How good is milk?

YOU report (August 28) how the ‘Milk is Good for You’ message is being trumpeted once again.

However, milk is the commonest source of food allergy. Many people are not even aware they are intolerant of, or allergic to, milk. Symptoms include catarrh, inflammation and stomach upsets. Humans are the only species to consume milk as adults; the metabolism is programmed to lose the enzyme needed to digest milk after infancy, although some humans have evolved to retain it. Also the antibiotics that cows are given prophylactically pass into the milk and can be harmful. To claim that milk can prevent obesity is dangerous nonsense; obesity is prevented by not over-eating.

Michael Job