THE MILK LETTER : A MESSAGE TO MY PATIENTS
Robert M. Kradjian, MD
Breast Surgery Chief Division of General Surgery,
Seton Medical Centre #302 - 1800 Sullivan Ave.
Daly City, CA 94015 USA
www.NotMilk.com
"MILK" Just the word itself sounds comforting! "How about a nice cup of
hot milk?" The last time you heard that question it was from someone who
cared for you--and you appreciated their effort.
The entire matter of food and especially that of milk is surrounded with
emotional and cultural importance. Milk was our very first food. If we
were fortunate it was our mother's milk. A loving link, given and taken.
It was the only path to survival. If not mother's milk it was cow's milk
or soy milk "formula"--rarely it was goat, camel or water buffalo milk.
Now, we are a nation of milk drinkers. Nearly all of us. Infants, the
young, adolescents, adults and even the aged. We drink dozens or even
several hundred gallons a year and add to that many pounds of "dairy
products" such as cheese, butter, and yogurt.
Can there be anything wrong with this? We see reassuring images of
healthy, beautiful people on our television screens and hear messages
that assure us that, "Milk is good for your body." Our dieticians insist
that: "You've got to have milk, or where will you get your calcium?"
School lunches always include milk and nearly every hospital meal will
have milk added. And if that isn't enough, our nutritionists told us for
years that dairy products make up an "essential food group." Industry
spokesmen made sure that colourful charts proclaiming the necessity of
milk and other essential nutrients were made available at no cost for
schools. Cow's milk became "normal."
You may be surprised to learn that most of the human beings that live on
planet Earth today do not drink or use cow's milk. Further, most of them
can't drink milk because it makes them ill.
There are students of human nutrition who are not supportive of milk use
for adults. Here is a quotation from the March/April 1991 Utne Reader:
If you really want to play it safe, you may decide to join the growing
number of Americans who are eliminating dairy products from their diets
altogether. Although this sounds radical to those of us weaned on milk
and the five basic food groups, it is eminently viable. Indeed, of all
the mammals, only humans--and then only a minority, principally
Caucasians--continue to drink milk beyond babyhood.
Who is right? Why the confusion? Where best to get our answers? Can we
trust milk industry spokesmen? Can you trust any industry spokesmen? Are
nutritionists up to date or are they simply repeating what their
professors learned years ago? What about the new voices urging caution?
I believe that there are three reliable sources of information. The
first, and probably the best, is a study of nature. The second is to
study the history of our own species. Finally we need to look at the
world's scientific literature on the subject of milk.
Let's look at the scientific literature first. From 1988 to 1993 there
were over 2,700 articles dealing with milk recorded in the 'Medicine'
archives. Fifteen hundred of theses had milk as the main focus of the
article. There is no lack of scientific information on this subject. I
reviewed over 500 of the 1,500 articles, discarding articles that dealt
exclusively with animals, esoteric research and inconclusive studies.
How would I summarize the articles? They were only slightly less than
horrifying. First of all, none of the authors spoke of cow's milk as an
excellent food, free of side effects and the 'perfect food' as we have
been led to believe by the industry. The main focus of the published
reports seems to be on intestinal colic, intestinal irritation,
intestinal bleeding, anemia, allergic reactions in infants and children
as well as infections such as salmonella. More ominous is the fear of
viral infection with bovine leukemia virus or an AIDS-like virus as well
as concern for childhood diabetes. Contamination of milk by blood and
white (pus) cells as well as a variety of chemicals and insecticides was
also discussed. Among children the problems were allergy, ear and
tonsillar infections, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, colic and
childhood diabetes. In adults the problems seemed centered more around
heart disease and arthritis, allergy, sinusitis, and the more serious
questions of leukemia, lymphoma and cancer.
I think that an answer can also be found in a consideration of what
occurs in nature & what happens with free living mammals and what
happens with human groups living in close to a natural state as 'hunter-
gatherers'.
Our paleolithic ancestors are another crucial and interesting group to
study. Here we are limited to speculation and indirect evidences, but
the bony remains available for our study are remarkable. There is no
doubt whatever that these skeletal remains reflect great strength,
muscularity (the size of the muscular insertions show this), and total
absence of advanced osteoporosis. And if you feel that these people are
not important for us to study, consider that today our genes are
programming our bodies in almost exactly the same way as our ancestors
of 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
WHAT IS MILK?
Milk is a maternal lactating secretion, a short term nutrient for new-
borns. Nothing more, nothing less. Invariably, the mother of any mammal
will provide her milk for a short period of time immediately after
birth. When the time comes for 'weaning', the young offspring is
introduced to the proper food for that species of mammal. A familiar
example is that of a puppy. The mother nurses the pup for just a few
weeks and then rejects the young animal and teaches it to eat solid
food. Nursing is provided by nature only for the very youngest of
mammals. Of course, it is not possible for animals living in a natural
state to continue with the drinking of milk after weaning.
IS ALL MILK THE SAME?
Then there is the matter of where we get our milk. We have settled on
the cow because of its docile nature, its size, and its abundant milk
supply. Somehow this choice seems 'normal' and blessed by nature, our
culture, and our customs. But is it natural? Is it wise to drink the
milk of another species of mammal?
Consider for a moment, if it was possible, to drink the milk of a mammal
other than a cow, let's say a rat. Or perhaps the milk of a dog would be
more to your liking. Possibly some horse milk or cat milk. Do you get
the idea? Well, I'm not serious about this, except to suggest that human
milk is for human infants, dogs' milk is for pups, cows' milk is for
calves, cats' milk is for kittens, and so forth. Clearly, this is the
way nature intends it. Just use your own good judgement on this one.
Milk is not just milk. The milk of every species of mammal is unique and
specifically tailored to the requirements of that animal. For example,
cows' milk is very much richer in protein than human milk. Three to four
times as much. It has five to seven times the mineral content. However,
it is markedly deficient in essential fatty acids when compared to human
mothers' milk. Mothers' milk has six to ten times as much of the
essential fatty acids, especially linoleic acid. (Incidentally, skimmed
cow's milk has no linoleic acid). It simply is not designed for humans.
Food is not just food, and milk is not just milk. It is not only the
proper amount of food but the proper qualitative composition that is
critical for the very best in health and growth. Biochemists and
physiologists -and rarely medical doctors - are gradually learning that
foods contain the crucial elements that allow a particular species to
develop its unique specializations.
Clearly, our specialization is for advanced neurological development and
delicate neuromuscular control. We do not have much need of massive
skeletal growth or huge muscle groups as does a calf. Think of the
difference between the demands make on the human hand and the demands on
a cow's hoof. Human new-borns specifically need critical material for
their brains, spinal cord and nerves.
Can mother's milk increase intelligence? It seems that it can. In a
remarkable study published in Lancet during 1992 (Vol. 339, p. 261-4), a
group of British workers randomly placed premature infants into two
groups. One group received a proper formula, the other group received
human breast milk. Both fluids were given by stomach tube. These
children were followed up for over 10 years. In intelligence testing,
the human milk children averaged 10 IQ points higher! Well, why not? Why
wouldn't the correct building blocks for the rapidly maturing and
growing brain have a positive effect?
In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1982) Ralph Holman
described an infant who developed profound neurological disease while
being nourished by intravenous fluids only. The fluids used contained
only linoleic acid -just one of the essential fatty acids. When the
other, alpha linoleic acid, was added to the intravenous fluids the
neurological disorders cleared.
In the same journal five years later Bjerve, Mostad and Thoresen,
working in Norway found exactly the same problem in adult patients on
long term gastric tube feeding.
In 1930 Dr. G.O. Burr in Minnesota working with rats found that linoleic
acid deficiencies created a deficiency syndrome. Why is this mentioned?
In the early 1960s pediatricians found skin lesions in children fed
formulas without the same linoleic acid. Remembering the research, the
addition of the acid to the formula cured the problem. Essential fatty
acids are just that and cows' milk is markedly deficient in these when
compared to human milk.
WELL, AT LEAST COW'S MILK IS PURE
Or is it? Fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk
per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds! How was this
accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, hormones, forced feeding plans and
specialized breeding; that's how.
The latest high-tech onslaught on the poor cow is bovine growth hormone
or BGH. This genetically engineered drug is supposed to stimulate milk
production but, according to Monsanto, the hormone's manufacturer, does
not affect the milk or meat. There are three other manufacturers:
Upjohn, Eli Lilly, and American Cyanamid Company. Obviously, there have
been no long-term studies on the hormone's effect on the humans drinking
the milk. Other countries have banned BGH because of safety concerns.
One of the problems with adding molecules to a milk cows' body is that
the molecules usually come out in the milk. I don't know how you feel,
but I don't want to experiment with the ingestion of a growth hormone. A
related problem is that it causes a marked increase (50 to 70 per cent)
in mastitis. This, then, requires antibiotic therapy, and the residues
of the antibiotics appear in the milk. It seems that the public is
uneasy about this product and in one survey 43 per cent felt that growth
hormone treated milk represented a health risk. A vice president for
public policy at Monsanto was opposed to labelling for that reason, and
because the labelling would create an 'artificial distinction'. The
country is awash with milk as it is, we produce more milk than we can
consume. Let's not create storage costs and further taxpayer burdens,
because the law requires the USDA to buy any surplus of butter, cheese,
or non-fat dry milk at a support price set by Congress! In fiscal 1991,
the USDA spent $757 million on surplus butter, and one billion dollars a
year on average for price supports during the 1980s (Consumer Reports,
May 1992: 330-32).
Any lactating mammal excretes toxins through her milk. This includes
antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals and hormones. Also, all cows' milk
contains blood! The inspectors are simply asked to keep it under certain
limits. You may be horrified to learn that the USDA allows milk to
contain from one to one and a half million white blood cells per
millilitre. (That's only 1/30 of an ounce). If you don't already know
this, I'm sorry to tell you that another way to describe white cells
where they don't belong would be to call them pus cells. To get to the
point, is milk pure or is it a chemical, biological, and bacterial
cocktail? Finally, will the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protect
you? The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) tells us that the
FDA and the individual States are failing to protect the public from
drug residues in milk. Authorities test for only 4 of the 82 drugs in
dairy cows.
As you can imagine, the Milk Industry Foundation's spokesman claims it's
perfectly safe. Jerome Kozak says, "I still think that milk is the
safest product we have."
Other, perhaps less biased observers, have found the following: 38% of
milk samples in 10 cities were contaminated with sulfa drugs or other
antibiotics. (This from the Centre for Science in the Public Interest
and The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29, 1989).. A similar study in
Washington, DC found a 20 percent contamination rate (Nutrition Action
Healthletter, April 1990).
What's going on here? When the FDA tested milk, they found few problems.
However, they used very lax standards. When they used the same criteria,
the FDA data showed 51 percent of the milk samples showed drug traces.
Let's focus in on this because itÂ’s critical to our understanding of
the apparent discrepancies. The FDA uses a disk-assay method that can
detect only 2 of the 30 or so drugs found in milk. Also, the test
detects only at the relatively high level. A more powerful test called
the 'Charm II test' can detect drugs down to 5 parts per billion.
One nasty subject must be discussed. It seems that cows are forever
getting infections around the udder that require ointments and
antibiotics. An article from France tells us that when a cow receives
penicillin, that penicillin appears in the milk for from 4 to 7
milkings. Another study from the University of Nevada, Reno tells of
cells in 'mastic milk', milk from cows with infected udders. An
elaborate analysis of the cell fragments, employing cell cultures, flow
cytometric analysis , and a great deal of high tech stuff. Do you know
what the conclusion was? If the cow has mastitis, there is pus in the
milk. Sorry, itÂ’s in the study, all concealed with language such as
"macrophages containing many vacuoles and phagocytosed particles," etc.
IT GETS WORSE
Well, at least human mothers' milk is pure! Sorry. A huge study showed
that human breast milk in over 14,000 women had contamination by
pesticides! Further, it seems that the sources of the pesticides are
meat and--you guessed it--dairy products. Well, why not? These
pesticides are concentrated in fat and that's what's in these products.
(Of interest, a subgroup of lactating vegetarian mothers had only half
the levels of contamination).
A recent report showed an increased concentration of pesticides in the
breast tissue of women with breast cancer when compared to the tissue of
women with fibrocystic disease. Other articles in the standard medical
literature describe problems. Just scan these titles:
1.Cow's Milk as a Cause of Infantile Colic Breast-Fed Infants. Lancet 2
(1978): 437 2.Dietary Protein-Induced Colitis in Breast- Fed Infants, J.
Pediatr. I01 (1982): 906 3.The Question of the Elimination of Foreign
Protein in Women's Milk, J. Immunology 19 (1930): 15
There are many others. There are dozens of studies describing the prompt
appearance of cows' milk allergy in children being exclusively breast-
fed! The cows' milk allergens simply appear in the mother's milk and are
transmitted to the infant.
A committee on nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics reported
on the use of whole cows' milk in infancy (Pediatrics 1983: 72-253).
They were unable to provide any cogent reason why bovine milk should be
used before the first birthday yet continued to recommend its use!
Doctor Frank Oski from the Upstate Medical Centre Department of
Pediatrics, commenting on the recommendation, cited the problems of
acute gastrointestinal blood loss in infants, the lack of iron,
recurrent abdominal pain, milk-borne infections and contaminants, and
said:
Why give it at all - then or ever? In the face of uncertainty about many
of the potential dangers of whole bovine milk, it would seem prudent to
recommend that whole milk not be started until the answers are
available. Isn't it time for these uncontrolled experiments on human
nutrition to come to an end?
In the same issue of Pediatrics he further commented:
It is my thesis that whole milk should not be fed to the infant in the
first year of life because of its association with iron deficiency
anemia (milk is so deficient in iron that an infant would have to drink
an impossible 31 quarts a day to get the RDA of 15 mg), acute
gastrointiestinal bleeding, and various manifestations of food allergy.
I suggest that unmodified whole bovine milk should not be consumed after
infancy because of the problems of lactose intolerance, its contribution
to the genesis of atherosclerosis, and its possible link to other
diseases.
In late 1992 Dr. Benjamin Spock, possibly the best known pediatrician in
history, shocked the country when he articulated the same thoughts and
specified avoidance for the first two years of life. Here is his
quotation:
I want to pass on the word to parents that cows' milk from the carton
has definite faults for some babies. Human milk is the right one for
babies. A study comparing the incidence of allergy and colic in the
breast-fed infants of omnivorous and vegan mothers would be important. I
haven't found such a study; it would be both important and inexpensive.
And it will probably never be done. There is simply no academic or
economic profit involved.
OTHER PROBLEMS
Let's just mention the problems of bacterial contamination. Salmonella,
E. coli, and staphylococcal infections can be traced to milk. In the old
days tuberculosis was a major problem and some folks want to go back to
those times by insisting on raw milk on the basis that it's "natural."
This is insanity! A study from UCLA showed that over a third of all
cases of salmonella infection in California, 1980-1983 were traced to
raw milk. That'll be a way to revive good old brucellosis again and I
would fear leukemia, too. (More about that later). In England, and Wales
where raw milk is still consumed there have been outbreaks of milk-borne
diseases. The Journal of the American Medical Association (251: 483,
1984) reported a multi-state series of infections caused by Yersinia
enterocolitica in pasteurised whole milk. This is despite safety
precautions.
All parents dread juvenile diabetes for their children. A Canadian study
reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Mar. 1990,
describes a "...significant positive correlation between consumption of
unfermented milk protein and incidence of insulin dependent diabetes
mellitus in data from various countries. Conversely a possible negative
relationship is observed between breast-feeding at age 3 months and
diabetes risk.".
Another study from Finland found that diabetic children had higher
levels of serum antibodies to cowsÂ’ milk (Diabetes Research 7(3): 137-
140 March 1988). Here is a quotation from this study:
We infer that either the pattern of cows' milk consumption is altered in
children who will have insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or, their
immunological reactivity to proteins in cows' milk is enhanced, or the
permeability of their intestines to cows' milk protein is higher than
normal.
The April 18, 1992 British Medical Journal has a fascinating study
contrasting the difference in incidence of juvenile insulin dependent
diabetes in Pakistani children who have migrated to England. The
incidence is roughly 10 times greater in the English group compared to
children remaining in Pakistan! What caused this highly significant
increase? The authors said that "the diet was unchanged in Great
Britain." Do you believe that? Do you think that the availability of
milk, sugar and fat is the same in Pakistan as it is in England? That a
grocery store in England has the same products as food sources in
Pakistan? I don't believe that for a minute. Remember, we're not talking
here about adult onset, type II diabetes which all workers agree is
strongly linked to diet as well as to a genetic predisposition. This
study is a major blow to the "it's all in your genes" crowd. Type I
diabetes was always considered to be genetic or possibly viral, but now
this? So resistant are we to consider diet as causation that the authors
of the last article concluded that the cooler climate in England altered
viruses and caused the very real increase in diabetes! The first two
authors had the same reluctance top admit the obvious. The milk just may
have had something to do with the disease.
The latest in this remarkable list of reports, a New England Journal of
Medicine article (July 30, 1992), also reported in the Los Angeles
Times. This study comes from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto
and from Finnish researchers. In Finland there is "...the world's
highest rate of dairy product consumption and the world's highest rate
of insulin dependent diabetes. The disease strikes about 40 children out
of every 1,000 there contrasted with six to eight per 1,000 in the
United States.... Antibodies produced against the milk protein during
the first year of life, the researchers speculate, also attack and
destroy the pancreas in a so-called auto-immune reaction, producing
diabetes in people whose genetic makeup leaves them vulnerable." "...142
Finnish children with newly diagnosed diabetes. They found that every
one had at least eight times as many antibodies against the milk protein
as did healthy children, clear evidence that the children had a raging
auto immune disorder." The team has now expanded the study to 400
children and is starting a trial where 3,000 children will receive no
dairy products during the first nine months of life. "The study may take
10 years, but we'll get a definitive answer one way or the other,"
according to one of the researchers. I would caution them to be certain
that the breast feeding mothers use on cows' milk in their diets or the
results will be confounded by the transmission of the cows' milk protein
in the mother's breast milk.... Now what was the reaction from the
diabetes association? This is very interesting! Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer,
the president of the association says: "It does not mean that children
should stop drinking milk or that parents of diabetics should withdraw
dairy products. These are rich sources of good protein." (Emphasis
added) My God, it's the "good protein" that causes the problem! Do you
suspect that the dairy industry may have helped the American Diabetes
Association in the past?
LEUKEMIA? LYMPHOMA? THIS MAY BE THE WORST--BRACE YOURSELF!
I hate to tell you this, but the bovine leukemia virus is found in more
than three of five dairy cows in the United States
Tags: MILK Health Diabetes Cancer Osteoporosis
