Facts about DAIRY

- is milk really healthy? Read on and decide for yourself!

I have included the article below as I have been affected badly by dairy in my life. It took me many years to discover that the source of my irritablity and occasional bouts of depression, headaches and general lack of energy was caused by an intolerance to dairy products. Please read this carefully - you may well be very surprised!

Dairy - The latest research from the desk of Mary-Ann Shearer

Dairy products have for decades been promoted as a "whole" or "complete" food. We have been encouraged to include it at every meal, to drink 2 glasses of milk a day to prevent osteoporosis and produce growth and development in healthy children.

Research has been filtering through in the last 2 decades and is now beginning to reach a peak; the food once thought of as essential is now being found to be a main cause of

I am listing some of research from a selection of highly qualified and recognized researchers and doctors for you to see that there is no longer any real debate. I am at present unaware of any independent research (not backed by industry related funds) which concludes that cows milk and cows milk products are necessary or essential for health.

In fact in looking at this research it would appear that the dairy industry has chosen to ignore these warnings and continue to promote a clearly harmful substance as not only safe but essential. This will I believe in time leave them wide open to lawsuits similar to those seen in the tobacco industry.

From Dr. T Colin Campbell -Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University - and author of The China Study (Benbella)

- based on the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted. It seems that besides contributing to heart disease, cancer (of almost all types) dairy products are a major factor in autoimmune diseases Cows milk protein supplies many foreign proteins that mimic our own, setting us up for one of many autoimmune diseases, ranging from

I find the following paragraph particularly disturbing; "Imagine looking at the front page of the newspaper and finding the following headline: "Cow's milk the likely causes of lethal Type 1 Diabetes" Because the reaction would be strong, and the economic impact monumental, this headline won't be written any time soon regardless of the scientific evidence."

At the end of the day money appears to be more important than our health. Hopefully as the research mounts we will the see the same results as the cigarette industry did, - in time.

From Doctor Neal Barnard - Breaking the food Seduction St Martin's press; president of the physicians committee for responsible medicine

Cheese is addictive as it contains casein, like other dairy products. Casein is broken down in the digestive tract to form opiates called casomorphins. Cheese appears to be more addictive that other dairy products due to the much higher levels of casein. (Now I know why there are so many cheese addicts around!) Including dairy in a breast feeding mother's diet is a cause of colic as the protein from dairy is able to pass from the blood stream into breast milk.

Cheese also contains an amphetamine like substance, phenylethylamine (PEA). The following hormones and related natural chemicals have been identified in cows milk; Prolatin, somastostatin, melatonin, oxytocin, growth hormone, leutenizing hormone-releasing hormone, thyrotropin releasing hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, vasoactive intestinal peptide, calcitonin, parathyroid hormone, corticosteroids, estrogens, progesterone, insulin, epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factor, erythropoietin, bomesin, neurotensin, motilin and cholecystokinin. (Any and all of these can interfere with the chemical processes in your bodyaffecting your health in thousands of possible ways)

Dairy is also a major contributor to headaches Is the most common trigger in rheumatoid arthritis Harvard studies have shown that men who avoid dairy products have a 30% reduction in prostate cancer (dairy appears to increase IGF-I (insulin growth factor I) which also been linked to breast cancer Dairy suppresses vitamin D activation increasing the risk of all cancers and contributing to osteoporosis. (Vit D is needed for the body to use calcium and has been found to be essential in preventing cancer) With the consumption of cheese having doubled in western diets since 1975 it is interesting to note that the above diseases have increased at a corresponding rate.

From Dr Walter J Veith in Diet & Disease (CRC Press) Past chairman dept of Zoology at University of Western Cape

The calcium in dairy is more difficult to absorb than the calcium in whole-wheat bread and that is certainly not our best source of calcium. An investigation into the effects of various protein diets and calcium retention showed that proteins from dairy caused considerable calcium loss in the urine. In other words, drinking milk and eating cheese and yoghurt results in you peeing your calcium into the sewerage system. This ties in with the evidence that countries that consume the most dairy products have the most osteoporosis (brittle bone disease)

"Moreover calcium supplementation does not provide a solution as countries such as the US with the highest rates of supplementation still have among the highest rates of osteoporosis" "Immunoglobulins from cow's milk will interact with the immune system and this can lead to an allergic reaction. Many allergies can primarily be attributed to milk" "100% of newly diagnosed patients with Insulin-dependent diabetes (type 1) have antibodies to bovine serum albumin" In plain English , 100% of new cases of type 1 diabetes have been found to have antibodies to cows milk protein implicating this cows milk protein as THE cause of the disease.

"Moreover there have been reports of infants that are only breastfed and never received milk protein developing allergies to cow's milk, which then alleviated when mothers eliminated dairy from their diet" He suggest that the dairy products are a cause of infertility, particularly in men

From Dr Marilyn Glenville in her book"Osteoporosis the silent epidemic" (Kyle Cathy)

Dr Glenville is a leading nutritional therapist specializing in women's health in the UK and fellow of the Royal Society of medicine "Milk has been linked to ovarian cancer"

From Udo Erasmus (PhD in nutrition) and author of Fats that heal and Fats that Kill - Alive Books

Dairy products are low in Essential fatty acids and raise triglyceride, cholesterol levels and increase platelet stickiness

From Dr Motala - Red Cross Children's Hospital in an article published in Pedmed July 1990

"Cow's milk contains more than 25 separate protein fractions, each capable of inducing an allergic response." He lists the following clinical manifestations of milk allergy

So, next time you're in front of the 'dairy fridge' of your local supermarket, maybe some of these words will hlep you make an 'informed buying decision'?!

Please check out Mary-Ann's website http://www.mary-anns.com