Okay, so here’s my question
Here’s an article about a study that says drinking more milk may be bad for you. It may not reduce the risk of bone fracture, and it may even increase the risk of death:
We indeed found higher oxidative stress and inflammation in women and men who consumed several glasses of milk per day compared with those who drank lower amounts,” lead author Karl Michaé«lsson told Yahoo Health. Michaé«lsson and his research team also found no reduction in fracture risk with higher milk consumption. Furthermore, women who drank more than three glasses of milk a day (average 680 ml) had a higher risk of death than women who drank less than one glass of milk a day (average 60 ml).
Regular readers of this blog may recall that I detest milk and always have. But I’ll go a step further and say that I don’t understand how anyone except young children can like it.
So, here’s my question: what adult willingly drinks more than three glasses of milk a day?
And might such people have a higher risk of death because they’re just plain crazy?
What about yogurt? I eat lots of yogurt (nonfat)
One of my biggest weaknesses is a glass of milk, mixed with Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I usually have at least one before bed.
And I might have more throughout the day if it is available. I love chocolate milk.
I also like raw milk. I had relatives that were dairy farmers growing up (they have since lost those businesses) and in their refridgerator, they used to keep milk in a pitcher that came straight from the cow. It was good stuff. I drank it whenever I could and it didn’t even need chocolate syrup. It was like a meal in a glass.
Since the watermelons are anti-milk, I wouldn’t believe this AT ALL.
I do…
I go through about a gallon and a half a week
but note… my genetics is from the frozen north…
what does that have to do with it? well, the north was devoid of plants and such in winter, but cows allowed populations to survive by converting stored hay to milk, and cheese.
the problem with the pronouncments like this is that its trying to ignore genetics and find a one size fits all answer to health.
so we reduce fat, to recently find out that it doesnt mean that much for most, and definitely does not mean the same for populatoins like inuit who eat blubber…
northern europeans have much higher lactose tolerance.
Lactose intolerance is an impaired ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. Lactose is normally broken down by an enzyme called lactase, which is produced by cells in the lining of the small intestine.
Lactose intolerance in infants (congenital lactase deficiency) is caused by mutations in the LCT gene. The LCT gene provides instructions for making the lactase enzyme
Lactose intolerance in adulthood is caused by gradually decreasing activity (expression) of the LCT gene after infancy, which occurs in most humans. LCT gene expression is controlled by a DNA sequence called a regulatory element, which is located within a nearby gene called MCM6. Some individuals have inherited changes in this element that lead to sustained lactase production in the small intestine and the ability to digest lactose throughout life. People without these changes have a reduced ability to digest lactose as they get older, resulting in the signs and symptoms of lactose intolerance.
and from another source
35 percent of the global population – mostly people with European ancestry – can digest lactose in adulthood without a hitch.
This development of lactose tolerance took only about 20,000 years – the evolutionary equivalent of a hot minute – but it would have required extremely strong selective pressure.
“Something happened when we started drinking milk that reduced mortality,”
given that most phds are raised in boxes and are no where near as broadly edumacated as prior peoples, they do not associate history and such with what they research. so they do not associate that during the ice age, those in sweden, denmark, latvia, and other northern areas, survived by milk and cheese… hay can easily be stored, but we cant digest cellulose. cows, sheep, and goats can… and you can get milk fro two of them… so, smart northeners would keep a few milk cows, and that could insure making it through the winter. then there is rickets…
for fun, i came across this aside (different subject but still interesting)
The 50th Anniversary of New York’s Most Sensational Jewel Heist
Jack Murphy, a.k.a., “Murf the Surf,” and Allan Kuhn speak on their involvement in stealing priceless gems from the American Museum of Natural History–and the roles John D. MacArthur, Eva Gabor, and Nora Ephron had in getting them back.
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/10/museum-of-natural-history-jewel-heist
I’m really sick and tired of the ever increasing tsunami of “studies” that tell us that this or that food, drug, or activity is good or bad for us, only to see another study released some time later that comes to exactly the opposite conclusion.
At some point, it seems to me, we just have to ignore most of these studies, refuse to be whipsawed, and just get on with our lives, enjoying the things we enjoy, while trying to maintain some reasonable level of caution and moderation.
@Jim Sullivan
i cant stand hersheys syrup, but love BOSCO 🙂
Different cultures. I grew up in Scandinavian Seattle and milk drinking among adults there is much more common than not. The majority of my adult children and their spouses drink milk, and so do I. We also eat cheese, yogurt, kefir, butter and ice cream. Not too many of us drink more than three glasses a day, but some do, and taken all together the consumption of dairy products is quite high.
I’ll worry about this study when it is backed up a bit more; and the fact that fermented milk (yogurt) doesn’t seem to have the same bad effects is comforting. But in the interest of science, I do want to point out that my expanding horde of milk-drinking fools live, on the average, to be about 90. My own mom is still active and ingesting plenty of dairy products at 91. I will cheerfully admit, though, that you have the crazy part right!
Wolla Dalbo:
Oh, I guess I forgot to explicitly mention that I think this study is garbage.
I should point out that the appearance of red heads, parallels lactose as well… about 20,000 years… though now we are endangered… we have similar coloring to the snow favored red fox… (and according to mark twain and others, are descendant from cats, and have different personalities (more independent))
prior to the modern ages fetish for making red head men gay in media… red heads are disproportionately represented in governing, politics, and attempts to take over the world…
one could say that the fight between americans ideas of freedom, and soviet russias ideas, are the battles between two sets of red heads…
🙂
Artfldgr:
The previous post of mine that I linked to in this post is about lactose intolerance.
The American diet tends to grow large people, even discounting genetics, compared to Asian diets low on protein.
I’ll believe that “higher risk of death” nonsense when they have something to back it up. Until they do, it’s correlation with no reason to suspect causation… at best!
I’m with Wolla Dalbo. You know what has a 100% risk of death? Living! People who are alive have a 100% chance of dying someday. This doesn’t concern me, nor should it concern you… and I’ll continue to drink milk, and to encourage my kids to do so.
Or, as Tommy Smothers put it: “People keep telling me that red meat is bad for you. It’s not true! Red meat is NOT bad for you! Now, blue-green meat, THAT’S bad for you!”
note how many were presidents or statesment, kings, queens, etc. (i left out actors and performers, and of course this list is not comprhensive by any means! note that blue eyes also are new in the last 20,000 years… ice ages can do that… force populations through genetic bottle necks… the more agressive red heads survived the snows)
Elizabeth I
Prince Harry
Alexander the Great
Alexander II of Scotland
Anastasia Romanov
Andrew Jackson
Boudicca
Brigham Young
Calvin Coolidge
Catherine of Aragon
Christopher Columbus (seldom shown with his real color usually shown as black haired, not red, like the queen he petitioned)
Cleopatra
Dwight Eisenhower
Ellen Wilkinson (red ellen)
Edward VI
Elizabeth of York
Erik the Red
Esau
Frederick Barbarossa
Galileo Galilei (Okay, not a ruler of any sort)
Genghis Khan
George Bernard Shaw (founder fabians)
George Washington
Germé¡n Riesco
Henry II
Henry VIII
Isabella I
Ismail I
James I
James VI
Juana of Castile
L Ron Hubbard (founder of scientology)
Lettice Knollys
Lucy Burns (suffragist)
Lynnette “Squeaky” Fromme (mansonite who tried to kill ford)
Malcolm X (big red, detroit red, chicago red)
Margaret Sanger (progressive birth control)
Martin Van Buren
Michel Ney
Muhammad (prophet of islam)
Neil Kinnock
Otto II (holy roman emperor, aka bloody, aka rufus)
Rameses II
Red Hugh O’Donnell
Richard the Lionheart
Rob Roy MacGregor
Rurik (my ancestor of a sort as is veis)
Salma Bennani (whife of mohamed VI)
Sarah Ferguson
Thomas Jefferson
Ulysses S. Grant
Vladimir Lenin
William Rufus
Winston Churchill
William Tecumseh Sherman
while only 1 in 1000 are born with red hair in the world, you can see that a large contingent of them have ruled the world in various forms, and were very independent personalities
@Jim Sullivan
My regular routine calls for mixing equal parts chocolate milk and regular (1%, actually).
Add a squirt of coffee syrup.
Add a shot or so of Tia Maria or Kahlua.
Stir together, then place in freezer for several
hours for an icy treat.
Daniel in Broookline,
You beat me to it. Amazing how people don’t think through basic statistics, even when they are publishing studies. Another one that gets me is 100% increases in this or that. Does it mean a jump from 1 to 2 across the whole world or a jump from 3 billion to 6 billion?
There were a couple of med school profs here in Germany who published an intro book on statistics because they found that there students couldn’t figure such things out.
So the paleo folks are right on, huh?
I hate milk, pretty much already have, but I love cheese to an unreasonable degree. I have stopped buying milk unless I am making a cake or something, and started using cream for everything actually. This works great for coffee, fine for things like mac and cheese, even better for sauces and gravy and if you are baking for some things you can dilute it enough to work as well.
Sometimes you go right off into the deep end, don’t you.
I also detest milk and always have. I did use it in cereal when young. I have always loved cheese, and use 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee. Since 18 I’ve eaten yogurt at least 5 days in a week. I’m 54 and when my lower legs were examined, I was told that my bone density is greater than that of most 20 year olds.
I haven’t had a glass of milk since I was sixteen or so. But just try and separate me from my cheese or heavy cream and there will be trouble.
I figure I’ll eat (and drink) like my grandparents who all lived past 85 and they all smoked (I don’t). In the end genes seem to trump all.
skeneogden–I agree with you. I was raised on the Mediterranean diet. My folks lived w/my Mom’s parent’s for the first few years of my life. My grandparents were 100% Sicilian. 4 years ago, simply by reducing portions, I took the 20+ pounds off that had stuck with me during the parenting years and I’ve kept it off. I enjoy olive oil, 1/2 & 1/2, regular sugar, bread, pizza, pasta and alcohol in moderation. Everything in moderation!
From a worthwhile site.
For those interested in a less histrionic (not the comments necessarily) detailing of human developments …
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/08/dairy-farming-transition-2500-years-ago.html
Of general interest vis-a-vis European populations, and or archeology
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/05/doggerland-destroyed-by-tsunami.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/06/neandertal-origin-of-mc1r-haplotypes.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-molecular-basis-for-classic-blond.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/09/y-chromosomes-and-mtdna-of-early.html
Milk is disgusting! But I love cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream and other stuff that’s made from milk.
I drink at least one glass of milk a day. Always liked it, and I’m getting some protein and calcium.
I, too, am tired of these very narrow studies that tell us consuming X will kill you, and consuming Y will magically keep cancer away or some other miracle. The human body, and individual genetics, are much to complex to be boiled down to such simplistic pronouncements.
I’ll drink milk AND red wine (separately) and they can fight it out, OK?
I’ve always liked milkshakes and a glass of ice-cold milk with cake and other desserts. So do the others in my office.
Unfortunately, there’s a Steak n Shake restaurant around the corner from my office and it’s not unusual for one of us to make a run over there during half price “Happy Hour” (between 2 and 4 PM) to pick up several shakes.
Sadly my wife (of full-blooded Irish descent) is lactose intolerant.
Art,
I only know of Bosco from the TV show Seinfeld. I’ve never seen it at any market in my area. But George Costanza sure seemed attached to it.
My husband drinks about 2 large glasses of milk per day. He says it helps his stomach after having had his gallbladder removed.
I have a 12 year old nephew who appears to be hypoglycemic or have some kind of blood sugar problems. A couple of years ago I went on a trip with him and my parents and my kids (his mother was not present). He had terrible crying meltdowns and became unable to eat (this happened especially after having any kind of sugar, including juice). We learned that by giving him a glass of whole milk the crying would stop in 5 minutes and then we could get him to eat some real food. So for what it’s worth the milk seemed to have a stabilizing effect on his blood sugar, and it worked when nothing else would.
Yes, it MAY. Of course it MAY NOT. It seems that all of the recent “scientific” studies on the value of food have been fraud. Remember when palm oil was death? It takes a total suspension of disbelief to believe these people any more. Besides, I love buttermilk. It last a long time in the fridge because it is already spoiled.
I’ll drink milk AND red wine (separately) and they can fight it out, OK?
Heh.
I tend to agree with you there have been so many bad studies and allegations of bad foods and ‘super’ foods that it’s gotten a bit ridiculous. I will go with what I like. Which is not milk. Yuck.
I adore milk. I could drink four glasses a day – and used to until I nneded to lose weight and discovered that a low carb diet CAN’T include milk. Milk it full of carbs! So I gave it up and low and behold, I really did see a change in my general over all health. For the better, I think. Now, I treat milk like I do cupcakes and frosting, it is a treat only to be enjoyed in small juice glasses a few times a year! But, I do miss it!
Sorry for typos! I have two sore fingers!
The world is evidently divided into two kinds of people: those who like milk, and those who do not.
Almost certainly a genetic condition.
If you don’t like milk, perhaps you are fully or mildly lactose-intolerant, and your body knows it.
Cream in the morning coffee, vanilla ice cream, homemade kefir, and cheese are yummy. But a glass of milk is unappealing to my taste buds.
Milk, cheese yogurt. Love them. Maybe it’s my northern European genes. Ice cream with dulce de leche. But limited amounts.
While I do like beer a lot, beer and cookies is isn’t as appealing. Ditto for beer in my oatmeal and on my frosted shredded wheat nugget- thingys.
As as Good Badger, I love milk. Essence of Cow is even better liked than beer here in WI. All Hail the Sacred Holstein! Dean’s Dairy makes a chocolate milk called True Moo, that is so good you wonder how it can be legal to sell! It is made with whole milk, and is soooo rich.
A higher risk of death? I thought it was 100% for everybody.
Strangely enough, I am having a glass of skim milk as I read this. I love milk – ice cold. I am not giving it up.
Artfldgr: Thanks for the interesting info on redheads. I love red hair and always notice those who have it.
I have a daughter who does not drink milk and never has (she would probably associate with the verb “detest”), and my sons are not big milk drinkers. It has always struck me as odd since milk was such a normal part of life in my childhood. I drank at least a half gallon a day. Before going to bed in my teen years I drank a quart in one or two gulps every night, and it was at least a quart and a half box of cereal (or more) every morning.
It wasn’t a conscious effort, but at some point in adulthood I noticed I had stopped drinking milk. It must have happened some time in College, or shortly after.
Obviously, all mammals “outgrow” milk. Humans are the only species that sometimes continues to drink it in adulthood.
Artfldgr,
As someone married to a red-head for almost a quarter of a century I can vouch for their innate tendency to take over the world (or whatever borders they find in their immediate vicinity)!
In my mis-spent youth I never paid attention to hair color; I didn’t see any reason to limit the pool of potential dates by anything other than gender, but I imagine 20% or more of the women I dated were redheads, which is bizarre given their rarity in the general population. I have also met a few men who are repulsed by redheaded women, and “Ginger bashing” seems to have become quite the fad in England.
And what’s up with that strange song from Porgy and Bess?
This reminds me of PETA’s campaign for school kids not to drink milk by claiming that milk has cow piss in it.
I have also met a few men who are repulsed by redheaded women, and “Ginger bashing” seems to have become quite the fad in England.
Red hair often corresponded to the Irish.
People who listen to doctors without understanding the science are merely cows; livestock. They can tell you to do anything and people will Obey Authority, but it doesn’t mean they are free nor does it mean they are doing the right thing. They have no idea what the right thing is, after all.
Straight milk is icky. I can use it in my cereal, but can only drink chocolate milk. Oddly enough, I love buttermilk. With salt.
Rufus T. Firefly:
and I would wager that humans are the only ones who continue to drink milk of a different species.
Since genetic origin of lactose intolerance has been known more for decade, as well the drastical difference in its prevalence in different human populations, any study which does not address this issue in relation to health effects of milk consumption is garbage indeed.
“…humans are the only ones who continue to drink milk of a different species.”
Neo, so a few species other than humans used to drink interspecies milks but gave it up? Milk snakes, maybe?
The truth is they’d drink plenty of milk, if they were smart enough to figure out how.
Most of traditional diets of Mediterranean peoples use milk only in form of curd, cheese and yogurt. Which makes sense, since calcium, milk fat and vitamins are all preserved in these products and only sugars responsible for inflammatory diseases are reduced by fermentation into harmless acids.
http://scribol.com/environment/10-incredible-tales-of-interspecies-nursing/4
I agree with Wolla Dalbo about being sick and tired of these studies that constantly contradict each other.
I love milk, a very smooth taste, and it’s even skim milk I drink. Because of drinking skim milk, whole milk became much too creamy to the taste. I wish I drank 3 glasses, but that does not fit in with the daily meals, so that is not a valid determinant of liking milk.