What’s Wrong with Cows Milk?

The better question is what’s right with cow's milk. Cow’s milk was designed for baby cows.  Mammals are meant to breast-feed from their mothers. Each mammal has a certain period that they nurse and then wean their young. 

Many humans continue to breastfeed their entire lives from a nonhuman mammal. With rare exceptions, other than humans, mammal do not breast-feed from other species. In addition, other mammal do not breastfeeds their entire life. Only humans never wean. Humans have chosen to drink breast milk from other mammals through adulthood. This is a choice and not a nutritional need. 

Most people become lactose intolerant after they wean. Some that continue to ingest dairy are  able to keep the enzyme, lactase, to some degree for some time. But many children and adults as they age lose much of the enzyme  which helps break down lactose, the sugar in milk. 

A person who is unable to break down the sugar often has GI distress. This may manifest as diarrhea, gassiness, vomiting or even constipation. Avoiding all dairy (lactose) is the cure. It may easily be diagnosed by avoiding dairy for 3 weeks and observing for symptoms. If the symptoms resolve, the diagnosis is made. You may want to challenge with dairy to observe for recurrence of symptoms. The lifelong cure for lactose intolerance is avoiding lactose. 

Cow's milk is perfect for a baby calf who is going to become full grown at a year or two of life. It is not the perfect food for a growing human. The breastmilk of each mammal is specific for the needs of the young of that animal. A human is not meant to grow at the same rate as a cow. The protein and fat content of human breast milk and cow's milk are quite different.

Cows milk formulas must be modified to be more similar to human breast milk. Currently after the first year of life conventional recommendations are for human children to drink cows milk from one year of age on. But the recommendation for cows milk for human consumption is not based in sound science.

Frank Oski is a well known and respected pediatrician who authored a time honored pediatric textbook. He also wrote a less known book “Dont drink your milk” which was copywritten in 1983. In this text the famous pediatrician shares his concerns about drinking cows milk on human health. An excerpt from the beginning of the book:

"When my youngest daughter was in the second

grade she came home one afternoon perplexed and

teary-eyed. She had failed to get a perfect grade on

her daily reading quiz. We reviewed the questions together. The quiz contained three questions designed

to test reading comprehension and requiring simple

"yes" and "no" answers.

Here were the test questions:

"Do you think a rabbit could make a mitten?"

"Can a fish hop like a rabbit?" “Should all boys and girls have milk?"

To all three she had answered "no." The teacher

had found her answer to the one about milk unacceptable and graded it as incorrect. Yet my daughter had been taught at home that people don't need cow milk

and, in fact, that for many people it was actually

harmful to their health. This information came as a

surprise to her teacher who, I suspect, still believes

I'm living on the lunatic fringe of society.

Being against cow milk is equated with being

un-American. It is easy to understand this view,

which is inspired mainly by the advertising practices

and political pressure of the American dairy industry.

For many of us, our earliest memories of childhood

include our mother's plea, "Hurry up and finish your

milk!" We have all been exposed to subtle endorsements of cow milk like that reading test given to my daughter and her fellow second graders, and we can

all recite the industry's familiar slogans and jingles.”

He continues:

“But at last a growing number of physicians, private citizens and even the Federal Trade Commission

are beginning to re-examine these long standing and

deeply ingrained beliefs in the virtue of cow milk. And

even Richard Nixon and John Connally came to realize that cow milk may not be good for you.

The fact is: the drinking of cow milk has been

linked to iron-deficiency anemia in infants and children; it has been named as the cause of cramps and

diarrhea in much of the world's population, and the

cause of multiple forms of allergy as well; and the

possibility has been raised that it may play a central

role in the origins of atherosclerosis and heart attacks.

Among physicians, so much concern has been

voiced about the potential hazards of cow milk that

the Committee on Nutrition of the prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics, the institutional voice of

practicing pediatricians, released a report entitled,

"Should Milk Drinking by Children Be Discouraged?"

Although the Academy's answer to this question has

(as of this writing) been a qualified "maybe," the fact

that the question was raised at all is testimony to the

growing concern about this product, which for so

long was viewed as sacred as the proverbial goodness

of mother and apple pie.”

Oski’s book was released almost 40 years ago. These are not new concerns. But there is a powerful industry suppressing and denying these health concerns. The milk industry supported by the USDA wants you to view milk as healthful and the only way to get calcium. Neither of the views are true. 

Cows milk is touted for its high calcium content. Calcium is crucial, but milk is not the best source for human absorption. Calcium is key for healthy bones. Getting enough calcium from childhood through adulthood helps build bones up and then helps slow the loss of bone as we age. It’s not clear, though, that we need as much calcium as is generally recommended, and it’s less clear that dairy products are really even a good source of calcium for most people. In fact mounting evidence supports that despite its high calcium content, dairy does not create a positive calcium balance in humans. 

Good, non-dairy sources of calcium include collards, bok choy, fortified plant based milk, and baked beans. Leafy green vegetables and broccoli are high in calcium and also great sources of vitaminK, another key nutrient for bone health. Soy beans are naturally loaded with calcium. Soy products and other legumes also supply calcium. There are now a variety of supplemented plant based milks and dairy substitutes that are both tasty and nutritions

If taking supplements, both calcium and vitamin D  are a better choice than taking calcium alone. Vitamin D plays a key role along with calcium in boosting bone health. With lack of outdoor time and sun exposure, increasing numbers of children and adults are vitamin D deficient. 

Vitamin D intake is recommended starting in newborns. The dosing for newborns and infants is 400 IU daily. The recommendations for healthy children vary but are generally 600 IU until the teenage years.  600 IU to 1000IU is recommended for adolescents. Most adult doctors recommend 1000 IU a day for otherwise healthy individuals. Many physicians are recommending patients consider taking an extra supplement to get  up to 2,000 IU per day. Some people may need 3,000 or 4,000 IU per day for adequate blood levels, particularly if they have darker skin, spend winters in the northern U.S., or have little exposure to direct sunlight. If you have concerns about your or your child’s intake ask your physician to order a blood test for vitamin D. 

Help your kids build strong bones. Youth and young adulthood is the period when bones build up to their peak strength. Regular exercise, especially weight-bearing exercise such as walking or jogging, is an essential part of building and maintaining strong bones. Weight bearing exercise along with  adequate calcium, and adequate vitamin D, can help them keep strong bones through all their adult years.

High dairy intake can increase the risk of prostate cancer and  ovarian cancer. Dairy products are often  high in artery clogging saturated fat. Cow's milk is also high in retinol (vitamin A). Retinol  at high levels can paradoxically weaken bones. Be careful about getting too much retinol (vitamin A) which may be in  energy bars, and breakfast cereals in addition to cows milk. Many multivitamin makers have removed much or all retinol and replaced it with beta-carotene, which does not harm bones.

As is the concern with all breast milks, harmful substances can be concentrated in cows breast milk.  This is why human mothers are encouraged to eat healthy, get fresh air and avoid medications or harmful chemicals. Unfortunately very few cow mothers are treated in this way.

Of concern is what unsafe or unwelcome chemicals are in cows milk. Antibiotics, growth hormones and steroids given to the animal, are all found in the breast milk. The pesticides on the grains and feed ingested by the cow are concentrated in the breast milk. We then have the cumulative impact of ingesting pesticides on our own food and then ingesting the milk of animals that have concentrated these pesticides.

In addition there are high levels of stress hormones created by the cows concentrated in their breastmilk. Dairy cows cows are confined much of their lives and live in stressful conditions. But even the cows that are on small farms and have open fields to rome are stressed as their calves are removed from them within hours of birth.  We ingest these stress hormones when we drink their milk. 

In our chaotic world where we are making increased stress hormones in our own bodies, we are also ingesting them in our food. Is it any  wonder why we have increasing stress induced disease states? Heart disease, ADD, anxiety and depression, even cancers are related to chronic stress  and increased stress hormones.

Lastly but certainly not least,  are the animal welfare concerns. Even on the family dairy farm who pride themselves on good treatment of their animals, these animals do not live a long and full life. The average lifespan of dairy cows in the United States today is four to six years. A natural life expectancy can be up to 30  years. It is not sustainable for farms to continue to care for cows that are no longer giving milk. When they are no longer supplying milk, they are usually sold for meat. 

Dairy takes a baby cow’s breast milk for human consumption. Instead of nursing their young, dairy cows are hooked up most of their lives to machines to supply their breast milk to humans.  Most calves are killed within a few weeks of life. Those that are female on dairy farms may become dairy cows and then are disposed of once they are no longer lactating. The end result of most cows on a dairy farm is slaughter.

In the final balance the negatives with dairy far outweigh any positive. There are much healthier ways to get adequate protein, fat and calcium. Explore the plant kingdom and enjoy a vast variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, nuts and seeds.