We know smoking tobacco is not good for kids, but a lot of other things aren’t good. Drinking’s not good. Some would say milk’s not good. Bob Dole
Loren Cordain’s latest newsletter (PDF) is up, and it’s going to make a lot of people unhappy. Why? Because Dr. Cordain is one of those people Bob Dole was talking about who say that milk isn’t good.
The one sentence summation of the newsletter is that betacellulin, a heat-stable hormone found in large concentrations in cow’s milk, attaches to and stimulates the intestinal EGF receptor, possible causing an increase in the incidence of cancer formation and accelerated growth. Money quote from the newsletter:
So what–what if a little betacellulin from cow’s milk gets into your bloodstream–does it matter? You bet it matters. A liter of whole milk (633 kcal) contains 1,930 nano-grams of betacellulin whereas the amount of EGF that your salivary glands secrete is only 35.3 ng per day. The binding affinity of betacellulin to the EGF receptor is greater than that for EGF; consequently betacellulin can displace EGF from the EGF receptor. The amount of betacellulin that you get from drinking even a single cup of milk (457 nanograms) has the capacity to stimulate the EGF receptor 10 times more than what normally would occur during a 24 hour period from EGF in saliva.
Over the past couple of days I’ve received a dozen or so emails and comments asking what I thought about this newsletter. My reaction to it is colored a little by the fact that I don’t drink much milk. Unlike my bride, I don’t drink cream in my coffee, and I don’t eat a whole lot of cheese. So, if I found out that milk was a dangerous food, it wouldn’t change my life much to avoid it entirely. Others may not have the same perspective.
Over the course of the last year or so that Dr. Cordain has been working on this, he and I have corresponded frequently, and he has sent me a slew of papers on betacellulin, EGF, and the EGF receptor–the data is consistent with the information in his newsletter. This idea isn’t published by others; it’s his theory based on his considerable research on the material. And Dr. Cordain, his views on saturated fat notwithstanding, is a very smart guy, so it probably wouldn’t pay totally disregard him.
The idea that milk might not be an ideal has been around for a while. Anthropologist Marvin Harris wrote a number of years back that
This discovery was made fairly recently; it was only in the 1950s that it began to dawn on people that milk was not good for everybody. However, the normal situation was originally regarded as the abnormal one.
The idea also fits with the evolutionary template. In Paleolithic times and before man didn’t drink milk beyond infancy. In fact, after infancy humans developed lactose intolerance, the inability to break down milk sugar. As a consequence, drinking milk would cause GI problems due to this lack of ability to break down and absorb lactose. Since this lactose intolerance is a fairly common finding among adults the world over (there are some societies who have through mutation inactivated the genes responsible for lactose intolerance), it probably served some useful purpose in terms of our survival. Since the EGF receptor, which is normally activated by EGF from saliva, promotes gut healing and maintenance, maybe nature didn’t want its effects interfered with after childhood and used the development of lactose intolerance to achieve its ends.
A reader sent me an article from several years ago from the Townsend Letter on the failure of a couple of pharmaceutical companies to get approval to market their EGF receptor-blocking drugs, the most famous of which was ImClone, the maker of the drug Erbitux. If you recall, ImClone is the company headed by Sam Wachsal, who, when he got advance notice of the FDA denial, sold his stock before the word got out and the price cratered and advised friends, one of whom was Martha Stewart, to do the same. Dr. Wachsal is now doing time–Martha, as everyone knows, has already done hers. This article makes the EGF receptor blocking drugs appear not particularly effective, but since that time, the FDA has approved more trials.
As I wrote earlier, I’m not a milk drinker or a cheese eater, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I’ve got enough stuff to work on that really does interest me that I don’t want to spend more time than I already have tracking all this down. If someone else wants to do it, send me whatever you dig up, and I’ll be happy to post it.
Hello,
I have two questions. If you don’t have the info to answer, Dr. Eades, maybe someone else does. I will also look for the answers.
1) Is there any other food, ie meat, that is also high in betacellulin? If so, and if it’s evolutionarily acceptable, I’m not worried, as mother nature probably has some way of offsetting its effects.
2) Is there another substance that comes in milk, ie vitamin D, etc, that counteracts the effects of betacellulin in some way?
One problem I have with Cordain’s work is that he occasionally bases his conclusions on a theory, while mother nature has proven otherwise.
Example: “Betacellulin can stimulate cancer growth. Betacellulin is high in milk. Therefore, milk can stimulate cancer.”
While logically this sounds accurate, I again am wondering if mother nature has come up with some other sort of mechanism that counteracts betacellulin, so it’s not big deal in good quality raw milk products. A perfect example of this would be vitamin A and osteoporosis. It is my understanding that there has never been an association between cod liver oil or other foods naturally high in vitamin A AND vitamin D, and osteoporosis.
Anyway, your thoughts, or someone else’s, as always would be appreciated.
Daniel
I got someone else’s thoughts. I put them directly to Dr. Cordain (anonymously, of course), and here is his answer:
Hope this answers some of your questions.
Cheers–
MRE
I recently finished your LifePlan book so I’ve been low-carb for about a week with cheese being a main ingredient. Without cheese I’m not sure I could do this.
Since you don’t eat cheese I am curious to what your food consumption looks like. Could you post an example of what a day of eating would be like for you?
Also, what percent lean do you recommend for ground beef? Prior to reading your book I’ve been purchasing 93% lean but now I’m wondering 93% is necessary and maybe can fall back to 80%.
Thanks.
Okay, you asked for it.
Right now it is 2:35 PM where I sit. So far today I’ve consumed two chocolate chip cookies and three cups of Cafe Americano black. I had to run to a meeting early this morning. There was a plate of cookies in the meeting room, so I indulged. I always drink several cups of Cafe Americano daily.
Granted, today isn’t a typical day. A typical day would go like this.
Breakfast:
Three eggs scrambled with crumbled bacon and green chiles. (I have an attentive wife; were this left up to me, who knows what I would eat)
Two strips of bacon
a couple of slices of tomato or sometimes avocado if the tomatoes aren’t good.
Lunch
A rotisserie chicken thigh, drumstick and wing. (A store near us sells pretty good ones–I usually pick it up when I go out to get the mail)
More tomatoes or avocados. Sometimes pickled asparagus, which I love.
Dinner
A steak or lamb chops or ribs.
Tomatoes
Grilled asparagus
A glass (or two) of red wine
A piece of dark chocolate for dessert.
Multiple cups of Cafe Americano throughout the day; black and full strength until about 5 PM, then switch to decaf.
That’s pretty much a standard day at the Eades house.
Tonight we’re entertaining. We’re having marinated flank steak, butternut squash soup, a green salad, celeriac (made like mashed potatoes), grilled asparagus, and an apple crostinni (made with a low-carb crust–we only have this when we’re entertaining) for dessert. And, of course, red wine.
Best–
MRE
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Cordain’s article. I avoid milk and grain products 95% of the time and always enjoy seeing the scientific rationale for why certain foods are not good for humans. I’ve come to view milk as a hormone delivery system for the species that it comes from – cow’s milk is for cows, human milk is for humans, and soy milk is for soybeans. I find great irony that no one I know would drink a glass of chilled human breast milk, though most will drink a glass of cow’s milk in an instant.
I pretty much agree with you except I like comedian Lewis Black’s riff on soy milk. He says
Cheers–
MRE
Dr Eades,
I worked through the abstracts of approx refs 16-36. Interestingly both skim milk and yoghurt appear protective in several of the studies cited. I had assumed the betacellulin would be in the aqueous fraction of milk but may be wrong on this.
I’ve always been a little cautious with Prof Cordain’s work due to his blind spot on the discredited saturated fat/cholesterol hypothesis. I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water though, as he does appear to be an intelligent person. I do consume dairy and doubt I’ll stop on the basis of this set of references. The case against grains, to which I believe he subscribes, seems much more solid.
Peter
Based on my many conversations with Dr. Cordain, he believes that the negative effects of milk and wheat are additive.
If I were going to avoid one, it would be the wheat.
Cheers–
MRE
I doubt that nomadic man took much time to suckle their prey before killing it, so it makes sense that milk could be bad for us.
Already, low-carbing forbids me to eat cereal so that’s removed any dog I had in the fight, either.
On another subject, I was getting a Buffallo burger at my work cafeteria and I noticed a sign was placed above the fryer that’s next to the grill. As a low-carber, I never get the fries, but today I decided to splurge because the sign read that they now use Wesson Smart Oil in the fryer. This Wesson Smart Oil is supposed to be sans trans-fats.
I haven’t had fries in quite some time, but they seemed to be just as good as they were before. Actually, they seemed a little better but that was probably because I was focused on the joy of not having trans-fats attached to them.
It wasn’t until after I was walking back from the cafeteria that I became nervous. With all the half-truths in the food industry, I decided to try and look up information about this new, Wesson Smart Oil.
This is what I found:
Wesson Crystal Smart Choice Cottonseed Canola Oil is non-hydrogenated cooking oil that has zero grams of Trans fat per serving.
Any ideas on the validity of those statements?
There are two kinds of hydrogentation. The first one is the kind we’re all familiar with, where a polyunsaturated fat is purposefully converted to a trans fat. This is the kind that requires mentioning on the label. The second kind is when the conversion to a trans fat occurs as a ‘side effect’ of some other process. For example, canola oil has a wretched smell in its native state and requires deodorization to be fit for selling. This deodorization process creates trans fats. These trans fats are not reflected on the label. For this reason, I avoid canola oil or foods made with it if I can.
Cheers–
D
I’ve pretty much given up milk because of the high sugar content. I occationally have plain yogurt as a treat, and I *love* cheese. I love it so much that I can’t keep it in the house or I would ruin my diet by overeating it (same with nuts). Cream in coffee is an occational treat, but I usually just drink it black.
I used the Carb Countdown milk for a while until Safeway stopped carrying it. I now get soy milk sweetened with Splenda from a health food store, though I don’t use it often.
My calcium consumption is horrid due to the lack of dairy products. I have to take a supplement just to get the minimum requirements each day.
Sir…thanks as always yr posts on a wide variety.
Shall not saw owt about Enron etc as the one i sent vis Jeb Bush expressed most of what i feel about human idiocy in its myriad forms.
So you told the milling throng what yee eat; now what about how you exercise, please ?
Merry Chrimble to you
Sinc.
I do a 20 minute Slow Burn workout to failure, and I mean to failure, every 5-7 days. And I walk 18 holes of golf a couple of times per week.
That’s it.
Merry Chrimble to you and yours.
MRE
I showed my boyfriend this blog, along with Dr. Cordain’s newsletter, because he drinks a lot of skim milk. He does not LC, by the way.
I gave him the overview, but he said he didn’t think he would read the information. He said that he was basing his decision on what he had observed in his own family. He, his brother and his mother all drink a lot of milk, and he says that because none of them has had bad bone breaks, that he believes it is due to the milk consumption.
After reading your PP Lifeplan, I stopped taking additional calcium supplements. I do take a multivitamin, which contains 500mg of calcium. I am a little bit worried about this change, since my mother has osteoporosis, and I am a small-framed Caucasian woman.
What is your stand on calcium needs, and the best way to meet those needs?
Hi Cathy–
Thanks for your boyfriend’s brilliant analysis of the milk situation. I have several friends who smoke, and none of them have lung cancer, so I guess, by your boyfriend’s reckoning, smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.
Too many people focus on calcium. It takes four things to make strong bones: protein, calcium, magnesium and vitamin D. Of the four, only calcium has a lobby, i.e. the dairy industry. Paleolithic man didn’t consume a whole lot of calcium but got plenty of the other three and had bones that were 11% stronger than ours.
Best–
MRE
I wonder if smaller animals, like goats, have less betacellulin in their milk. Seems like if you’re going to grow a big animal you’d need to give them much more growth factors. Maybe rats milk would be ideal! Hard to milk a rat though.
I’m pretty much milk free, except for the occassional splurge and I do love to make goat milk kefir and have 1/2 a cup. I’m going to switch over to coconut milk though and hope my kefir making cultures survive.
Hi Nancy–
I don’t have a clue as to the betacellulin contents of different milks. My guess is that it has no correlation to the size of the animal.
Best–
MRE
This does added emphasis on why one should consider using the “Purist” approach outlined in Protein Power Lifeplan. I’ve not touched milk since starting on your diet 6+ years ago, however, I’ve eaten plenty of cheese. Unfortunately it is one of my favorite foods. The only thing that holds out a little hope for me is that betacellulin is much lower in sheep’s and cow’s milk? I don’t get mozzarella di buffala very often due both to the price as well as the ubiquitously high salt content. And I’ve never had (or seen at a local store) any dairy from camels or yaks. I’m just curious as to the concentrations within the different animals that produce dairy that we consume…
Hi Levi–
I don’t have any idea as to the betacellulin concentrations in milk from different species.
Sorry.
Best–
MRE
Dr.Eades, red wine and chocolate?! daily?! did i miss that part in your books! but seriously, aren’t you concerned about the alcohol effecting sleep, acting as a neurotoxin or upsetting hormone balance? mercola makes a big deal about it and says no amount is safe. anyway, in reading past blogs you mentioned someday you would write the dreaded ‘meat only diet’ entry which would bring wrath upon you, but so far I’ve not seen it. any updates on that?
Hi Susan–
A little bit of dark semi-sweet chocolate and a single glass of red wine. Alcohol doesn’t affect my sleep–unless I overindulge, which I try not to do too often–and I’m not a believer in the idea that it (in moderate doses) is a neurotoxin. The vast majority of medical studies show that moderate alcohol consumption improves health and longevity. And since I want to improve my health and live longer, I consume moderate amounts of alcohol. In fact as I type these words I’ve got a single malt scotch on the rocks beside my laptop that I’m sipping on. Mmmmm.
Cheers–
MRE
So does that mean I should stop putting whey powder in my shakes? Maybe I should switch to egg white protein…
Hi cciele–
I don’t think I would make that switch just yet. Let me find out if betacellulin is even in whey.
MRE
More on milk.
I forwarded Dr. Cordain’s comments to a colleague of mine, who is a passionate supporter of raw milk consumption, perhaps the most passionate I’ve met, as well as quite knowledgeable on the subject.
Her contention is that these ideas, like others of Cordain’s, are just that. Ideas. Hypotheses. While you can logically conclude the betacellulin in milk should be a problem, no epidemiological studies of people consuming raw and especially cultured milk products have ever shown it to actually do what Cordain says it should. She contends instead that, if anything, they would prove how healthy raw milk consumption is for people, even though it’s high in betacellulin.
In other words, while she couldn’t argue with his facts, her proof was in the pudding…so to speak.
This goes back to my original thought that maybe there’s something else in raw milk that somehow diminishes the negative effects betacellulin might have. If there wasn’t populations like the Maasai, would be getting tons of cancer wouldn’t they??
More comments please,
Daniel Chong
Hi Daniel–
I’m going to post your comment and let others comment. I don’t know the answers, and as I wrote earlier, I don’t care enough (primarily because I don’t drink milk–raw or otherwise–and I don’t eat much cheese) to spend a lot of time on it.
Cheers–
MRE
More interesting work from Prof. Cordain. It would be nice to get some idea what the quantitative “hazards of dairy” are, in terms of absolute risk of death by cancer. Is dairy the “big hitter” in terms the cancers he mentions, or is the increased risk small compared to other factors? I’m not a big dairy eater either, but I do like cheese (got some truffle brie waiting to go on my grass-fed ribeye for dinner tonight). In terms of making the decision of whether or not to eat my cheese this evening, there’s a big difference in whether the added cancer risk is 10%, or 0.1%.
I also get the distinct impression that this is a circumstantial argument in support of a hypothesis whose truth as been assumed. If you have a strong belief in the boogeyman, then every misplaced sock or closet door found slightly askew will be seen as further evidence supporting your belief. Correspondingly, if you have strong belief that some particular food or nutrient is bad (whether it’s dairy, saturated fat, grain, etc.), you can probably find supporting circumstantial evidence, given the complexity of biological systems such as humans. This kind of flawed scientific reasoning is precisely why enormous resources are currently being wasted on cholesterol research and treatment.
Dave
Hi Dave–
I wouldn’t say it is “flawed scientific reasoning.” I would say that it is an hypothesis based on available information that bears testing out. I don’t know that I–were I a milk drinker–change my diet entirely based on this hypothesis, but I do think it should be pursued. Dr. Cordain is planning on performing some follow-up studies on human subjects to see how much betacellulin actually makes it into the circulation.
I hope the truffle brie laced grass-fed ribeye was good.
Best–
MRE
Sorry – I wasn’t clear on my point of contention. I agree that the hypothesis is interesting and should be pursued. The follow-up studies you mentioned are precisely what’s needed.
I do think that Prof. Cordain overstated things in the article’s title “Hazards of Milk”, as well as the subtitle “Another reason not to drink your milk.” It smacks of episodes like the big scare about salt, eggs, etc. I also think it’s important to not get sucked into the idea that “food X contains component Y; Y, when taken in isolation, has effect Z; therefore food X has effect Z.” And again, quoting studies on the correlation of dairy intake and various cancers is fine, but some quantitative assessment of risk is called for. There’s a correlation between breathing and cancer as well, but of course there’s also some risk involved in giving up breathing.
Beyond that, the article is well thought through, and Cordain’s conclusion strikes a more reasonable note: “Milk, indeed, may not be good for everybody, particularly cancer patients or those with a family history of cancer.” It’s more in line with the level of evidence, and at least speaks a little bit to the level of risk.
And, yes, my grass-fed ribeye and brie was fantastic. Hopefully the grass-fed wholesomeness in the steak offset whatever incremental cancer risk was in the cheese. 🙂
Humorous side note: when we have guests and serve this kind of menu (including aforementioned steak with cheese sauce, Southern greens, mashed celeriac, and home-made sugar-free ice cream), we get comments like “I couldn’t eat this all of the time, I’d weigh a ton!” Of course, then I have to tell them that I lost 70 lbs. eating precisely in this manner. More often than not my guests look at me like I need (or am on) medication. I’ve tempted a few, however, to take the plunge, and surprise surprise, they too lost weight, kept it off, and felt better than they have in years.
Dave
Hi Dave–
What’s that old saying? Sell the sizzle, don’t sell the steak. I think that’s what Loren was doing with his title: selling the sizzle.
I agree with your comment 100%. And I also enjoy having people to dinner at our house and fixing (having MD fix) a load of low-carb food that everyone swoons over. As you’ve observed, they always say something along the lines of, if I ate this way all the time, I’d weight 300 pounds. We tell them that we do eat this way all the time, and, in fact, we’ve written multiple books about it. Sadly, it still doesn’t register with everyone. We still have folks that tell us, it’s great to eat like this, but I just couldn’t give up my bread (or pasta or cereal or fill in the blank with some other high-carb food). I’m always flabbergasted. But as Simon, one of my frequent commenters, would say: There’s n’owt queer as folk.
Cheers–
MRE
I’d love to hear more about Dave’s sugar-free homemade ice cream. I make ice cream, too (with raw milk, cream, & egg yolks), but haven’t had much luck without some sort of sugar (too grainy, icy, takes too long to freeze, etc.). I cut back on most recipe’s sugar amounts, but I’d love to get that to zero and still keep the creamy, smooth texture.
Cheers,
Anna
Hi Anna–
Maybe Dave will let us in on his secret. I asked MD how she makes hers so smooth and creamy, and she told me that she uses polydextrose to replace some of the bulk of the sugar.
Happy New Year–
MRE
Hi Anna. I replace the sugar with erythritol, a sugar alcohol. I like it because it doesn’t cause GI distress like some other sugar alcohols (for our family, at least). Texture-wise, it’s pretty close to the “real thing”, though there is a slight difference in taste compared to sugar.
Erythritol has about 75% the sweetness of of sugar, so I usually boost it with some sucralose and/or stevia. Lately I’ve also been throwing in a few teaspoons of inulin, which seems to add some extra creaminess.
Dave
There you have it from the horse’s mouth.
MRE
A google search using “betacellulin in whey” has convinced me that betacellulin in milk is mainly in the whey fraction.
Hi athelstan–
I’ll check with Loren the next time I talk to him and get the definitive answer.
Best–
MRE
Hello!
My wife is suffering from infertility because of endometriosis in her reproductive system. I have read somewhere on the internet that milk especially cow milk is suspected to cause infertility. I must confess my wife is fond of milk – in fact she enjoys having a glass of milk before she leaves for school where she’s a teacher. We are from India and we obtain our milk from the government dairy – that are pasteurised, safe and is delivered in pouch.
Now could you substantiate this theory as my wife is quite upset when I told her that she needs to give up on her milk. Milk is a rich source of vitamin and other essential minerals. She is keeping good health without being obese at all. Its only her infertility problem that comes in the way of her having her own baby and she feels she is not complete as a woman as such. So I appeal to anyone of the esteemed and learned faternity to throw light on this subject. Thank you in anticipation.
Somik
Hi Somik–
I have never heard the theory that milk causes infertility, so I can’t really comment. If anything in milk would be problematic, it would be the hormones given the cows to make them produce more milk. If she used organic, non-hormone milk, she shouldn’t have a problem from the milk. The pasteurization doesn’t get rid of the hormones, so you’ve got to make sure it’s hormone free, not just pasteurized.
Best–
MRE
After weaning, no animal drinks milk.
As far as I know, humans started drinking milk around 8,000 years ago, which is very little time on an evolutionary time basis.
Many people around the world suffer from lactose intolerance, which means that a large number of people didn’t develop the necessary genetic adaptations to this type of food.
There are some studies (mainly in Northern Europe) that show a correlation between cow’s milk and Type 1 Diabetes.
There’s also some animal data and some human interventions showing a possible connection between some proteins in bovine milk and Reumathoid Arthritis.
When it comes to food allergies, casein is one of the top proteins to be pointed out. And cow’s milk protein is 80% casein and 20% whey (human milk proteins is 20% casein and 80% whey).
Being a high calcium food, high milk consumption can easly set the calcium/magnesium ratio to a dangerous level and studies have shown a reduction in plasma vitamin D levels after milk consumption (specially skimed milk). This is probably the reason that some studies have shown an increased risk of prostate cancer with a high milk diet.
All this and the fact that my chronic sinus and high mucus have almost completly disappeared after I stopped eating dairy products, leads me to conclude that cow’s milk is for small cows and human milk is for babies.
Nevertheless, there are some points to be made, when it regards to whey protein:
The whey fraction in milk is rich in betacellulin and it stimulates insulin to a grater extent than what is desirable (a small study has shown an increase in insulin resistance in a group of children that were fed a high milk diet as opposed to a high beef diet).
Nevertheless, whey is rich in glutamylcystine, a very stable and an easy to get inside the cell form of cysteine, which is a precursor of glutathione, and low glutathiione levels have been implicated in overtraining, cancer, Hepatitis, AIDS, Parkinson, Cystic Fibrosis and Sarcopenia (lost of muscle mass).
As much as 20 grs a day of whey protein concentrate appears to be enough to increase glutahione levels in healthy people, and that’s what I take everyday for the past 4 years.
Some studies have shown that whey protein is benefecial for people that suffer from low glutathione levels.
I think Dr. Cordain has a done a great job interpreting the research and this article should be published in a scientific journal, because, as far as I know, he’s the first scientist to talk about this.
I can provide scientific references to everything I said, except the mucus link.
P.S: Sorry for my lousy english, but I’m portuguese
Hi Pedro–
What lousy English? It’s perfect.
Great comment. I agree down the line, especially about the whey and glutamylcystine, which is why whey is such an immune enhancer.
Thanks for writing.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr Eades,
Any follow up info on the whether betacellulin is mostly in the whey portion of milk? I don’t drink milk but I do consume protien supplements such as whey and casein, so I’d like to know.
Thanks
Hi Bryan–
I’m not really an expert on betacellulin. As I understand it, betacellulin is primarily in the whey portion of milk. You should ask this question of Loren Cordain, who is working a lot with betacellin these days.
Cheers–
MRE
This is enlightening.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/1/24/nonfat-milk-linked-to-prostate-cancer.aspx
enlightening in some ways, but not others. There is an enormous amount of evidence suggesting milk is beneficial in so many ways, I always am amazed at the bad rap it gets.
In the latest research it is the ONLY food that protects against metabolic syndrome/diabetes. Neither fruit, vegetables, nor fish provided any benefit – which is extroadinary.
”When Steffen and colleagues analyzed the results by specific foods, they found that meat, fried foods and diet soda were all significantly associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome, but consumption of dairy products was beneficial’.
”Fried foods and soda were also found to present the same dangers, while a diet based on vegetables, fruit, and fish did not show advantageous effects on such a condition. However, dairy products (my insert, that is PASTEURIZED dairy) proved to have some benefits”.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=82742&m=1FNU123&c=mdwytyoturbjxro
”Elwood and co-workers report that a daily pint of milk (that is, standard PASTEURIZED milk) was associated with a 62 per cent risk reduction, while regularly intake of other dairy produce reduced the risk by 56 per cent.”
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=78126&m=1FNE712&c=mdwytyoturbjxro
Sure, its probably much better if milk is fermented and raw – and certainly better if it comes from grass-fed cows, but that does not preclude normal, pasteurized milk being health beneficial. The evidence Dr Mercola refers to suggests that full cream milk (that is, pasteurised, full-cream milk) protects against prostate cancer, whereas pasteurized skimmed milk increases the risk of prostate cancer. The logical conclusion from this is as follows:
1. Pasteurization per se has little or no discernible effect on the cancer-protective abilities of full cream milk.
2. The protective effect of milk fat is more likely related to its relationship with the fat-soluble vitamins, A,D, E and K.
Sure, the lack of vitamin D in non-fat or skimmed milk may adversely affect the bioavailability of calcium, which may have an adverse effect on protecting against prostate cancer. But its an indirect effect.
Likewise vitamin A can protect against cancer – eg, bladder cancer, and vitamin K has seriously good cardio-protective capabilities – albeit I will stick to parsely or spinach as my preferred source.
In any event, it suggests Mary Enig might have been right all along in promoting some measure of saturated fats, including milk fat – albeit for other reasons (the destruction of important milk enzymes) she is strongly pro RAW milk.
And there are the obvious benefits of whey and other milk proteins, and probiotic, fermented milks. And as far back as 1993, Japanese researcher Ariyoshi, Y. identified angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in milk proteins.
Time and space does not permit to expand further, but suffice to say, there is more to milk than meets the eye. This obsession in some quarters with raw milk – for all its probable benefits, should not diminish from the value of plain, ordinary pasteurized milk and dairy products.
Pete Granger
Australia