For the past 10 years, scientists in the Western countries have raised the alarm regarding milk which they say is a product to be wary of, a dangerous product. Meanwhile, traditional nutritionists continue to endorse the product promoted by the powerful milk lobby.

For those who still believe in its virtues, milk is absolutely necessary for a balanced diet. It is our main source of calcium allowing children to build sound bones and women to prevent osteoporosis.

Those who oppose this view point out that humans only started drinking animal milk 8 000 years ago and that, paradoxically, our bone structure seems to be in worse shape than that of our Palaeolithic ancestors.

In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) even pointed to the fact that the countries which consumed the most milk (principally Finland) held the world record for femur bone fractures. These countries also have to cope with infant diabetes epidemics (Type 1).

We can also see, comparatively, that Asian countries (Japan, China…) which historically had never drank milk have begun to present the same pathologies since they started adopting Western eating habits. What is even more serious is the fact that in recent years hundreds of studies have shown the ties between consuming milk products and male prostrate cancer and female genital cancer.

A wide-scope Swedish epidemiological study published in 2004 (1) involving 60 000 cases has further confirmed these findings.

Another study (2) carried out by a joint Japanese and American research team and published in June 2005 now explains why milk products can cause cancer. Since industrial milk cows are bred to calve every year, they produce milk with levels of estrogen which are critical enough to put women at high risk of breast, ovary and uterus cancer.

It is also important to note, as I have taken care to highlight in all my publications, that milk and un-drained fresh milk products are fattening. Several studies have in fact shown that, despite their low Glycemic Indexes, milk products trigger high insulin responses.

A complementary study published in 2004 (3) confirms that milk and milk products affect insulin levels.  It further shows that milk serum is in fact the true cause of this effect; a hypothesis which I had formulated some years ago and which has now received scientific validation.

(1) Larson S. “Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2004; 80:1353-57.

(2) Ganmaa D. “The possible role of female sex hormones in milk from pregnant cows in the development of breast, ovarian and corpus uteri cancers” Medical Hypotheses, August 2005, 65(6):1028-37; Elsevier.

(3) Nilsson M. “Glycemia and insulinemia in healthy subjects after lactose-equivalent meals of milk and other food proteins: the role of plasma amino acids and incretins”  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2004 ; 80:1246-53