Osteoporosis
Milk's main selling point is calcium, and milk-drinking is touted for building strong bones in children and preventing osteoporosis in older persons. However, clinical research shows that dairy products have little or no benefit for bones. A 2005 review published in Pediatrics showed that milk consumption does not improve bone integrity in children.[1] Similarly, the Harvard Nurses' Health Study, [2] which followed more than 72,000 women for 18 years, showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. While calcium is important for bone health, studies show that increasing consumption beyond approximately 600 mg per day - amounts that are easily achieved without dairy products or calcium supplements - does not improve bone integrity.[2]
In studies of children and adults, exercise has been found to have a major effect on bone density.[3-5]
You can decrease your risk of osteoporosis by reducing sodium and animal protein intake in the diet,[6-9] increasing intake of fruits and vegetables,[9,10] exercising,[4,11] and ensuring adequate calcium intake from plant foods such as kale, broccoli, and other leafy green vegetables and beans. You can also use calcium-fortified products such as breakfast cereals and juices, although these products provide more concentrated calcium than is necessary.
Comment: While this article tries to address the dangers of dairy products, it does so in a very irresponsible way: promoting cereals which contain the protein gluten. Gluten creates much havoc just like its equivalent in dairy products, casein. They both can trigger an autoimmune response and/or mimic endorphins to cause changes in perception, mood, and behavior. Coming off from casein or gluten can trigger a drug withdrawal that is just as bad as coming off from opioids. What is more, plants have self-defense mechanisms which include several damaging anti-nutrients including lectins which can create much damage in the body. Other anti-nutrients such as phytates bind with minerals in the eater's digestive system, making minerals such as calcium inaccessible.
Calcium levels in the body rise on a diet rich in fats from animal sources. Fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E, and K, are "catalysts" or "activators" upon which the assimilation of all other nutrients depend - protein, minerals, and vitamins. That is, without dietary factors found in animal fats, all other nutrients largely go to waste.
In short, why neglect animal sources of calcium which are far safer and efficiently utilized? Why load the body with unnecessary anti-nutrients coming from plants that deplete minerals and damage the body in the long-term?
Consider also this from The Bulls' S..t In The China Shop:
There are actually two kinds of dietary fiber - soluble and insoluble. Both kinds are indigestible, and, nutritionally speaking, useless - not an iota of vitamins, minerals, or proteins between them. Nothing, nada, zilch.We encourage you to read the rest of the article. It can literally save your life!
Once inside the body, both fibers whip up noxious gases, toxic alcohols, and irritating acids - the common byproducts of bacterial fermentation, which, in turn, cause equally common flatulence, bloating, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.
For these reasons French and Italian chefs meticulously remove skins from eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes before adding them to a dish. Doting mothers in most of the world still scrupulously peel plums, apples, and pears before giving them to their children, and resourceful winegrowers from Napa Valley to the Rhône valley spit out skins while checking the ripeness of their grapes. That's because all skins are made from insoluble fiber.
Soluble fiber isn't as easy to spot and spit. It's a polysaccharide, which attracts water and condenses into a gel-like state, just like gelatin. Once jellied, it slows down the intestinal propulsion and absorption of digested nutrients, including glucose, essential amino and fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and microelements. At best, a dubious benefit, but true.
Insoluble fiber, a cellulose, is chemically similar to toilet paper - which also happens to be a cellulose. Just like toilet paper, insoluble fiber absorbs water and expands up to five times its original weight.[7] The expansion of fiber makes stools larger and heavier. For this reason, medical professionals call fiber a bulking agent, and from this point on, it turns stools into a proverbial bull in the china shop!
Eating fruit is not the solution either. Konstantin Monastyrsky, author of the Fiber Menace warns us that in order to get the [ignorant] recommendations of daily fiber intake, we need ten small (not medium or large) fruits which will provide us with 36.4 g of indigestible fiber and a whopping 143.6 g of digestible sugars, or an equivalent of (ten) spoons of plain table sugar!:
And that's before accounting for all the other carbs consumed throughout the day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and from snacks and beverages.The human body was never meant to absorb much sugar, if any. In fact, there is not such thing as an essential carbohydrate. The human body can survive perfectly well with 0 intake of carbohydrates. Nowadays, more than 70% of the food we eat is food that our Paleolithic ancestors rarely or never ate. Grains are essentially sugar with enough opioids to make them addictive. Courtesy of agriculture, we are now overwhelmed with degenerative diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases, conditions that our Paleolithic ancestors didn't know. For more information see:
So ask yourself this question: even if you are a 100% healthy 25-year-old muscle-bound athlete, would you ever ingest that much sugar willingly? The answer is obvious - no way! Well, maybe under the influence of a controlled substance or torture. But certainly not while of sound mind!
But that's exactly what's being recommended for "health purposes" to American children and adults. It's not surprising that so many are suffering from the ravages of diabetes and obesity - the total daily carbohydrate requirement for an average adult is under 200 grams, even less for children.
The ratio of digestible carbohydrates (sugars) to fiber in vegetables, cereals, breads, beans, and legumes is, on average, similar to fruits. Thus, no matter how hard you try to mix'n'match, you'll be getting screwed all the same. Incidentally, that's the meaning of those brass screws in the cereal bowl on the front cover of Fiber Menace.
Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race
Origins of Agriculture - Did Civilization Arise to Deliver a Fix?
Evidence Shows the Advent of Agriculture was Bad News for our Health
Courtesy of the Industrial Revolution we all suffer from the worst health conditions in our human history. Today we are happy to consume drug fixing processed foods loaded with sugar and toxic chemicals that our bodies struggle to process, and that have no nutritional value.
Fat Content and Cardiovascular Disease
Dairy products - including cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt - contribute significant amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat to the diet.[12] Diets high in fat and saturated fat can increase the risk of heart disease, among other serious health problems. A low-fat vegetarian diet that eliminates dairy products, in combination with exercise, smoking cessation, and stress management, can not only prevent heart disease, but may also reverse it.[13,14] Nonfat dairy products are available; however, they pose other health risks as noted below.
Comment: There it goes again, the Cholesterol Myth. There are far more epidemiological studies that show no correlation between saturated fat consumption, cholesterol levels, and heart disease than the other way around. The ones that show a correlation are known to be doctored for the purpose of promoting a myth that simply makes no sense, so that agricultural corporations and Big Pharma can benefit. On the contrary, saturated fat is essential for cardiovascular health!:
The most important thing you probably don't know about cholesterol
The Big Lie: "Saturated Fats Are Bad For You"
Saturated Fat is Good for You
Enjoy Saturated Fats, They're Good for You!
You Have Been Lied to About Cholesterol and Fats
Book Review: Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You!
High cholesterol does not cause stroke (but carbohydrate does)
The Origins of the Cholesterol Con
Dispel the Myths: Why You Should Eat Cholesterol
I have high cholesterol, and I don't care
The Cholesterol Myth that is Harming Your Health
Cancer
Prostate and breast cancers have been linked to consumption of dairy products, presumably related to increases in a compound called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I).15 IGF-I is found in cow's milk and has been shown to occur in increased levels in the blood of individuals consuming dairy products on a regular basis.[16] Other nutrients that increase IGF-I are also found in cow's milk.
Case-control studies in diverse populations have shown a strong and consistent association between serum IGF-I concentrations and prostate cancer risk.[17] One study showed that men who had the highest levels of IGF-I had more than four times the risk of prostate cancer compared with those who had the lowest levels.[18] Other findings show that prostate cancer risk was elevated with increased consumption of low-fat milk, suggesting that too much dairy calcium could be a potential threat to prostate health.[19,20]
Comment: This is very relevant information, considering that IGF-1 levels in people increase if high-carbohydrate diets are followed, even if total calories are reduced.
There is a direct connection with increases in insulin levels in the blood and increases in IGF-1 levels. Carbohydrates are the foods that increase insulin levels. Eating too much carbohydrates results in too much insulin, which can result in too much IGF-1, especially if you don't stop your dairy intake. These hormones can go on to signal cells to change and become cancerous.
Whether it's a simple or a complex carbohydrate (that is, it doesn't matter if it is real sugar or a potato), by the time your intestinal tract processes and digests all the starch and sugar chains, it all gets reduced to sugar (glucose). So much for the harmlessness of fruits and vegetables. Carbs are bad news:
Carbs are bad news for the brain
Idiotically Dangerous Diet "Reverses Diabetes" but So Does Moderate Carb Restriction Without Calorie Restriction
Real men don't eat carbs
High Carbohydrate Diets Named as a Cause for Candida
Low carbohydrate diet very quickly effective for getting fat out of the liver
The Westman Diet
Carbohydrates and Colorectal Cancer Risk among Chinese in North America
Fructose Fueling Childhood Obesity, Diabetes
The three best reasons why you should avoid fructose like the plague ASAP
Don't Believe the Hype -- Fructose Truly is Much Worse Than Glucose
Cancer cells slurp up fructose, US study finds
Ovarian cancer may also be related to the consumption of dairy products. The milk sugar lactose is broken down in the body into another sugar, galactose. Research suggests that the dairy sugar galactose might be toxic to ovarian cells.[21] In a study conducted in Sweden, consumption of lactose and dairy products was positively linked to ovarian cancer.[22] A similar study, the Iowa Women's Health Study, found that women who consumed more than one glass of milk per day had a 73 percent greater chance of ovarian cancer than women who drank less than one glass per day.[23]
Lactose Intolerance
Lactose intolerance is common among many populations, affecting approximately 95 percent of Asian Americans, 74 percent of Native Americans, 70 percent of African Americans, 53 percent of Mexican Americans, and 15 percent of Caucasians.[24] Symptoms, which include gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, and flatulence, occur because these individuals do not have the enzyme lactase that digests the milk sugar lactose. For those who can digest lactose, its breakdown products are two simple sugars: glucose and galactose. Nursing children have active enzymes that break down galactose. As we age, many of us lose much of this capacity.25 Additionally, along with unwanted symptoms, milk-drinkers also put themselves at risk for development of other chronic diseases and ailments.
Vitamin D
Individuals often drink milk in order to obtain vitamin D in their diet, unaware that they can receive vitamin D through other sources. The natural source of vitamin D is sunlight. Five to fifteen minutes of sun exposure to the arms and legs or the hands, face, and arms can be enough to meet the body's requirements for vitamin D, depending on the individual's skin tone.[26] Darker skin requires longer exposure to the sun in order to obtain adequate levels of vitamin D. In colder climates during the winter months the sun may not be able to provide adequate vitamin D. During this time the diet must be able to provide vitamin D. Fortified cereals, grains, bread, orange juice, and soy- or rice milk are healthful foods that provide vitamin D. All common multiple vitamins also provide vitamin D.
Comment: We can hardly believe that they are actually recommending these foods which are precisely the main sources of health destroying toxic gluten and sugars. Soy has so many anti-nutrients, that it is basically unfit for human consumption. Soy has a much higher level of phytates that no amount of soaking or fermenting will disable them all, and phytates are precisely the anti-nutrients that bind with minerals in the digestive tract, making them (including calcium!) inaccessible.
For more information see:
The Dark Side of Wheat - New Perspectives on Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance
Opening Pandora's Bread Box: The Critical Role of Wheat Lectin in Human Disease
Beyond Gluten-Free: The Critical Role of Chitin-Binding Lectins in Human Disease
Origins of Agriculture - Did Civilization Arise to Deliver a Fix?
Dangers of soy:
The Dark Side of Soy
Why Soy Is NOT the Health Food You Think it Is
The Truth about Soy
The War on Soy: Why the 'Miracle Food' May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare
Confused About Soy?: Soy Dangers Summarized
Contaminants
Milk contains contaminants that range from pesticides to drugs. Milk naturally contains hormones and growth factors produced within a cow's body. In addition, synthetic hormones such as recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) are commonly used in dairy cows to increase the production of milk.[27] Because treated cows are producing quantities of milk nature never intended, the end result can be mastitis, or inflammation of the mammary glands. Treatment of this condition requires the use of antibiotics, and antibiotic traces have occasionally been found in samples of milk and other dairy products. Pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and dioxins are other examples of contaminants found in milk. These toxins do not readily leave the body and can eventually build to harmful levels that may affect the immune and reproductive systems. The central nervous system can also be affected. Moreover, PCBs and dioxins have also been linked to cancer.[28]
Milk Proteins and Diabetes
Insulin-dependent (type 1 or childhood-onset) diabetes is linked to consumption of dairy products.[29] A 2001 Finnish study of 3,000 infants with genetically increased risk for developing diabetes showed that early introduction of cow's milk increased susceptibility to type 1 diabetes.[30]
Health Concerns of Infants and Children
Milk proteins, milk sugar, fat, and saturated fat {NOT!} in dairy products pose health risks for children and encourage the development of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants below one year of age not be given whole cow's milk,[31] as iron deficiency is more likely on a dairy-rich diet. Cow's milk products are very low in iron.[32] If dairy products become a major part of one's diet, iron deficiency is more likely. Colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. Up to 28 percent of infants suffer from colic during the first month of life.[33] Pediatricians learned long ago that cow's milk was often the reason. We now know that breastfeeding mothers can have colicky babies if the mothers consume cow's milk. The cow's antibodies can pass through the mother's bloodstream, into her breast milk, and to the baby.[34,35] Additionally, food allergies appear to be common results of cow's milk consumption, particularly in children.[36,37] Cow's milk consumption has also been linked to chronic constipation in children. Researchers suggested that milk consumption resulted in perianal sores and severe pain on defecation, leading to constipation.[38]
Milk and dairy products are not necessary in the diet and can, in fact, be harmful to health. It is best to consume a healthful diet of grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and fortified foods including cereals and juices. These nutrient-dense foods can help you meet your calcium, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin D requirements with ease - and without health risks.
Comment: Although we agree wholeheartedly that milk and dairy products are not necessary (except for ghee butter which is almost pure fat and perhaps butter for those who can tolerate it), we hope that by now it is clear why their substitute suggestions are completely ignorant and dangerous. The foods they are suggesting are NOT "nutrient dense" - just the converse. Humanity's health is a giant disaster today, thanks to the elimination of dietary fat from animal sources in the human diet and the promotion of carbohydrates and unnatural vegetable oils in our diets among other thing. We can always count on unlimited amounts of toxicity and the discouragement of natural ways to deal with it from the "authorities" who bring us these "helpful suggestions". They are helpful to no one but Big Agra. For more information on how to recover your health with dietary changes, we invite you to read our forum discussion "Life Without Bread".
References
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Originally published on the website of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
....eliminate fruits and veg altogether and stick to a pure meat and fat diet?