The Dairy Industry and milk processors invest hundreds of millions of dollars each year to guarantee that Americans will continue to drink milk and eat dairy products, investing their money to continually let Americans know that milk tastes good and the intake of milk and dairy products must be continued to insure good health. Milk mustaches are stylish. Drink milk and you're beautiful! Gorgeous models, actors, actresses, sports heroes, even President Clinton and Bob Dole have posed for milk advertisements. All have asserted by the milky white goo artificially applied to their upper lip that drinking milk is healthful and wholesome. Who would argue with such an overwhelming endorsement? Billboards spanning America ask the question, "Got milk?" Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive major league baseball games played. Ripken, holding a baseball bat, smiles from inside the front cover of a "GOT MILK" brochure proclaiming, "With all the skim milk I drink, my name might as well be Calcium Ripken, Jr."

      Common knowledge of osteoporosis is based upon false assumptions. American women have been drinking an average of two pounds of milk or eating the equivalent milk in dairy products per day for their entire lives. Doctors recommend calcium intake for increasing and maintaining bone strength and bone density which they call bone mass. According to this regimen recommended by doctors and milk industry executives, women's bone mass would approach that of pre-historic dinosaurs. This line of reasoning should be equally extinct. Twenty-five million American women have osteoporosis. Drinking milk does not prevent osteoporosis. Milk contains calcium. Bones contain calcium too. When we are advised to add calcium to our diets we tend to drink milk or eat dairy foods.

      In order to absorb calcium, the body needs comparable amounts of another mineral element, magnesium. Milk and dairy products contain only small amounts of magnesium. Without the presence of magnesium, the body only absorbs 25 percent of the available dairy calcium content. The remainder of the calcium spells trouble. Without magnesium, excess calcium is utilized by the body in injurious ways. The body uses calcium to build the mortar on arterial walls which becomes atherosclerotic plaques. Excess calcium is converted by the kidneys into painful stones which grow in size like pearls in oysters, blocking our urinary tracts. Excess calcium contributes to arthritis; painful calcium buildup often is manifested as gout. The USDA has formulated a chart of recommended daily intakes of vitamins and minerals. The term that FDA uses is Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). The RDA for calcium is 1500 mg. The RDA for magnesium is 750 mg.

      Society stresses the importance of calcium, but rarely magnesium. Yet, magnesium is vital to enzymatic activity. In addition to insuring proper absorption of calcium, magnesium is critical to proper neural and muscular function and to maintaining proper pH balance in the body. Magnesium, along with vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), helps to dissolve calcium phosphate stones which often accumulate from excesses of dairy intake. Good sources of magnesium include beans, green leafy vegetables like kale and collards, whole grains and orange juice. Non-dairy sources of calcium include green leafy vegetables, almonds, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, oats, beans, parsley, sesame seeds and tofu.

      Osteoporosis is NOT a problem that should be associated with lack of calcium intake. Osteoporosis results from calcium loss. The massive amounts of protein in milk result in a 50 percent loss of calcium in the urine. In other words, by doubling your protein intake there will be a loss of 1-1.5 percent in skeletal mass per year in postmenopausal women. The calcium contained in leafy green vegetables is more easily absorbed than the calcium in milk, and plant proteins do not result in calcium loss the same way as do animal proteins. If a postmenopausal woman loses 1-1.5 percent bone mass per year, what will be the effect after 20 years? When osteoporosis occurs levels of calcium (being excreted from the bones)in the blood are high. Milk only adds to these high levels of calcium which is excreted or used by the body to add to damaging atherosclerosis, gout, kidney stones, etc.

      Bone mass does not increase after age 35. This is a biological fact that is not in dispute by scientists. However, this fact is ignored by marketing geniuses in the milk industry who make certain that women this age and older are targeted consumers for milk and dairy products. At least one in four women will suffer from osteoporosis with fractures of the ribs, hip or forearm. In 1994, University of Texas researchers published results of an experiment indicating that supplemental calcium is ineffective in preventing bone loss. Within 5 years of the initial onset of menopause, there is an accelerated rate of loss of bone, particularly from the spine. During this period of time, estrogen replacement is most effective in preventing rapid bone density loss.

Bone Mass is Genetically Determined

      In December of 1994 a study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that skeletal size and bone mass are genetically programmed. Optimal skeletal size is achieved through adequate calcium intake in an individual's youth. However, excess calcium has an effect upon bone mass. Once enough calcium is introduced, the excess is either excreted in the urine or absorbed by the kidneys, arteries and liver. This excess calcium can cause great damage. The decrease in skeletal mass associated with osteoporosis in women is primarily caused by the age-dependent decrease in hormonal steroid secretion by the ovaries. While optimal calcium intake in childhood and adolescence is important for achieving proper bone density, calcium intake in adulthood has little significance.

      An overview based upon recent findings regarding the pathogenesis of osteoporosis was published in Germany in 1994 and translated into English where the abstract appeared on MEDLINE, a computer service containing scientific abstracts of research. The premise of this study is that osteoporosis is an unavoidable consequence of aging for which no prevention was previously possible. However, recent hormonal therapies have slowed down the process of rapid bone loss. The lack of estrogen and progesterone play an important role in the development of osteoporosis.

      Human breast milk contains 33 milligrams of calcium per 100-gram portion and potato chips contain 40 milligrams! GOTMILK? GOT BONE DISEASE! Find your favorite snacks on the following list and substitute them for pus-filled, antibiotic laden, allergenic and hormonal MILK.

Calcium content of foods (per 100-gram portion)

 

Robert Cohen
Executive Director
Dairy Education Board
http://www.notmilk.com/

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