- Dear Friends,
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- It would cost about $800,000 to place the following full-page
ad in every newspaper in America next Sunday. If only all Americans would
read this information, what a different world it would be...
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- Share a copy with your daughters, nieces, sisters, cousins,
mothers, aunts, grandmothers, friends, teachers, school administrators,
school nurses, physicians...
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- Bruce Friedrich of PETA gets credit for having written
this column. The original appears on their award-winning website: http://milksucks.com/osteo.html
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- "The myth that osteoporosis is caused by calcium
deficiency was created to sell dairy products and calcium supplements.
There's no truth to it. American women are among the biggest consumers
of calcium in the world, and they still have one of the highest levels
of osteoporosis in the world. And eating even more dairy products and calcium
supplements is not going to change that fact."
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- - Dr. John McDougall The McDougall Program for Women
(2000)
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- Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease characterized
by low bone mass and deteriorating bone tissue that affects tens of millions
of Americans and causes 1.5 million fractures annually. The annual cost
of treatment totals more than $10 billion. While some people suffering
from osteoporosis experience recurring back pain, loss of height, and spinal
deformities, many don't even know they have the disease until a bone fracture
occurs.
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- According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, one
in two women over the age of 50, and one in eight men, will experience
an osteoporosis-related fracture.
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- The dairy industry has a powerful hold on the nutrition
industry in this country; it pays huge numbers of dietitians, doctors,
and researchers to push dairy, spending more than $300 million annually,
just at the national level, to retain a market for its products. The dairy
industry has infiltrated schools, bought off sports stars, celebrities,
and politicians, pushing all the while an agenda based on profit, rather
than public health.
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- Dr. Walter Willett, a veteran nutrition researcher at
the Harvard School of Public Health, says that calcium consumption "has
become like a religious crusade," overshadowing true preventive measures
such as physical exercise. To hear the dairy industry tell it, if you consume
three glasses of milk daily, your bones will be stronger, and you can rest
safely knowing that osteoporosis is not in your future.
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- Despite the dairy industry funding study after study
to try to prove its claims, Dr. John McDougall, upon examining all the
available nutritional studies and evidence, concludes:
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- "The primary cause of osteoporosis is the high-protein
diet most Americans consume today. As one leading researcher in this area
said, '[E]ating a high-protein diet is like pouring acid rain on your bones.'"
Remarkably enough, if dairy has any effect, both clinical and population
evidence strongly implicate dairy in causing, rather than preventing, osteoporosis.
That the dairy industry would lull unsuspecting women and children into
complacency by telling them, essentially, drink more milk and your bones
will be fine, may make good business sense, but it does the public a grave
disservice.
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- Most of the world's peoples do not consume cow's milk,
and yet most of the world does not experience the high rates of osteoporosis
found in the West. In Asian countries, for example, where consumption of
dairy foods is low (and where women tend to be thin and small-boned, universally
accepted risk factors for osteoporosis), fracture rates are much lower
than they are in the United States and in Scandinavian countries, where
consumption of dairy products is considerably higher.
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- But don't take our word for it; examine the science for
yourself:
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- One study, funded by the National Dairy Council, involved
giving a group of postmenopausal women three 8-ounce glasses of skim milk
per day for two years and comparing their bones to those of a control group
of women not given the milk. The dairy group consumed 1,400 mg of calcium
per day and lost bone at twice the rate of the control group. According
to the researchers, "This may have been due to the average 30 percent
increase in protein intake during milk supplementation ... The adverse
effect of increases in protein intake on calcium balance has been reported
from several laboratories, including our own" (they then cite 10 other
studies). Says McDougall,
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- "Needless to say, this finding did not reach the
six o'clock news."
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- After looking at 34 published studies in 16 countries,
researchers at Yale University found that countries with the highest rates
of osteoporosis"including the United States, Sweden, and Finland"are
those in which people consume the most meat, milk, and other animal foods.
This study also showed that African Americans, who consume, on average,
more than 1,000 mg of calcium per day, are nine times more likely to experience
hip fractures than are South African blacks, whose daily calcium intake
is only 196 mg. Says McDougall, "[O]n a nation-by-nation basis, people
who consume the most calcium have the weakest bones and the highest rates
of osteoporosis. ... Only in those places where calcium and protein are
eaten in relatively high quantities does a deficiency of bone calcium exist,
due to an excess of animal protein."
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- Harvard University's landmark Nurses Health Study, which
followed 78,000 women over a 12-year period, found that the women who consumed
the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely
drank milk. Summarizing this study, the Lunar Osteoporosis Update (November
1997) explained: "This increased risk of hip fracture was associated
with dairy calcium If this were any agent other than milk, which has been
so aggressively marketed by dairy interests, it undoubtedly would be considered
a major risk factor."
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- A National Institutes of Health study out of the University
of California, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
(2001), found that;
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- "Women who ate most of their protein from animal
sources had three times the rate of bone loss and 3.7 times the rate of
hip fractures of women who ate most of their protein from vegetable sources."
Even though the researchers adjusted "for everything we could think
of that might otherwise explain the relationship it didn't change the
results." The study's conclusion: "[A]n increase in vegetable
protein intake and a decrease in animal protein intake may decrease bone
loss and the risk of hip fracture."
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- Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition (2000) looked at all aspects of diet and bone health and found
that high consumption of fruits and vegetables positively affect bone health
and that dairy consumption did not. Such findings do not surprise nutritional
researchers: According to Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Turn Off the Fat
Genes (2001) and several other books on diet and health, the calcium absorption
from vegetables is as good as or better than that from milk. Calcium absorption
from milk is approximately 30 percent, while figures for broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, and some other leafy green
vegetables range between 40 percent and 64 percent.
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- After reviewing studies on the link between protein intake
and urinary calcium loss, nutritional researcher Robert P. Heaney found
that as consumption of protein increases, so does the amount of calcium
lost in the urine (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1993):
"This effect has been documented in several different study designs
for more than 70 years," he writes, adding, "[T]he net effect
is such that if protein intake is doubled without changing intake of other
nutrients, urinary calcium content increases by about 50 percent."
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- Researchers from the University of Sydney and Westmead
Hospital discovered that consumption of dairy foods, especially early in
life, increases the risk of hip fractures in old age (American Journal
of Epidemiology, 1994).
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- Finally, an analysis of all research conducted since
1985, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000), concluded:
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- "If dairy food intakes confer bone health, one might
expect this to have been apparent from the 57 outcomes, which included
randomized, controlled trials and longitudinal cohort studies involving
645,000 person-years."
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- The researchers go on to lament that "there have
been few carefully designed studies of the effects of dairy foods on bone
health," and then to conclude with typical scientific reserve that:
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- "The body of scientific evidence appears inadequate
to support a recommendation for daily intake of dairy foods to promote
bone health in the general U.S. population."
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- What we do know is that osteoporosis rates decline markedly
as body weight, exercise, and caloric intake rise. Corroborating the researchers'
lament about bad studies, only three studies have factored caloric intake
into the analysis; two of them found no correlation between dairy intake
and osteoporosis. The other found a positive link; that is, the more milk
consumed, the higher the fracture risk (Harvard Nurses Study, see above).
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- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) study
cited above argued that since we know for certain that total caloric intake
and body weight are positively associated with bone mass, such factors
are "particularly important" in any study of osteoporosis and
bone mass.
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- Is the dairy industry ignoring these factors by design
in its clinical studies, perhaps because dairy consumers tend to be heavier
and to consume more calories than those consuming fewer (or no) dairy products?
It is remarkable that the dairy industry can't get the results it's looking
for, since dairy consumption does tend to make people heavier. Even though
dairy researchers ignore this factor, most studies still show no relationship,
and some indicate that milk causes osteoporosis. If the tendencies of those
who consume more dairy to be heavier and to consume more calories were
accounted for, would the studies indicating no link show, in fact, that
dairy intake causes osteoporosis, like the Harvard School of Public Health
study? That would bring clinical analysis into line with the population
analysis, which clearly states that increased dairy consumption is linked
to increased risk for osteoporosis.
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- So what can I do for strong bones?
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- Osteoporosis is a horrible disease, and although the
evidence is strong that dairy consumption doesn't prevent it, simply eliminating
dairy products does not ensure that it won't afflict you. And if, like
most people who consume no meat or dairy, you are slender, you should be
sure to put some thought (and effort) into keeping your bones healthy.
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- What the evidence does dictate as useful for strong bones
is:
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- Getting enough vitamin D (if you don't spend any time
in the sun, be sure to take a supplement or eat fortified foods).
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- Eliminating animal protein (for a variety of reasons,
animal protein causes severe bone deterioration).
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- Limiting alcohol consumption (alcohol is toxic to the
cells that form bones and inhibits the absorption of calcium).
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- Limiting salt intake (sodium leaches calcium out of
the bones)
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- Not smoking (studies have shown that women who smoke
one pack of cigarettes a day have 5 to 10 percent less bone density at
menopause than nonsmokers).
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- Getting plenty of exercise. Studies have concluded that
physical exercise is the key to building strong bones (more important than
any other factor). For example, a study published in the British Medical
Journal, which followed 1,400 men and women over a 15-year period, found
that exercise may be the best protection against hip fractures and that
"reduced intake of dietary calcium does not seem to be a risk factor."
And Penn State University researchers found that bone density is significantly
affected by how much exercise girls get during their teen years, when 40
to 50 percent of their skeletal mass is developed. Consistent with previous
research, the Penn State study, which was published in Pediatrics (2000),
the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, showed that calcium
intake, which ranged from 500 to 1,500 mg per day, has no lasting effect
on bone health.
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- "We (had) hypothesized that increased calcium intake
would result in better adolescent bone gain. Needless to say, we were surprised
to find our hypothesis refuted," one researcher explained.
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- Conclusion:
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- Drinking milk builds dairy producers' profits, but as
the above studies show, it's more likely to harm your bones than to help
them. And dairy foods are linked to all sorts of other problems, including
obesity, heart disease and cancer (including breast cancer and prostate
cancer) and are likely to be contaminated with trace levels of antibiotics,
hormones, and other chemicals, including dioxin, one of the most toxic
substances known to humans (The Washington Post reported that "the
latest EPA study concludes that people who consume even small amounts of
dioxin in fatty foods and dairy products face a cancer risk of 1 in 100.
They may also develop other problems, such as attention disorder, learning
disabilities, susceptibility to infections and liver disorders" (April
12, 2001).
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- Of course, calcium is an essential mineral, and it is
possible to have a calcium deficiency. According to Dr. Neal Barnard, president
of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:
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- "Milk, in particular, is poor insurance against
bone breaks the healthiest calcium sources are green leafy vegetables
and legumes You don't need to eat huge servings of vegetables or beans
to get enough calcium, but do include both in your regular menu planning.
If you are looking for extra calcium, fortified orange, apple, or grapefruit
juices are good choices."
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- It makes no more sense for humans to consume the mother's
milk of cows than for us to consume the mother's milk of rats, cats, dogs,
giraffes, or any other mammal. Nature created human mother's milk for baby
humans, cow mother's milk for baby cows, and so on.
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- The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, in Baby and Child Care (the
United States' best selling book, other than the Bible, over the past 50
years), after recommending that no one consume cow's milk and cataloging
a host of ills associated with milk consumption (heart disease, cancer,
obesity, antibiotic residue, iron deficiency, asthma, ear infections, skin
conditions, stomach aches, bloating, and diarrhea), concludes:
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- "In nature, animals do not drink milk after infancy,
and that is the normal pattern for humans, too. Children stay in better
calcium balance when their protein comes from plant sources."
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- Dr. Spock recommends human mother's milk for baby humans,
as nature intended.
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- "It is hard to turn on the television without hearing
commercials suggesting that milk promotes strong bones. The commercials
do not point out that only 30 percent of milk's calcium is absorbed by
the body or that osteoporosis is common among milk drinkers. Nor do they
help you correct the real causes of bone loss." "Dr. Neal Barnard
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- Says Dr. T. Colin Campbell, the world's leading epidemiological
researcher in the field of diet and health,
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- "The dairy folks, ever since the 1920s, have been
enormously successful in cultivating an environment within virtually all
segments of our society"from research and education to public relations
and politics"to have us believing that cow's milk and its products
are manna from heaven. Make no mistake about it; the dairy industry has
been virtually in total control of any and all public health information
that ever rises to the level of public scrutiny."
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- "The association between the intake of animal protein
and fracture rates appears to be as strong as the association between cigarette
smoking and lung cancer." -Dr. T. Colin Campbell
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- "Milk, it now seems clear, is not the solution to
poor bone density. To the contrary, it's part of the problem." - Dr.
Charles Attwood
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- ____ Robert Cohen http://www.notmilk.com
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