Someone told me recently that for the first time in 60 years doctors are beginning to see pellagra-based malnutrition in children in this country. The culprit? Feeding young children soy milk instead of regular milk, without supplementing the diet with the necessary niacin that cow's milk provides through tryptophan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra

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I hope that more people drink milk so that I can "treat" those people's diseases which resulted from drinking it. It's a winning proposition for myself. It's funny because years ago I actually bought into those clever milk industry commercials. Now I'm in great health without dairy and making money off of other people's misfortune with milk.

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Im with the first responder. rickets are also a symptom of not getting 'real' milk. How proud must a family be too say 'we're ALL vegan" when their kid can't stand up like it should. or die.

Put's em on the same level as folks who want to feed cats 'vegan diets'. (quick hins for those who want to slam me, cats are obligate carnivores who cannot digest vegetable protein. to try and turn them into 'vegans' will end up killing them. dogs fare a bit better because they're much more omnivorous. But cats are just not. You would be sentencing them to death slowly and painfully.

Anonmyous doctor, you are an adult and milk can probably be discarded. But children need something from dairy that is not available from vegan products. You're an idiot if you think different. They are GROWING, in all ways (neurological, muscular, etc.) Looks like you've bought into someone's special interests enough not to be safe doctor!

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Dairy is actually quite terrible for you. I indulge in dairy knowing the risk, like a cigar afficianado might moderately enjoy a cigar knowing the risks.

If you care to have an open mind, I challenge all of you to look at the evidence. Dairy products are full of hormones (not just injected hormones, but natural hormones--since all mamalian milk is filled with growth hormones to induce growth in the young). It is known that dairy products have a high IGF-1 content (IGF-1 = insulin like growth factor 1), and at the same time, it is known that IGF-1 causes cancer in adult somatic cells. If you look at the correlation between milk consumption and the rates of prostate and breast cancer in various countries, the correlation is too tight to be dismissed, and a known causal link has already been established.

Milk consumption also causes early puberty, and may be the primary factor behind the age of puberty creeping earlier and earlier in the US--in step with the increase of milk consumption among children. Japan shows the most dramatic milk-early puberty connection: before WWII, diary products were virtually non-existant in Japan. After WWII, dairy consumption skyrocketed, and along with it, the average age of the onset of puberty dropped several years, especially in girls. This is not surprising: milk contains progesterone and all sorts of sexual hormones, in no small concentration--after all, it is extracted from lactating cows. Is this the kind of stuff you want your kids to consume?

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Let's not forget the great joy experienced when downing that cold glass of (absolutely full fat) milk, or munching on that slice of fresh bread covered in drippy, runny brie, the biscuit slathered with roquefort, the pasta covered in parmesan (and all made from unpasteurized milk too!) ...

And also let's not forget the great deforestation of the Amazon forest while US companies grow lots of lovely GM soya ... mmm ...

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Ah, this explains everything, all this milk being bad for you. That must be why my grandpa lived to be 89, drinking approx a 1/4~1/2 gallon a day (no lie, he kept the local quick mart in business as he didn't travel all the way to the grocery store for his whole milk). I can only verify that he did that for the last 25 years though as I've only be alive for 25 years. He always told me he drank that much his whole life though, from the days he had to milk it himself until the end. Never had cancer, never had any of the list of things that these studies say are milk born problems. But oh well. I think I'll go have a glass right now (vit D whole milk, heck, I'd drink pure cream if I could justify the cost).

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I do not like when people trot out the "my lived to be 110 and he ate a whole slab of bacon a day!" quotes.

There are so many different reasons why that is not a good comparison: environment, personal metabolic differences, personal excercise, etc etc etc etc.

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Don't forget the Milk Abuse can be linked to everything from bad health to the Kennedy assassination!

http://notmilk.com/

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It's interesting, here in America, the milk companies wanted to put the health benefits of milk on the carton, but the Food and Drug Administration would not allow them to do so because they had absolutely no research to back up their claims. What has been found during the nurses study (you know the study of thousands of nurses across the world) is that there is no support that milk has any positive health benefits including preventing osteoporosis. In some cases it was actually found to have negative health benefits. It has been found that animal fat blocks the absorption of calcium. In addition, as stated above milk is full of hormones that are not healthy for humans to consume. You don't see cows feeding on their mothers until they die do you? No. And we don't feed cows human milk, do we? No, because each specie should only consume the milk of it's own species until it is time to for weening. Do not let the proganda of the milk companies make your decisions for you.

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This is in regards to dragonet2's response. How have I bought into special interests if I haven't even advocated anything? When did I advocate a vegan diet in my post? You are a little too liberal with your use of the word 'idiot' also.

Drinking cow's milk is relatively new to human civilization. Most of the world doesn't drink animal milk and they don't have rickets. Vitamin D is fortified into cow's milk and soy milk. I don't advocate the drinking of either by the way. Yes, soy milk is also not good for you.

I believe children 3 and under should drink their mother's milk but not at all after that. I believe this with regards to all mammals. Each species' milk is specially formulated for that specific species' young.

Also I believe cats and dogs ARE indeed carnivorous because they descended from carnivores. I believe the meat that they eat should be raw and not cooked in any way. Cooked food is what gives them disease. They are physiologically built to process only raw meat.

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This is in regards to dragonet2's response. How have I bought into special interests if I haven't even advocated anything? When did I advocate a vegan diet in my post? You are a little too liberal with your use of the word 'idiot' also.

Drinking cow's milk is relatively new to human civilization. Most of the world doesn't drink animal milk and they don't have rickets. Vitamin D is fortified into cow's milk and soy milk. I don't advocate the drinking of either by the way. Yes, soy milk is also not good for you.

I believe children 3 and under should drink their mother's milk but not at all after that. I believe this with regards to all mammals. Each species' milk is specially formulated for that specific species' young.

Also I believe cats and dogs ARE indeed carnivorous because they descended from carnivores. I believe the meat that they eat should be raw and not cooked in any way. Cooked food is what gives them disease. They are physiologically built to process only raw meat.

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Well, both my children are allergic to dairy and so far they haven't died from eating only soy products. I've almost died, trying to feed them a healthy diet that doesn't include cheese, but I suppose it's not about me. But really. A life without cheese? Criminal.

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To Hawk, it wasn't 110, it was 89. The only reason for the comment is the exact same reasoning you have against it "There are so many different reasons why that is not a good comparison: environment, personal metabolic differences, personal excercise, etc etc etc etc." i.e. it takes a whole heck of a lot more than eating or drinking one item (unless, of course, it's something like drano or antifreeze, then it would have quite the major impact on your health) to determine the well being of your life. There are exceptions to every "rule" and I think it's rather silly for anyone to tout the results of a study that generalizes everyone into one catagory such as "milk is bad don't drink it" humbug to that. Life is too short to not do the things that make you happy/feel good (even if that is smoking, though, let us not get into a whole second hand smoke debate as I know where that would go on this board).

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Milk is a healthy natural thing, next we'll be telling mothers not to breast feed - pathetic!!!
I will drink as much milk and eat as much cheese as i like. life is short enjoy it!

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Good on Heather Mills, it's so nice to see that a young divorcee can hop up onto the moral high ground and get involved in important work to highlight the dangers of milk.

She's done so well to resist the temptation of staying at home with her millions of dollars and feeling sorry for herself. I for one think its great that she can lend her whiny voice to these important issues. To complement her campaign against milk I intend to launch a crusade against the dangers of using cheese with digestive biscuits, I hope I can count on her support.

In much the same way as the organisers of the white lies campaign no doubt recieve a nice little earner from the american multinationals producing soy milk I will hopefully be paying for this years summer holiday with support from Jacobs, the makers of cream crackers, the only safe alternative to the digestive biscuit.

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(sorry is this is a double post)
To Alex, most of the soya grown in South America is actually grown to feed cattle. Over 90% of it. It has nothing to do with soya milk, its for people who want to buy burgers at McDonalds.
Milk is food for growing infants, whatever species. But once weaned, its not necessary for anyone or any animal. We are the only mammal species out of over 4,000 that consumes milk after infanthood.
You don't need milk for good bone health or anything else. You need the nutrients and vitamins, and these aren't exclusive to milk, they are found in countless other foods. Just look at those countries with the highest dairy intake, like the US and some northern European countries. Those are the same countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis.
And for everyones information, the organisation behind the White Lies campaign is a charity (the VVF) and has no hidden agenda or links to big business whatsoever.

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With regard to Baron's (I am sure very lovely) long-lived grandpa, it is worth noting that modern farming methods mean that the milk that we consume today is quite different to that in your (or my) grandpy's time. Of course a cow, being a mammal, has to be made pregnant in order to produce milk. But these days cows are milked while they are pregnant - and indeed for the mainstay of their pregnancy. Ask any mum what her hormones were like when she was up the duff and no doubt she'll have noticed the huge soar in her oestrogen and progesterone levels - and perhaps resultant erratic behaviour!

We hear a lot of scare stories about the phytoestrogens in soya (which incidentally, Cindy, is one of the few foods to receive prestigious FDA approval which milk was denied) - so what of the chemical cocktail of hormones from another mammal present in milk? What are their effects on health? According to the largest study on human health ever undertaken (The China Study which involved collaboration between Cornell Uni, Oxford Uni and China) animal products play a key role in Western diseases including heart disease, cancers and diabetes.

I have found the references cited in the White Lies report - they can be accessed at http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/whitelies/report16.shtml.Interestingly most relate to research published in well respected, peer reviewed journals such as The Lancet and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the bulk of studies, rather unsettlingly, were published in the last five years.

I understand that the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation is a science-based health and nutrition charity which is funded by subscription to its magazine, Veggiehealth, although being a charity I imagine that it's annual accounts will be available from the Charity Commission website in the usual manner.

I was interested to learn from its accounts that the National Osteoporosis Society receives funding from a number of undisclosed commercial sources including pharmaceutical companies. Perhaps the dairy industry has a hand in, too, as I note the many pictures of milk displayed on their website, despite the bulk of calcium (around 50%) in our national diet coming from non-dairy sources (source: National Diet & Nutrition Survey).

Incidentally if anyone ever fancies looking at the real science rather than relying on what we're fed by the media, check out http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed which is what most of the scientists use.

Yrs in the interest of science,

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The dairy industry has done good job in marketing their product. Many people believe the lie. How can it be okay to drink the infant juice of another species?! I also wonder why dairy consumers seem to be so defensive about their choice. It may be more related to emotions and their attachments to dairy. I used to be one of them. I am grateful that I woke up. Thank you, Heather, for getting the word out there.

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I've just read a medical study on hormones in foods such as beef, pork, fish, potatoes, wheat, and milk and the very long study dated back to 2000 and showed that skim milk had more growth hormones than any of the foods studied. Here in France the skim milk is lowfat. My daughter who just turned 8 doesn't drink a lot of milk, but does eat cheese and ice cream as well as beef and other meats. Last December she began puberty and acts like a hormonal teenager. A number of her classmates are acting the same way. I am worried it's the milk products after reading this study and some of your comments. Does anyone have advice? Can this process be reversed if I stop her on these foods?

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