Milk is not necessarily good for you.
Frequently, you have probably heard from your parents that milk is a perfect food for kids. Now that you are all grown up, you still believe that the healthy growth of human bones is dependent upon receiving calcium from processed cow’s milk.
Because it sounds so true, you don’t even think about it. Thus, milk commercials are viewed as a public service announcement rather than an attempt to sell a product.
Despite this strong belief built upon famous “got milk?” ad campaigns and cute milk mustaches, several research books and countless articles in national mass media say processed cow’s milk is not healthy for human beings at all. Moreover, it seems to trigger a full set of physiological complications as a number of scientific studies show.
First, let’s think why they invented pasteurized milk. Primarily, it was done to extend the shelf life of the product. The pasteurizing process causes loss of those initial benefits that raw milk contains (beneficial bacteria lactobacillus acidophilus, for instance). Also, pasteurization of milk destroys enzymes and reduces vitamin content by over 50 percent.
Milk and dairy products are acid forming and mucus-producing substances that cause children and adults to have more frequent colds and flues. Even worse, researchers have also turned their attention to milk as one of the causes of prostate cancer.
Where are those praised benefits of the magic moo drink that people have been drinking since the domestication occurred thousands of years ago? Where did we get these beliefs about calcium in milk?
No, there were no cow degradations or mass diseases. There is no doubt cow’s milk is rich in calcium. The question is how much of that calcium may be available to one’s body through digestion. According to the researchers, the surprisingly minor part of milk calcium can be assimilated.
Dr. Walter Willett, the nutrition researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, says calcium consumption from dairy-products intake is “like a religious crusade” that overcomes true preventive measures such as physical exercise.
The United States has the world’s highest consumption of dairy products and the world’s highest number of reported bone fractures and osteoporosis. In some Asian countries where consumption of milk and other dairy products is low, fracture rates are far lower according to CNN.
So what do you drink or eat instead? To increase your dietary calcium you may eat green leafy vegetables such as collards, kale and spinach. Carrots are an excellent source of calcium, too. On top of that, calcium-enriched orange juice and a range of fortified cereals, soymilks and other products remain good alternatives to milk.
However, everybody decides what he will drink or eat. When the correlation between milk intake and fracture rates becomes as evident as the relationship between cigarettes and lung cancer, the choice depends on you.
Still, if life loses its importance, and you can’t be happy when you can’t find milk in your refrigerator for cereal in the morning, a glass of milk is probably your best solution despite the extensive evidence listed. I don’t want to be responsible for your bad mood one day.
I made my healthier choice.