OTHER PROBLEMS
Let's just mention the problems of bacterial
contamination. Salmonella, E. coli, and staphylococcal infections can be
traced to milk. In the old days tuberculosis was a major problem and some
folks want to go back to those times by insisting on raw milk on the basis
that it's "natural." This is insanity! A study from UCLA showed that over
a third of all cases of salmonella infection in California, 1980-1983 were
traced to raw milk. That'll be a way to revive good old brucellosis again
and I would fear leukemia, too. (More about that later). In England, and
Wales where raw milk is till consumed there have been outbreaks of
milk-borne diseases. The Journal of the American Medical Association (251:
483, 1984) reported a multi-state series of infections caused by Yersinia
enterocolitica in pasteurised whole milk. This is despite safety
precautions.
All parents dread juvenile diabetes for their children.
A Canadian study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
Mar. 1990, describes a "...significant positive correlation between
consumption of unfermented milk protein and incidence of insulin dependent
diabetes mellitus in data from various countries. Conversely a possible
negative relationship is observed between breast-feeding at age 3 months
and diabetes risk.".
Another study from Finland found that diabetic children
had higher levels of serum antibodies to cows' milk (Diabetes Research
7(3): 137-140 March 1988). Here is a quotation from this study:
We infer that either the pattern of cows' milk
consumption is altered in children who will have insulin dependent
diabetes mellitus or, their immunological reactivity to proteins in cows'
milk is enhanced, or the permeability of their intestines to cows' milk
protein is higher than normal.
The April 18, 1992 British Medical Journal has a
fascinating study contrasting the difference in incidence of juvenile
insulin dependent diabetes in Pakistani children who have migrated to
England. The incidence is roughly 10 times greater in the English group
compared to children remaining in Pakistan! What caused this highly
significant increase? The authors said that "the diet was unchanged in
Great Britain. Do you believe that? Do you think that the availability of
milk, sugar and fat is the same in Pakistan as it is in England? That a
grocery store in England has the same products as food sources in
Pakistan? I don't believe that for a minute. Remember, we're not talking
here about adult onset, type II diabetes which all workers agree is
strongly linked to diet as well as to a genetic predisposition. This study
is a major blow to the "it's all in your genes" crowd. Type I diabetes was
always considered to be genetic or possibly viral, but now this? So
resistant are we to consider diet as causation that the authors of the
last article concluded that the cooler climate in England altered viruses
and caused the very real increase in diabetes! The first two authors had
the same reluctance top admit the obvious. The milk just may have had
something to do with the disease.
The latest in this remarkable list of reports, a New
England Journal of Medicine article (July 30, 1992), also reported in the
Los Angeles Times. This study comes from the Hospital for Sick Children in
Toronto and from Finnish researchers. In Finland there is "...the world's
highest rate of dairy product consumption and the world's highest rate of
insulin dependent diabetes. The disease strikes about 40 children out of
every 1,000 there contrasted with six to eight per 1,000 in the United
States.... Antibodies produced against the milk protein during the first
year of life, the researchers speculate, also attack and destroy the
pancreas in a so-called auto-immune reaction, producing diabetes in people
whose genetic makeup leaves them vulnerable." "...142 Finnish children
with newly diagnosed diabetes. They found that every one had at least
eight times as many antibodies against the milk protein as did healthy
children, clear evidence that the children had a raging auto immune
disorder." The team has now expanded the study to 400 children and is
starting a trial where 3,000 children will receive no dairy products
during the first nine months of life. "The study may take 10 years, but
we'll get a definitive answer one way or the other," according to one of
the researchers. I would caution them to be certain that the breast
feeding mothers use on cows' milk in their diets or the results will be
confounded by the transmission of the cows' milk protein in the mother's
breast milk.... Now what was the reaction from the diabetes association?
This is very interesting! Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, the president of the
association says: "It does not mean that children should stop drinking
milk or that parents of diabetics should withdraw dairy products. These
are rich sources of good protein." (Emphasis added) My God, it's the "good
protein" that causes the problem! Do you suspect that the dairy industry
may have helped the American Diabetes Association in the past?
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