August 13, 2005
Got milk? You've got problems
By Karen Dawn, KAREN DAWN runs the animal advocacy
media watch DawnWatch.com and is a contributor to "In Defense
of Animals: The Second Wave" (Blackwell Publishing, 2005).
DAIRY COWS have overtaken automobiles as the No. 1 air
polluter in parts of California, according to a Los Angeles Times
article. A New York Times editorial discussed "the eye-stinging,
nose-burning smell of cattle congestion in rural California,"
acknowledging that something had to be done. What nobody
wants to say, in this land of milk and cookies, is that we shouldn't
be drinking cow's milk.
In the last edition of his "Baby and Child Care" bible, Dr. Benjamin
Spock made it clear that cow's milk is for baby cows, not for human
children. He wrote that it was "too rich in the saturated fats that
cause artery blockages" and that it "slows down iron absorption."
He suggested that it may cause ear and/or respiratory problems,
and may be linked to childhood onset diabetes. He stressed that
infants should drink only human breast milk and older children
should try soy and rice milk products.
But the dairy industry would rather you didn't know that. As it
spends millions of dollars telling us that milk consumption will
help us lose weight, it would rather we didn't see a study
published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine. The study found that children who drink
more than three servings of milk daily are prone to becoming
overweight, even if it is low-fat milk. Neither does the industry
advertise the Harvard School of Public Health finding that
15% of whites, 70% of African Americans and 90% of Asians
are lactose intolerant.
The dairy industry prefers to scare us with tales of brittle bones,
hoping we don't notice studies showing that people in Asia, who
consume almost no dairy products, have a significantly lower rate
of hip fractures than people in "got milk?" America. Consistent
with those results is Harvard University's 1997 Nurses Health
Study, which followed 78,000 women over a 12-year period
and found that those who consumed the most dairy foods
broke the most bones.
And a study published just this month in the International
Journal of Cancer found a 13% increase in ovarian cancer
risk in women who increased their lactose intake in amounts
equivalent to one glass of milk per day.
Men don't need milk either. A Harvard study published in
1998 linked high calcium consumption to prostate cancer,
and in this week's news, we learned that Dean Ornish's
low-fat, vegan diet (no dairy) may block the progression
of that disease. While touting its products as a fundamental
part of a healthy diet, the dairy industry won't rush to tell
us that Scott Jurek, who just won the Western States
100-mile run - for the seventh time in a row - is vegan.
Now, we learn that the dairy industry may also be harming
our children by polluting the air. The Times article quoted
an attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty & the
Environment, who said that in Fresno, in the center of the
nation's dairy industry, one in six children carries an inhaler
to school.
Instead of protecting us, the government aligns itself with
the dairy lobby. The California Milk Advisory Board, a
government agency, playfully took advantage of society's
increasing concern for animal welfare with its phenomenally
successful "happy cows" campaign, which shows extended
bovine families grazing in meadows.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued the
board for false advertising, arguing that most California
dairy cows live miserable lives on overcrowded dirt lots.
They are artificially inseminated annually, because they
don't produce milk without pregnancies, and are pumped
full of hormones so that they will give 10 times as much
milk as they would naturally. Their calves are carted off
to veal crates. Then at about age 5, the "happy" cows
are turned into hamburgers. PETA's suit failed - on the
grounds that government bodies are exempt from fair
advertising laws. Government is free to say whatever it
wants about the conditions in which cows live, or about
the "health benefits" of milk.
Unfortunately, the government is unlikely to start running
ads suggesting we follow Asia's lead and switch to tofu,
or even kale, though both have more calcium per cup
than cow's milk. But for your health, the environment,
the animals, and for those kids in Fresno carrying inhalers,
why not change your next Starbucks low-fat latte order
to soy?