By Sandra Marchese, City Reports Correspondent
The dairy lobby has spent millions on its campaign to promote the benefits of milk—benefits that some macrobiotic experts, along with pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, dispute.
We’ve grown up with milk. ‘Drink your milk if you want to be big and strong,” our mothers often told us. And so most of us did. Milk is as American as apple pie and, well, McDonald’s— although those menu selections, we know, have never been healthy. Recently, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the baby doc, has voiced concern about giving milk to children. In fact, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has united with Spock to warn of the dangers of dairy products, and in April the U.S. Department of Agriculture changed the four food groups into a new food pyramid with five food groups—putting the necessary amount of milk and dairy products up near sweets and fats. (The pyramid had been proposed a year before, but the dairy and meat people put up a strong fight.)
Meanwhile, a concerned dairy industry is promoting milk more and more as a healthy and necessary part of one’s diet, while growing increasingly angry at the anti-dairy people. So the question is, should you drink milk or shouldn’t you?
That all depends on whom you choose to believe. The Dairy and Nutrition Council Mid East released an Oct. 30, 1992 newsletter listing several reasons why Americans should step up their milk and dairy intake. The stimulus for this news release was the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) report on recommendations for preventing and treating hypertension, as well as a statement released on Sept. 29 by the American Medical Association headed “AMA Blasts Animal Rights Group on Milk Panic”—the group referred to being the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The NHLBI report, according to Karen Lyons, a nutrition and education consultant for the Dairy and Nutrition Council, stated that receiving the “recommended daily allowance of calcium, magnesium and potassium…may help reduce the incidence of high blood pressure.”
“One will find a great concentration of these minerals in milk and dairy products,” said Lyons. However, Claire Lane, a public affairs specialist with the NHLBI, was quick to point out that it does not endorse the dairy industry in any way. The NHLBI only suggests that everyone meet the recommended daily allowance for calcium—which needn’t specifically come from dairy products. In addition, Lyons said, “Three-fourths of American adults don’t get the calcium they need.” This seems to be particularly true for the elderly, who have suffered from a rising rate of hip fractures due, in part, to a calcium deficiency.
One point for the dairy people.
But the folks on the other side of the milk debate state that while, yes, milk contains necessary vitamins and minerals, there are too many problems with dairy products to justify consumption. Vitamins and minerals, they say, can be found in other foods that are all-around healthy, such as vegetables, grains and fruits. Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has been sounding the alarm for a number of years. In the November 1990 issue of The Animal Agenda, Barnard stated the following health problems can result from dairy product consumption: iron deficiency, childhood-onset diabetes, ovarian cancer, cataracts, lactose intolerance (gas and diarrhea), respiratory problems, canker sores, skin conditions, allergies, high fat and cholesterol levels and toxic contamination. In addition, Barnard stated that “dairy products do not stop osteoporosis (bone disease)…countries with the highest intake of dairy products have the highest incidence of osteoporosis.”
The AMA calls the PCRM and Barnard a “fringe organization of questionable repute” who are “hoodwinking the media, perverting medical science” with their vocal position on the dangers of milk. Dr. Russell Bunai, a Maryland pediatrician who aligns himself with the philosophy of the PCRM, concedes that the AMA officials are “listening to pressure groups, specialist interest groups, and are trying to be politically correct and to cover their behind” in the dairy debate. He said that traditional physicians, such as those in the AMA, are “ignorant” of the research being done concerning the negative effects of dairy products on health and that they are “imprisoned by anachronistic and false ideas.”
For his part, Bunai said if there was only one change to be made in the diets of Americans to help improve their health and thus lower the $800 billion national healthcare bill, “the elimination of dairy products would have more beneficial effects than any other single change.” “If the health goal of the United States is a life expectancy of 75, $800 billion a year for health costs and the pattern of disease that we have,” which includes high rates of immune system disorders, diabetes, asthma, appendicitis, colitis, thyroid disorders and allergies, “then the four-food-group way of eating is adequate,” according to Bunai.
But, Bunai said, “We can do better than that,” and the only way for Americans to improve quality of life and to increase the average life span is to alter our eating habits. “Most illness is preventable, and it comes from eating the wrong things,” said Bunai.
The Dairy and Nutrition councils have joined the AMA in its position and also pokes at Spock’s authority, dismissing him as a popular physician from the 1950s and ’60s, but no longer reliable. (Spock, at. the age of 89, has recently converted to a macrobiotic diet and is now aligned with the PCRM).
On the side of the PCRM and Spock is Francois Roland, a Cleveland Heights-based teacher and counselor of macrobiotics. Macrobiotics is a diet and living philosophy that marginally supports the new food pyramid, although those who follow macrobiotics do not recommend eating animal products, except for fish. According to Roland, drinking cow’s milk is a “violation of natural order…we don’t realize what we’re doing.” Roland stated that milk and dairy products have a “tremendous impact on health,” from allergies to cancer. “Milk creates an imbalance in the blood due to the type of proteins, fats and sugars that are in cow’s milk…which cannot be easily metabolized, so they acidify the blood and accumulate in the form of mucus and calcification— hardenings, polyps, tumors, cysts, cancer, mucus formations, sinus problems, ear infections, swollen lymph nodes, vaginal discharge, osteoporosis, sluggish metabolism.”
Roland also claimed that smoking is not the primary link with lung cancer. It is only one of several factors. The No. 1 factor is dairy products, especially cheese, together with meat, sugar and foods that produce inflammation. These foods cause a buildup of mucus in the lungs and attract tar and other irritants. In the Orient, they smoke but cancer of the lungs is no prevalent. They don’t eat dairy, either. Saying that cigarette smoking causes cancer is a half-truth, it’s ignoring the role of diet.
You don’t have to look far to find physicians and laymen alike who disagree with that statement. Cynthia McClung, coordinator for communications at the American Cancer Society in Columbus, is one. “They (Orientals) haven’t been smoking as long as we have,” she said. “Their cancer rates will catch up. Smoking was not as prevalent in Far Eastern countries until later. It will be a while before we see the consequences of that… We don’t have anything that links dairy to any type of cancer.”
Despite the evidence offered pro and con by both sides, milk consumption has remained fairly steady. There have been small signs of a decrease in the past 10 years, according to Chuck Timpko, director of market research at the National Dairy Promotion arid Research Board in Arlington}, Va. Timpko said that about 6.4 billion gallons of milk are sold annually, which has remained a fairly steady figure even though population has increased. This translates to a signal that per capita milk consumption has fallen, despite the industry’s $78 million per year advertising budget. This would be good news to those like Roland who believe that getting rid of dairy is essential to our nation’s health. “Our health-care industry cannot keep up with the rapid pace of our declining health,” Roland said.”We have to reverse deeply entrenched national habits.” It’s yet to be proven, of course, that milk is the cause of our “declining health.” And it remains to be seen whether or not the anti-dairy faction can reverse the popular wisdom on the frothy white beverage.
Certainly the dairy lobby and the AMA will be fighting every step of the way. And, in the meantime, another generation of kids is growing up with milk.
(Originally published in City Report, November 19, 1992)