HWD Rethinking the Role of Milk in a Healthy Diet

(0:00) Hi, this is Dr. Daniels, and welcome to Healing with Dr. Daniels.

(0:07) This is the Sunday, March 1st edition—a whole new month. Amazing! Today’s topic is whether the medical-industrial complex is rethinking the role of milk in a healthy diet. But the real question is: are they thinking at all? Today, I’m going to take a look at the new information that the medical-industrial complex is considering, and I’ll draw a few of my own conclusions. Yes, I’m going to apply a bit of my own thinking to the data—or should I say, information—they provide.

(0:42) We also want to do a coronavirus update, but first, we have to take our turpentine. Part of taking turpentine involves white sugar. I've labeled it, but it’s kind of worn off. We have a spoon, yay! We can get our white sugar out with this spoon. Of course, we need some turpentine. It’s a little bit low, but we’ve got just enough for today. And we have a little pipette—I like to use this pipette because it’s easier than a dropper. I don’t want to shortchange myself; I want to get my full half a teaspoon, which happens to be right there at the neck of the dropper.

(1:46) The turpentine has filled all the way up to the neck of the dropper. We have our spoonful of sugar. As Mary Poppins would say, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way." Okay, here we are—sugar, turpentine—squirt, squirt, squirt. I'm going to get all that on there. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Okay, and we have our water. So here we go. It does help the medicine go down—I don’t know about the delightful way part, but it helps it go down.

(2:39) Because I drink distilled water—and even if I didn’t drink distilled water—I take Shilajit, a wonderful trace mineral supplement. This is the container it’s in, as you can see—nice and gooey. I have here a little stick, and I’ve scooped up a little bit of that. Let’s see, there we go, boom, you can see it there. If we put it in our water glass, you can see it does not readily dissolve. It’s just sitting there. We can stir it up, and nothing. So we’re going to let it sit for a while while we talk about the importance of milk and also do a coronavirus update.

(3:24) Let’s just go straight to the World Health Organization. I mean, why deal with rumor and innuendo, right? Let’s just get the facts. Let’s see what the World Health Organization has to say. Okay, so we want to stick to the facts—just the information.

(3:56) What we know is that there are 77,000 known infections in China and 2,445 deaths. If you do the math, that’s a 3% death rate, which is pretty high. In the United States, the background death rate this year is 1%. That means 1% of all Americans are going to drop dead—they’re going to die. It doesn’t matter what you say they died of, they’re just going to die. How it’s classified would be a political matter. But the point is, the death rate is 3% in China, which is higher than the baseline death rate.

(4:35) But wait, in 28 other countries, there are 1,769 cases and 17 deaths. What’s the death rate? Less than 1%. So, in other words, if you are outside China and you get the coronavirus, your chances of dying this year are no greater than had you just been a healthy person walking down the street. What does this mean? There are a couple of things that are pretty obvious here, especially if you’ve been in the medical or scientific field for a long time.

(5:16) This means that whatever is being called the coronavirus in China is not the same thing causing death in the rest of the world. There’s something going on in China that is causing people to die—there are dead bodies, make no mistake—but the coronavirus is not the cause. The coronavirus detected in 28 other countries and 1,769 cases is not the same thing as what’s causing the death in China. We’re talking about two different processes, let’s just put it that way. That’s one thing.

(5:59) The next thing is, the coronavirus is simply not deadly. It’s not. It’s not any more deadly than being healthy. We know this because the death rate among those who have the virus is the same as the death rate among those who don’t have the virus, right? 0.9%. So, there we have it.

(6:23) Now, whether the World Health Organization is declaring a pandemic, this pandemic, or that pandemic is actually irrelevant. The point is, what is the answer? If you’re outside of China, nothing. What’s going on inside China? Hey, anybody’s guess. I’m not there, I can’t say. So how could you protect yourself from the coronavirus if you’re not in China? You should protect yourself from the coronavirus the same way you would protect yourself from being healthy. There you go. That’s it. Whatever precautions you take to prevent good health, just take those precautions against the coronavirus.

(7:02) That’s it. There’s the coronavirus update. I know I’m supposed to be spreading hysteria, but that’s just not my style. Again, just look at the numbers and do this math. It’s simple fourth-grade math. Leave your calculus on the shelf—it’s not necessary, not for today.

(7:14) So that’s the World Health Organization, and we’ve used their numbers. We’ve drawn our own conclusions, of course, but we have used their numbers. Which brings us to our topic of today.

(7:27) Oh my gosh. Dairy, dairy, dairy, dairy, dairy. So, as you can see, I’m of African descent. And as you can tell by my accent, I’m African American. So, I’m of African descent, culturally American, and born in America. What does that mean? That means there’s a higher probability that I’m milk intolerant—in other words, not able to drink milk, and I avoid dairy. Having said all that, I’m actually in pretty darn good health. But let’s see what the medical-industrial complex has to say about this.

(8:09) Our topic today is the medical-industrial complex rethinking the role of milk in a healthy diet. But are they thinking at all? So, I’m going to take a look at the information they are considering and what their conclusions are. And of course, I’ll share my conclusions, which, as you know, may not quite be the same. As we like to say in the scientific arena, reasonable minds may differ—and I may be taking great liberty to classify my mind as reasonable.

(8:49) Okay, here we go. We’re going to start at the beginning. Cow’s milk is creamy, filling, and delicious when ice cold. Decades—meaning more than 10 years, several groups of 10 years—of advertising have sold it to Americans as a food that does a body good. Dairy products are rich in calcium and protein, and they have long been promoted as important for helping kids grow and helping kids and adults build and maintain strong bones. But does dairy deserve its health halo?

(9:25) The only claim we have here, let’s be clear, is that you’re not going to break a bone if you eat dairy. And if you’re a kid, you’re going to get tall. Those are the two claims. So let’s just distill this down to simple terms, so we don’t get all distracted by hysteria and modifiers. The current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that just about everyone eat three servings of dairy a day. For historical perspective, the guideline when I was a child was four servings of dairy a day. My mother purchased one quart of milk per child per day. There were five kids in my family—can you imagine?

(10:23) Wow. Now, in a new review, Dr. So-and-So, MD and PhD, looks like, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard of all places, and his co-professor of Pediatrics say the science behind those dairy recommendations is thin—thin. That’s pretty incriminating. When you think about the science behind things like blood pressure therapy, which only benefits one person in 100 who’s being treated every year, or the science behind cholesterol medicines, which benefits only one person in 1,250 people who take it every year—all that stuff is science that is settled. It is not thin; it is firm science. To call some science thin means the benefit is less than one in 1,250 people per year. That’s very thin. I wouldn’t even call it evidence—thin.

(11:23) They say eating too much dairy may cause harm. So, we have a situation of no benefit and eating too much may cause harm to our bodies and the planet. I’m 63, so I’ve stopped worrying about the planet, just for your information. Again, this is a medical situation, so they’re talking about medicine and the health of people. So, taking into account the planet is not really the forum for that. This is not an environmental forum—just saying. It’s not okay to say, "Oh, we’re going to protect the environment and destroy the health of humans." This is supposedly medicine, healing, helping humans. Just saying—they’re off-topic.

(12:12) If we’re going to recommend something, it should obviously be based on strong evidence, says the doctor. He reviewed the risks and benefits of drinking milk for the New England Journal of Medicine, of all places. The basis of calcium recommendations is, I think, fundamentally flawed—in the United States, at least. In other words, you have a false premise. And if you have a false premise, you cannot possibly draw an accurate conclusion. That’s an important concept. Of course, he’s not the only one who feels that way. Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Arizona Public Health in Tucson, also agrees.

(12:56) They reviewed the science behind the dairy recommendations and concluded that the U.S. should follow Canada’s lead and ditch dairy as a separate food group. How cool is that? Instead, they recommend placing dairy foods in the protein category, making them one choice among many that would help people meet their protein requirements. In other words, they’re saying that the consumption of dairy is totally unnecessary for maintaining health. Let’s give this a straight English translation: U.S. dietary guidelines are now under review. A new version of the guidelines will be issued by a panel of experts later this year, and for the first time, will include advice for pregnant women and for children under age two.

(13:52) Interesting. "We’re not saying milk is dangerous or harmful," Jacobs says. "No matter how you slice it, Americans are moving away from milk. So let’s adapt to this change and give people more opportunity to meet their nutritional needs." Did you get that? Since people are not obeying us, let’s change our rules to something they will obey. Since we’re recommending milk and people have decided they’re not going to drink it, let’s recommend something else that they will do, giving the impression that we have power, which we don’t actually have. Not a problem—not out there.

(14:40) Now, people like me, who are totally non-conformist, have been taking liberties for some time. I would say at the age of 10, I told my mom, "I’m not drinking any more milk." No, no, no. I went to my 10-year-old brother—we’re 10 months apart, so for two months out of the year, I’m the same age—and said, "Hey, how about you drink my milk?" And he said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." So, at 10 years old, I made up my mind for myself that this whole dairy thing made no sense. Mom wanted to buy all that milk, and that’s fine. But at 10, I made a decision—a strategic move. And I didn’t wait 52 years for the medical-industrial complex to come along.

(15:28) The doctor points out that dairy farming is hard on the environment. While that might not have been a big consideration 20 years ago, climate change makes it critical to consider now. Again, this is a medical forum for the health of people, not necessarily the environment. So, the real question here is: is putting milk in your mouth healthy for you? That’s it. That’s the only consideration they should be making. Whether it’s healthy for the environment or the person sitting next to you is irrelevant. If milk is truly healthy for the individual, then you can back it up and say, "Alright, let’s find an environmentally responsible way to get milk into the bodies of people for whom it’s beneficial." But considering extraneous information like the environment and large-scale obedience is off-topic.

(16:39) While we’re drinking less dairy as a beverage, we’re still consuming more of it overall. According to the Department of Agriculture, the average American consumed 9% more dairy in 2018 than we did in 1975. Milk consumption has fallen 40%, but because it takes more milk to make products like cheese and yogurt, dairy consumption is up overall. They don’t tell you that dairy, such as whey and milk solids, are additives and fillers in pre-made or processed foods. I personally don’t buy pre-made, processed, or packaged foods, so I don’t have that particular exposure.

(17:25) The current dairy guidelines are based on the idea that we need milk to help meet calcium requirements. Honestly, I had no idea what the dairy requirements or recommendations were based on—all I knew was it wasn’t working for me. Willis says those recommendations come from studies that were small—155 men and women—and those studies were short—three weeks. Researchers measured how much calcium they ate and drank and compared it to how much they were excreting in stool and urine. The idea was to find out how much calcium the body needs to keep in balance. In adults who are finished growing, calcium balance should be zero. In other words, whatever calcium comes in should also be the calcium that leaves. In Americans, who tend to eat a lot of calcium compared to people in other countries, the studies concluded that 741 milligrams of calcium a day was enough for balance. In other countries, like Peru, where diets typically aren’t as rich in calcium and dairy products, the amount needed for balance was much less—like 200 milligrams.

(18:33) Willis says this is consistent with the idea that the body can change how much calcium it absorbs from food. When people eat less calcium, the body may simply absorb more to meet its needs. We don’t know. He also points to large population-based studies that offer snapshots of how people eat and what happens to their health. These kinds of studies have consistently shown—wait for it, wait for it—in countries where people eat the most dairy, they also have the highest rate of bone fractures. So, the big claim for dairy for adults—which is that it gives you strong bones—is simply false. If that’s the only health benefit of dairy, it’s not a health food.

(19:27) Those studies cannot prove that eating more dairy causes hip fractures, but they can prove that eating more dairy does not prevent hip fractures. In other words, preventing hip fractures is not a health consequence of dairy—that’s what the studies clearly prove. They have this convoluted reasoning that’s very confusing. At the end of reading it, you’re like, "Huh?" But the point is, nothing mitigates the study’s conclusions.

(20:07) Not everyone agrees with the study’s conclusions. In a written statement, the National Dairy Council, which represents dairy farmers, said the study did not include the total body of evidence on dairy foods. So, if the only dissenting opinion is from people who make a living selling dairy, then it’s not exactly compelling dissent. In other words, there’s a bias in there unrelated to health.

(20:25) Dairy remains an important part of a balanced diet and provides lasting and meaningful nourishment for people, the planet, and communities, says Gregory Miller, Chief Global Science Officer of the National Dairy Council. So again, this is the National Dairy Council’s bias. This guy’s being paid to have this opinion. Why should it even be here? Forget it, right? And he’s basing it on the health of the planet and communities. Let’s keep the focus. The individual putting dairy in their body—is that person benefiting? The answer is: there’s no evidence of benefit.

(21:01) Am I saying people should not eat milk? No. I’m saying milk, like alcohol or candy, is something you should eat because you want to eat it, because you feel like it, and that’s okay. But to feel you must eat it for your health, even if you don’t want it—it’s not one of those things. It’s not like a glass of water. A glass of water—drink it; it’s going to make you healthy. But dairy is absolutely not necessary for health.

(21:39) Research shows that dairy products can help control blood pressure. In my experience—hey, I only practiced medicine for what, 10 years in private practice and seven or eight years in medical school and training? It raises blood pressure. You’re not going to get your blood pressure under control eating dairy, I’ll tell you that right now. It’s tough to tease out whether milk or dairy products were responsible for any benefit.

(22:19) Its effects on other health outcomes are mixed. There were no links found between milk and getting diabetes, and there was no link between lifespan and eating dairy. So, eating dairy is not going to help you live longer. There’s no link between dairy and longevity. Again, we’re just trying to be positive here, looking for the upside. Taken together, the science shows that milk is not essential for health. I love these people who say, "Well, I’m not eating milk. What should I eat instead?" The answer is: it doesn’t matter—whatever you want. The milk wasn’t essential for health anyway.

(23:00) This tells me that milk is a food like any other, meaning its effects depend on everything else people are eating or doing. People who like milk could continue drinking it; those who don’t like it don’t have to. It’s just a food. And I’ll be more precise—it’s just a preference. Just a preference, like what color underwear you wear. There is no color underwear that’s healthier than any other color.

(23:28) Dr. So-and-So agrees. He said that if you’re a dairy underachiever, you shouldn’t worry about it. If you’re not getting any dairy in your diet at all, it’s not a bad idea to take a calcium supplement, but don’t take gobs—500 to 600 milligrams a day should be enough. Calcium supplements usually come in 1,000-milligram pills. So, I don’t eat dairy; I try to work very hard to avoid it. Occasionally, I get a smidgen, and no, I don’t take calcium supplements. And yes, I go to the trampoline park and jump up and down, up and down for about an hour several times a week. And no, I have not broken any bones at the trampoline park—just saying.

(24:18) What about kids? Again, I stopped drinking milk at the age of 10. I was still growing, didn’t go through puberty yet, and did just fine. I’d like to point out that the next generation—that would be my nieces and nephews—grew up in high-dairy households. Each one of those households had bone fractures. My household did not feed my kids dairy; did not buy dairy. If you wanted dairy, you had to walk a mile to your relative’s house to get it. My kids had no bone fractures—just saying. Not a scientific study, small sample size, only 30 kids. But every household where dairy was purchased and they had enough dairy in the fridge at all times—drink all the dairy you want, it’s healthy—they had bone fractures.

(25:21) So, it’s complicated for adults, but it’s even more complicated for kids. We have even less data. The data for adults is thin; the data for kids is thinner, which means you can’t recommend it. But let’s see what they figure out. Calcium needs for kids are trickier to figure out—they’re growing, so they naturally need more. But the role dairy should play in meeting their calcium needs is not clear.

(25:47) There’s good evidence that kids who drink cow’s milk grow taller than those who don’t. Really? Why do you think that might be? Could it be the growth hormones the mother cow puts in the milk to help the baby cow gain 800 pounds in the first year of life and grow quickly? In other words, could it have nothing to do with the calcium content of the milk? It is not known exactly how milk accelerates growth. Hmm. It looks pretty obvious to me. But the study authors say cows are often pregnant when they’re milked, which increases hormones—like estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen, of course, is a major growth hormone. Cows have also been bred to produce more of another hormone called insulin-like growth factor, which increases milk production, but those hormones may also promote growth in people. So, obviously, with all the hormones floating around, any one of them—or several of them—can promote growth.

(27:02) Excuse me, I’ll be right back. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Alright. I’m having tech issues, so we’re getting my phone so it can work, and we have to get that settled. So, we’re good.

(27:48) Alright, we have a situation here where it’s pretty obvious that milk is helping these kids grow through the multiple hormones in the milk. That’s just logical reasoning. We know these hormones cause growth; we know they’re present in milk in higher amounts. So, it’s pretty clear it has nothing to do with the calcium content of the milk or other nutritional value.

(28:28) Now again, I grew up pretty tall, and I cut out all the milk when I was 10. Now, I cut out the milk, but I want to say I did eat cheese. One study, for example, randomly assigned 240 kids, aged 8 to 15, who were not getting enough calcium in their diets, to a meal plan with three added dairy servings a day, or to continue their normal diets. After 18 months, the study found no difference in bone density between the kids who had more dairy and the ones who did not. And again, the adult studies show that drinking milk does not increase your bone strength or reduce your fractures. This suggests that the same is true for kids—you’re not going to get better bone strength in kids by feeding them milk.

(29:17) They recommend 1,000 milligrams of calcium in kids’ diets. The UK recommends half that, and of course, it doesn’t have to come from milk; they’ve got all kinds of vegetable sources. Milk is better than sugar-sweetened beverages, especially for kids. Welsh recently tested several brands of conventional and organic milk for pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. While pesticides and antibiotics were sometimes found in the conventionally farmed milk samples, none were found in the organic milk samples. That’s encouraging, especially when you’re aware of the organic milk scandal a couple of decades ago where they were just bottling regular milk in the organic cartons. It’s good to know that the milk in the organic cartons—at least at the time of this test—was free of pesticides and antibiotics, though not hormones.

(30:19) Hormone levels were also higher in the conventionally farmed samples compared to the organic samples. Pesticides and antibiotics were sometimes found in the conventionally farmed milk samples. This is shocking because there are very strict regulations, and milk is tested or supposed to be tested at the farm when it’s picked up. This is non-organic milk, regular milk, which should be rejected if antibiotics are found because it’s dangerous for humans to consume antibiotics in large amounts in milk. Considering how much milk humans consume, it’s simply not safe.

(31:13) Dr. So-and-So says if organic milk is too pricey, parents shouldn’t worry. Milk is still good for kids, especially if they’re picky eaters. But we have no evidence that milk is beneficial for children. So, as a parent, if you want to feed your kid milk, that’s fine; it’s your personal choice. But to do it for his health is misguided—it’s not going to make your kid any healthier. In terms of dollars spent per calorie or per nutritional unit, it’s probably a pretty poor choice.

(32:04) While there are advantages to drinking organic milk in that it’s free of chemicals used in milk production, we do not have evidence that this makes a difference in children’s health. What we do know is that milk, organic or not, is a readily available source of nutrients important in the diets of children. But let’s be clear—there’s an important difference. Milk can be a source of those nutrients, but milk is not essential in the diet of children.

(33:25) There’s an environmental impact of dairy, but that has no place in this discussion at all because we’re not talking about the environment. We’re talking about the environment inside your body. The environment outside your body is a totally separate matter for discussion elsewhere. The point here is the impact on the individual person. They say milk production methods can contribute to water pollution. I’ll be the first to say, distill your water, filter your water. The stuff that comes out of the tap is not a health food; it’s not going to help contribute to your health.

(33:52) The environmental impacts of dairy, if indeed dairy is beneficial for your health, can be handled and mitigated. That’s a separate discussion and really clouds the issue here. The point is, the health benefits of milk are not quantifiable. What does that mean? It means it can’t be measured; it’s so small that it can’t be measured. So, the benefit of feeding your child milk—none. The benefit of feeding him organic versus non-organic—they haven’t measured the milk benefits for adults—none.

(34:42) I think the minimum conclusion you have to draw, which I think is a reasonable conclusion, is that the presence of milk in your diet is just a matter of personal preference. It is not a mandatory food to enhance or preserve the health of the individual. The medical-industrial complex has been on the dairy bandwagon for decades—certainly 50 years that I’m aware of. So, you have to ask yourself, as I always do, what else are they wrong about? What else? We can certainly at least conclude that the medical-industrial complex is not a reliable source for information about your nutrition, minimum.

(35:02) Even this article throws in information about the environment and weighs that in. They consider the probability of people complying, the presence of advertising to support the decision, and the impact on the environment—these things have nothing to do with whether something’s healthy or not. When you have a lot of political considerations, that mitigates the health considerations. So even though this conclusion may be scientifically valid—there’s no science indicating that milk is healthy—the reasoning process explains why the medical-industrial complex had it wrong for so many decades and why, going forward, they’re unlikely to get any nutritional guidelines or medical guidelines correct. The information they are considering and the reasoning process behind it is faulty.

(36:42) More precisely, the health of the individual consuming the therapy is not the number one metric. If that’s not the number one metric, then you can’t reach a conclusion that would maximize a person’s health outcome. That’s why consuming medical care is not proven to be of any benefit to the health of the individual consuming that care. The only thing that makes sense is if you can get paid well in the industry. Any benefit that would accrue at best would accrue to employees getting a paycheck, certainly not to the unfortunate individual receiving the information, advice, or intervention.

(37:42) So, I hope that answers that question. Now, we have our Shilajit. Time to take Shilajit. Yay. There we go. Now, I want to just see if you can see how clear that is. We’re going to stir it up. Watch, watch, watch. So, it has dissolved in large part, and you can see it’s turned quite brown. And we have there a clean spatula on both sides. We have dissolved the Shilajit. Alrighty. Down the hatch. This does not taste particularly good either, but it does go down. There you go—just my need, a nice tonic.

(39:01) Alrighty. So, we’re going to take a look at questions that people have mailed in. During these broadcasts, I do answer questions that are received. If you’d like to have your question considered for being answered in a broadcast, please send an email to jdaaaniels@gmail.com. That’s jdaaaniels@gmail.com.

(59:08) Alright, awesome. We’ll see you again next week. And as always, think happens.