Milk does your body good?

[MotherGoose]

I've been told many times before that cow's milk does our bodies more harm than good. Is this true? How about other dairy products? I'm a bit concerned since my children loves milk! Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sleuth]

How many thousands of years have people been drinking cow's milk? How much harm can it really be doing?
Babies shouldn't have cow's milk. But growing kids need the calcium, as do older ladies; men not so much. And whole milk is fine if you are exercising regularly.
I guess you could sub yogurts or other high-calcium foods, but that seems to not be necessary.

 

[MotherGoose]

A few days ago, a program produced by RTHK was aired on TVB. It showed that over the past 20 years, a professor name Dr. Colin Campbell from Cornell University had carried out researches which had shown that the calcium, protein and hormones contained in milk are in fact closedly related to eczema, allergies, and many kinds of cancers/heart problems.

I think I will not stop my kids from having cheese and yogurt but instead of cow's milk, I will offer them soy milk from now on.

 

[ELT]

Hi Mother Goose,

I also watched that program. But I am skeptical about the research and would suggest you NOT to make your decision based on just that. I am not an expert or scientist but I believe in many cases of allergies/eczema/cancers, there are more than just one contributing factor. It could be combination of many things such as genes, immune system, water, weather, life style, eating habits, culture etc... it is hard to imagine cow's milk is the ultimate culprit. I do not believe by eliminating cow's milk from our diet we are rid of these problems. Besides, when any study / research is conducted to prove something - in this case, cow's milk should not be consumed, it is already an act with biased intention. Some of the data is also doubtful. E.g. it says countries with higher consumption of cow's milk is associated with certain health problem but that doesn't mean cow's milk is the root problem. What about wine, smoke, weather, fruits? These were not taken into account. I'm not saying that cow's milk is the best choice, it's just that I think we should make informed decision and also according to needs of your child rather than basing on opinion of a few. Just my two cents!

 

[Sleuth]

How many times in the past 20 years has a study come out declaring something to be bad only to be reveresed later. Milk, eggs, red meat, wine, alcohol in general, chocolate, tea, coffee, etc....
Or studies linking autism to vaccinations. The list is endless. Science isn't what it used to be; seems--like ELT pointed out--that half the time the science is self-serving.
I would have two questions right off the bat for this study: who funded it and how much milk would have to be consumed by the average child in order to produce these problems? (I think that if you inject/force feed enough of any substance on earth to a mouse or rat you can produce a cancer.)

 

[Sleuth]

Sorry, one more thing. Chances are your child is going to have skin problems and be allergic to something over the course of his life.
Do the benefits of drinking milk outweigh the possibility of developing some obscure allergy?

 

[barbwong_130]

One thing you might like to consider is that in places whether soy milk is used a lot instead of cow?s milk there are as many people allergic to soy milk as to cow?s milk. This is especially true when using formulas for babies. There seems to be a crazy for using goat?s milk formula now but I?m willing to bet that soon we?ll see high percentages of allergies to this too.

I think the main problem is using these produces too soon and as the main source of nutrition. If we started their use later and used them as part of a varied diet I?m sure that the number of allergies would be fewer.

Just my personal opinion.
Barb

 

[aprilbaby]

mother goose.....doesnt cheese and yoghurt usually get made from cows milk?!?!?

 

[Matty]

As a child, I pretty much refused to eat anything.
My mum was so desperate for me to eat, she would let me eat junk rather than having me starve.
My saving grace during those years ( so my doc used to say) was that I drank loads of milk. The vitamin and mineral content of milk is huge.
(luckily) I am not allergic to anything, have the strongest bones around, am perfectly healthy and thankfully now have a great diet (milk definatley inluded).

Obviously some people are allergic to dairy, but unless your child is, there isn't much reason not to give them milk.

There are a million things that cause allergies, not just milk. It just seems that milk gets a lot of attention.

 

[joannek]

there was also a study that found out genes are the cause of cancer. this study found out that female mouse who were exposed to pesticide in utero (when their eggs are forming), give birth to baby mouse's who grow up to a 100% chance of developing cancer. whereas for male mouse, when they're exposed to pesticide during their puberty (that's when their sperms are forming), give birth to baby mouse who grow up to 100% chance of developing cancer. in this study, they actually sprayed the mouse with pesticide.

this sounds so much more possible than milk causing cancer.

plus, in the countries where this study say they drink milk more (in USA & UK) are also where they're facing >50% obese population. they chow down on processed food, steaks, burgers & fries. there portions are huge. i'm sure in europe the kids drink milk too. but their cancer rate is not as high.