Dairy Products and 10 False Promises
Milk is as pure white as fresh fallen snow and as familiar as a mother's warm touch. Common sense once led me to believe that if a single food, milk, could sustain a baby as the sole source of nutrients, then it must be “nature's most perfect food.” Milk builds strong bones – I have learned over and over again – and since the hardest parts of my body are made mostly of calcium, this liquid food must be essential for my strength and stability. Milk is for life, because they tell me I never outgrow my need for milk. All these “facts” were the “truth” until I took the trouble to think a little about the subject on my own and to look into the scientific research. May I share with you some of my surprising discoveries?
Mother's Milk Can Be a Perfect Food
Within the same species – like cow for calf, cat for kitten, mare for foal – mother's milk can be the perfect food for the very young – not, after weaning, for older offspring, and certainly, not for the fully-grown. All mammals nourish their developing young with this ready-to-eat liquid synthesized by specialized sweat glands, called the mammary glands. This life-giving fluid contains the nutrients, antibodies and hormones that optimize the chances for growth and survival of the infant.
How essential is mother's milk? Human infants deprived of the advantages of human breast milk have:1
Two to four times the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (crib death),
More than 60 times the risk of pneumonia in the first three months of life,2
Ten times the risk of hospitalization during their first year
Reduced intelligence as measured by IQ score
Behavioral and speech difficulties
An increased chance of suffering from infections, asthma, eczema, type I diabetes, and cancer (lymphoma and leukemia) in early life
A greater risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, food allergies, ulcerative colitis, and CrohnÂ’s disease later in life
No one argues against the fact that human breast milk is natureÂ’s most perfect food for human babies. There is also no satisfactory substitute; therefore, every effort should be made to have every infant breast-fed exclusively for six months; and then, with the addition of healthy solid food choices, partially breast-fed until the age of two. (More information on this is found in The McDougall Program for Women book).
Mother's Milk is Species Specific
The nutritional needs of very young animals are met by the unique qualities of the milk of that particular species. The composition of this infant food has evolved over millions of years to be ideally suited for that animal. Let me explain in terms of one essential nutrient: protein.
The amount of protein in the milk of an animal varies to meet the growth demands of the very young – the faster an animal grows the greater the protein needs.
Comparisons of Milk of Different Species3
Animal Protein* Growth Rate(days)**
Human 1.2 180
Horse 2.4 60
Cow 3.3 47
Goat 4.1 19
Dog 7.1 8
Cat 9.5 7
Rat 11.8 4.5
* Grams per 100 milliliters (in terms of % of calories, cow's milk has four times more protein than human milk; 21% vs. 5%4)
** Time required to double birth weight
In addition to the much higher protein content, consider the other nutrient differences between cow's milk and human:
Nutrient Human
mg/100 Cal Cow
mg/100 Cal
Calcium 45 194
Phosphorus 18 152
Sodium 23 80
Potassium 72 246
Not surprisingly, since a calf doubles its birth weight nearly four times faster than a human infant does, the concentrations of protein and calcium are nearly four times greater. Rapid growth requires a much higher density of all kinds of nutrients.
Problems of Excess Nutrients
Most people think of health problems in terms of deficiencies of nutrients; this is the reason vitamin and mineral supplements are so popular. However, I do not see diseases of deficiency in my patients. For example, I see no vitamin C deficiency (scurvy), B1 deficiency (Beriberi), or protein deficiency in my patients. Rather, I see diseases of excess – such as excess dietary fat (obesity), cholesterol (heart disease), and salt (hypertension). Therefore, feeding an overly-concentrated food such as cow's milk to people (infants, children, and adults) promotes diseases of excess. (Some of you are still thinking cow's milk corrects calcium deficiency in people, preventing osteoporosis. Be patient, in a moment I will show you this is not true.)
Replacing human breast milk with cow's milk was once tried in the mid-1800s in the United States for emergency situations (such as when a mother died in childbirth). The result was a quick death for most of the infants, because the high protein content of the cow's milk forced fluid losses from the infant's kidneys, resulting in dehydration.5 Once this problem was recognized, then infant formulas were developed which added sugar to the cow's milk in order to reduce the protein concentration of the cow's milk and make it more resemble human milk. Some of you may be old enough to remember making or drinking infant formula made from Carnation evaporated cow's milk and Karo syrup (sugar).6 (This is a very unhealthy formula for infants – do not use this).
Consider the purpose of cow's milk. This is an ideal food to grow a calf from its 60-pound birthweight to a 600-pound young cow, ready to wean. This is a high “octane” fuel. One obvious consequence of people eating “calf food” is rapid fat gain – and dairy products are one of the leading contributors to the epidemic of excess body fat affecting 25% of children and 65% of adults in Western populations. Matters are made even worse when cow's milk is converted into even more concentrated products, like cheeses.
Cow's milk products have some important nutritional deficiencies.4 They are completely devoid of fiber; and contain insufficient amounts of vitamins, like C and niacin, and minerals, like iron, to meet the human body's needs.