Feel good about milk – and drink it ’til the cows come home
It flies in the face of global research involving hundreds of thousands of people from Oslo to the USA.
These studies, often over decades, have found no negative effects from the consumption of dairy products and many positive benefits (up to 50% lower rates of breast cancer, stroke, etc.) where a meaningful volume of milk was consumed each day.
As for your much hyped link to prostrate cancer (challenged by the World Cancer Research Fund), there were positive effects only from an association with dairy products.
These studies along with a more open review of research have turned the conventional wisdom of the last five decades on its head with the US National Institute of Health citing five major studies in its statement that there is no link between eating fat and getting heart disease.
The reason for the dramatic about-turn is an effort to stem the tide of obesity and a range of nutrition-related health problems that have mushroomed since the low- fat culture took hold.
School authorities across the US are banning or restricting the sale of soft drinks on their properties and installing milk vending machines in an effort to increase its consumption.
The reasons are many: the growing level of obesity and its attendant problems among children, the risk of heart disease from high sugar diets, the fact that six out of seven of the leading soft drink brands contain caffeine a drug which, along with being addictive, causes nervousness, irritability, sleeplessness and rapid heart rate in children.
Of all foods, milk contributes the most calcium and protein per 100 calories and per cent spent.
Despite claims to the contrary, those who do not drink it fail to make up the deficit through other foods.
Lack of calcium is associated with osteoporosis, poor muscle function and poorer clotting of blood.
Protein is a prerequisite to brain development and body tissue growth.
Vitamin A is required for healthy skin and vision; vitamin D protects the skin from ultraviolet rays and is necessary for the assimilation of calcium.
Potassium is a must for the regulation of blood pressure and fluid balance. CLA is the most potent anticarcinogen in food. The list goes on.
While you continue to carry misleading articles such as this I would suggest that you include a health warning: 'This supplement can seriously damage your family's health'.
Tom Roche,
Firies,
Castleisland,
Co Kerry
