocking them.¹

Lost nutrients

Pasteurisation of milk involves heating to 72 degrees C for 15 minutes. Sterilisation involves rapid heating and cooling from 100 degrees. Pasteurisation has eliminated many infectious diseases, but some nutrients have clearly been shown to be reduced after heat treatment, in particular the water soluble vitamins B1 and C, which is reduced by 50% during pasteurisation. Sterilisation actually improves the digestibility of milk as it helps break down some of the proteins. This is as opposed to pasteurisation which can actually strengthen the weak bonds between proteins so that they coagulate and form clumps.¹

Homogenisation, which breaks milk up into smaller pieces to stop the fat rising to the top of the milk when it is left to stand, allows some substances to pass through the intestinal wall unchanged by the digestive process, which can lead to developing intolerances to these substances and therefore to milk as a whole.¹

As well as fat being removed in the skimming of milk, the fat soluble vitamins A, D and E are also lost.¹

Low fat milk

Which is worse:

1.      a whole food in excess, or

2.      a partial food which now contains unbalanced nutrients in partial excess?

Both are going to cause problems, but one must presume that there is some logic to the natural balance contained within whole foods. When that balance is destroyed, materials that would normally have been kept in check have an opportunity to cause problems they otherwise would not have. In addition to this, butterfat contains a protein-splitting enzyme (Xanthine Oxidase) XO, which upon removal makes the digestion of milk protein more difficult. As this protein can now be present at relative levels up to 20% higher than in standard milk, the problem is compounded.¹

In homogenised milk, XO is able to pass through the intestines and into the blood-stream, where it may damage the membranes creating scar tissue. Cholesterol then accumulates on this scar tissue as the body attempts to protect the blood vessel membranes, but theoretically the more cholesterol that collects here the more the vessels can become blocked.^1,6,7

Milk and associated dairy products e.g. cheese, ice cream, milk, butter and yoghurt, all contain cholesterol, which can add significantly to total amounts of cholesterol in the diet. Diets high in fat and saturated fat can increase the risk of several chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases.^1,6,7 Diets high in fat from non-organic sources can also increase the content of man-made chemicals in the diet, since many herbicides and pesticides etc being fat soluble.

Lactose

All mammals except certain populations of man stop producing the enzymes needed to digest milk once they have been weaned. A few groups of peoples, however, have had to rely on the milk of their herds for food in difficult or inhospitable conditions - the northern Europeans during the winter nights that last for months, for example. Not all those who are lactose intolerant are unable to drink any milk; indeed, some can have up to a couple of glasses without any obvious problems. But as the majority of the world’s population is by design not supposed to drink milk, why is it that those who can are made to believe that it is the only source of calcium available to them?¹

Those who are lactose intolerant can often eat foods such as yoghurt, as these have been pre-digested by lactose bacteria and so save the body the trouble of dealing with lactose.¹

Over-consumption of lactose may be linked in some people to certain cancers -  e.g. ovarian. The lactose is broken down in the body into another sugar, galactose. In turn galactose is broken down further by enzymes. Research has proposed that when dairy product consumption exceeds the enzymes’ capacity to break down galactose, it can build up in the blood and may affect a woman’s ovaries. Women who have low levels of these enzymes and consume dairy products on a regular basis can be three times more open to risk of ovarian cancer than other women.⁸ Breast and prostate cancers have also been linked to the consumption of dairy products. This is thought in part to be a result of the increase in the insulin growth factor (IGF-I). This hormone is present in cow’s milk as well as other nutrients that increase IGF-I. Levels of IGF-I have been shown to increase in the blood of individuals consuming dairy products on a regular basis.⁹ Research has indicated that women who had the highest frequency of IGF-I had more than four times the risk of prostate cancer compared with those who had the lowest level.¹⁰

Calcium

If we do not need to drink milk to get our calcium, then, where else can it come from?

·       beans, nuts

·       greens, especially broccoli, collards, kale, mustard and turnip tops, parsley, watercress and dandelion

·       sea vegetables

·       sesame seeds and tahini

·       canned salmon and sardines with bones

·       soup made with one or more bones (fish, fowl or beef) and one tablespoon of wine vinegar (which draws out the calcium and makes it available in the broth).

Many foods have considerably more calcium in them than milk, in fact. However, a lot of these foods have less available calcium in them, due to their phytic acid or oxalic acid content. But because of the wide variety of calcium-containing foods available, they provide overall a much more varied and larger source packed with many more nutrients than milk alone. Some foods like sardines do actually have more available calcium in them than milk anyway. Cheese has the greatest amount of available calcium in it per 100 g though, with yoghurt a close second.¹

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is often treated these days by increasing the amount of calcium put into the body, and if that doesn’t work it is explained away as being too little too late. The fact that bones are made up of a mix of many different minerals is also often ignored as more and more calcium of any sort is pumped into the body.¹

Some clinical research demonstrates that milk calcium is not necessarily the answer to preventing osteoporosis. The Harvard nurses study, which followed more than 75 000 women for 12 years, showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. The study indicated that increased calcium intake from dairy products was associated with a higher fracture risk.¹¹

An Australian study showed the same results.¹² Additionally other studies^13,14 have found no protective effect of dairy calcium on bone.^15,16

The risk of osteoporosis can be reduced by lowering the sodium and animal protein intake in the diet, by increasing intake of fruits and vegetables, exercising and ensuring adequate calcium intake from plant foods such as green leafy vegetables and beans as well as calcium-fortified products such as breakfast cereals and juices.^17,18,19

Research seems to concentrate on ways of getting more calcium into the system. However, a new way of looking at the problem might be to see how the calcium that is already in the bones might be kept there.

Foods that affect Calcium balance in some way

Dairy products

The calcium in dairy products comes in an unbalanced relationship with phosphorus, so a fair amount will be incompletely absorbed or incorrectly assimilated.¹

Concentrated Sugars

These create an acid reaction in the body, and acidity demineralises the system. Sugar lowers the level of phosphorus in the blood as the body tries to deal with this unnatural purified material, and so maintain the correct calcium levels: phosphorus ratio in the blood the body may draw upon its reserves in the bones.¹

High Protein Foods

Again, like sugar, high protein foods acidify the system, which results in demineralisation and calcium loss from the bones. Epidemiological studies in various countries have shown a strong correlation between the use of dairy products and the incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes, thus highlighting the deleterious effects of milk components on the body. It is thought that a specific dairy protein sparks an auto-immune reaction, which could be responsible for destroying the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.^20,21,22

Nightshades (including tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, peppers and tobacco)

The alkaloids in these plants appear to deplete body levels of calcium unless they accompany dairy foods when eaten, in which case the alkaloids go for the dairy calcium rather than body sources.¹

Wine, Vinegar and Citrus

The body has to buffer these foods because of their natural acidity, and this requires the presence of calcium which will result in decalcification of the body, again unless calcium is present in the same meal. For example, the traditional pairing of wine and cheese will buffer the acid nature of the wine, preventing it from drawing calcium out of the body. Similarly orange juice with breakfast needs some intake of milk, for example, to keep it under control. People with low calcium stores may show a sign of calcium shortage such as brittle nails if they continue to drink citrus juices.¹

Coffee, Alcohol and Salt

Caffeine, alcohol and salt all bring about calcium losses, but alcohol and salt are the major criminals robbing the body of calcium.¹

Conclusion

In summary, the foods that may cause more calcium to leave the body are acid-forming foods eaten without the balance of alkali-forming foods. These include: sugar, high protein foods, flour, bread, legumes, and grains, particularly refined ones.¹

Vegetables can on the whole buffer these foods and so remove the challenge otherwise found in the meal. If these alkaline foods are not eaten then the body must find its own buffers, such as the calcium within teeth and bones.¹

Quality

Animal milk may generally have a high proportion of pesticides and other chemicals in it, as the animal concentrates all the traces of residues in the food it eats and potentially also from any growth hormones or antibiotics given to the animal, and these leech into the milk.^{1, 23}

A high consumption of animal milk and other products, therefore, can also increase the toxins in human milk, and so it is advisable for a human mother to cut down the amount of these materials in her diet before she starts breast-feeding.²⁴

Is milk good for you or not?

Having looked at the peculiarity of the human being to drink the milk of another animal after weaning and all the accompanying negatives associated with cow’s milk - and to a lesser extent goat’s milk when compared with human milk - it may be a fair to assume that cow’s milk is not good for us.¹

This theory does, however, fly in the face of all orthodox dietary advice and a considerable amount of ancient wisdom too. A possible explanation for this contradiction may lie in the quality of the milk and the health of the person. According to Chinese medicine, milk builds the vitality, blood and tissues of the body. However, those who have a weak digestion or mucus problems will find milk hard to digest. We have, of course, already seen that milk can cause mucus problems, which is probably more likely in those with weak digestion. Milk which has been pasteurised, homogenised and chemically treated is much more difficult to digest properly, even by those with a strong digestion.¹

In today’s climate milk often has a bad reputation amongst complementary therapists because many people already have an overabundance of mucus and are overweight as a result of their excessive consumption of meat, sugar, fat, and dairy. Having lived on this sort of diet most of their lives, many have developed a weak digestion and may be intolerant to dairy products to some degree.¹

When mucus problems exist, dairy users may wish to consider using better quality and fewer dairy products. Lack of exercise can also be a major factor, since the heat of physical activity normally burns up watery mucoid accumulations.

To sum up - although no other animal drinks milk beyond the age of weaning, it does not necessarily mean that we should not either. Humans do many things that are unique to our race. Problems occur with dairy products if they are over-consumed, they are of poor quality or if the individual digesting them cannot deal with them efficiently.

Dairy products can provide useful aspects to the diet if used sensibly.¹

References

1.      Colbin, A. Food and Healing. Ballantine Books, New York, 1986.

2.      Iacono G, CavataioF. Montalto G, et al. Intolerance of cow’s milk and chronic constipation in children. N. Engl. J Med 1998;;339:110-4

3.      Jacobus CH, Holick MF, Shao Q, et al. Hypervitaminosis D associated with drinking milk. NEngl J med 199; 326(18):1173-7.

4.      Holick MF. Vitamin D nad bone helath. J Nutr 1996;126 (4 suppl):111159S-64S

5.      Taussig, Helen B., Possible injury to the Cardiovascular system from vitamin D. Annals of Internal Medicine 65. no.6 (December 1966) 1195-1200

6.      Pennington JAT. Bowes and Churches Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, 17th ed. New York: Lippincott, 1998.

7.      Ornish D, Brown SE, Scherwitz LW, Billings JH, Armstrong WT, Ports TA.Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? Lancet 1990; 336;129-33.

8.      Cramer DW, Harlow BL, Willet WC. Galactose consumption and metabolism in relation to the risk of ovarian cancer. Lancet 1989; 2:66-71.

9.      Cadogan J, Eastell R, Jones N, Barker ME. Milk intake and bone mineral acquistion in adolescent girls: randomised, controlled intervention trial. BMJ 1997; 315:1255-69.

10.  Chan JM, Stampfer MJ, Giovannucci E, et al plasma insulin-like growth factor-1 and prostate cancer risk: a prospective study. Science 1998; 279:563-5.

11.  Feskanich D, Willet WC, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA. Milk, dietary calcium and bone fractures in women: a 12 year prospective study. Am J Public Health 1997;87:992-7.

12.  Cumming RG, Klineburg RJ. Case-control study of risk factures for hip fractures in the elderly. Am J Epidemiol 1994; 139:493-505.

13.  Huang Z, Himes JH, McGovern PG. Nutrition and subsequent hip fracture risk among a national cohort of white women. Am J Epideiol 1996; 144:124-34.

14.  Cummings SR, Nevitt MC, Browner WS, et al. Risk factors for hip fracture in white women. N. Engl. J Med 1995; 332:767-73.

15.  Tucker K.L, Hannan MR, Chen H, Cupples LA, Wilson P.W.F.F, Kiel DP. Prassium magnesium, and fruit and vegetables intakes are associated with greater bone mineral density in elderly men and women. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69:727-36

16.  Prince R, Devine A, Dick I, et al. The effect of calcium supplementation (milk powder or tablets) and exercise on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. J Bone Miner Res 1995;10:1068-75

17.  Finn SC. The skeleton crew: is calcium enough? J Women’s health 1998;7(1);31-6

18.  Nordin, C.B.E. Calcium and osteoporosis. Nutrition 1997;3(7/8);664-86.

19.  Red, D.M., New S.A. Nutritional influences on bone mass. Proceed. Nutr. Soc. 1997;56:977-87

20.  Scott FW. Cow milk abd insulin dependent diabetes mellitus: is there a relationship? Am J Clin Nutr 1990; 51:489-91

21.  Karjalainen j, Martin JM, Knip M et al. bovine albumin peptide as a possible trigger of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med 1992; 327:302-7.

22.  World Cancer Research Fund. food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of cancer: A Global Perspective. American Institute of Cancer Research. Washington, D.C: 1997.

23.  Outwater, J.L. Nicholson A, Barnard N. Dairy products and breast cancer; the IGF-1, oestrogen, and bGH hypothesis. Medical Hypothesis 1997;48: 453-61.

24.  Clyne PS, Kulczycki A. Human breast milk contains bovine IgG. Relationship to infant colic? Pediatrics 1991; 87(4):439-44.