A study published in the British Medical Journal reports that both men and women who consume at least three glasses of milk per day demonstrate a higher degree of mortality and no reduction of fractures.
Many people have been led to believe that increased dairy intake will help provide Vitamin D and calcium to help reduce osteoporosis and thus lower risk of fractures. This study demonstrates this thinking to be false.
During a period of 20 years 61,000 women and 45,000 men in Sweden were followed by diet questionnaires. For both the men and the women consuming three or more glasses of milk per day there was a significant increase in overall mortality. Milk had no benefit on bone density and in the women with the highest milk intake there was the greatest fracture rate, correlated glass by glass of milk.
The Problem with Milk Sugar
The problem focuses on the milk sugar D-galactose, which is present in high concentration in milk. The study cites multiple references to the well-known fact that “Even a low dose of D-galactose induces changes that resemble natural aging in animals, including shortened life span caused by oxidative stress damage, chronic inflammation, neurodegeneration, decreased immune response, and gene transcriptional changes”.
Furthermore, other studies have demonstrated similar concerns about milk consumption “Ecological studies suggest higher mortality rates from fracture and ischaemic heart disease in countries with high milk consumption [ischaemic heart disease is characterized by reduced blood supply to the heart]. Higher milk consumption has also been suggested to affect the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular disease”.
Milk is Not a Part of a Paleo Diet
I have been aware of the health hazards of drinking milk for many years. It is not part of a Paleo Diet, as Paleo man was unable to obtain milk from wild animals. Milk consumption became significant in man only about 10,000 years ago as we learned how to domesticate goats, sheep and cows, so they would stand still and allow being milked. But milk was certainly not part of our “genetic diet”.
There are many other health issues associated with milk as well, such as increased insulin resistance and diabetes in children who consume large amounts of milk.
Milk and dairy products in general are “nonnutritive” and inflammatory in the body.
In addition, milk is NOT a natural source of vitamin D. Vitamin D is artificially added to milk at the time of production. The only natural sources of vitamin D are from sun exposure on our skin.
This is another great article corroborating this often-overlooked important nutritional information.
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