A review of 500 literature on milk done by Dr. Robert Kradjian is said to focus mainly on intestinal colic, intestinal irritation, intestinal bleeding, anemia, allergic reactions in infants and children as well as infections such as salmonella. There is the fear of viral infection with bovine leukemia virus or an AIDS-like virus as well as concern for childhood diabetes. Also discussed in these literatures is contamination of milk by blood and pus as well as a variety of chemicals and insecticides.

Among children the problems were allergy, ear and tonsillar infections, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, colic and childhood diabetes. In adults the problems seemed centered more around heart disease and arthritis, allergy, sinusitis, and the more serious questions of leukemia, lymphoma and cancer. According to Kradjian, none of the authors said milk was a perfect food. As if to concur to findings that milk is not good for the human body, its composition is now being sought to be altered but that it is accepted that only one institution is incapable of doing this venture.

Why milk and dairy products are bad

Not a perfect food. That milk is a perfect food is a dairy industry myth. Outside of milk containing a wide range of disease-causing substances that can have a cumulative negative effect on all who consume it, milk lacks other elements.

In 1930 Dr. G.O. Burr in Minnesota working with rats found that linoleic acid deficiencies created a deficiency syndrome. This finding is said to be relevant in that in the early 1960s, pediatricians found skin lesions in children fed formulas without the same linoleic acid. Remembering the research, the addition of the acid to the formula was said to cure the problem. Cows' milk where much of public consumption comes from is markedly deficient in these when compared to human milk.

Milk also lacks iron. All physicians are aware of the association of milk with anemia and occult intestinal bleeding in infants. This is due chiefly from this lack of iron and its irritating qualities for the intestinal mucosa. Milk can, in fact, make one anemic while it is mistaken as the perfect food. Besides, milk causes sinus and respiratory problems in that it does produce and thicken the mucus in the respiratory system.

It's not best source of calcium. Milk is loaded with calcium but it not a good calcium source for humans because of its high-protein content. People are concerned about calcium, intending to build strong bones and be protected against osteoporosis; therefore milk is out of this intention. Excessive amounts of dairy products actually interfere with calcium absorption.

On the other hand, a list proposed by the "Not Milk" campaign shows milk containing less calcium per given amount than other foods. Raw turnip greens or cooked turnips, watercress, and seeds such as sunflower or sesame all contain larger amounts of calcium compared to milk. The foods are recommended instead of milk because while they have the better levels of calcium, they don't have the harmful protein to be avoided.

It's not the best source of protein. Excessive protein in milk is a major cause of the osteoporosis problem. Referred to as "liquid meat," milk is a rich source of protein. However, it is not necessarily what human beings need. It is, in fact, the source of difficulty.

Virtually all Americans, Canadians, British and European people are in a protein overloaded state. When maintained over decades, this can have serious consequences. The problems from protein overuse are readily osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and kidney damage. Certain malignancies, chiefly colon and rectal, are said to be related to excessive meat intake. In 1993, Barry Brenner, an eminent renal physiologist, pointed out that this now includes kidney trouble. With the human milk having the lowest (0.9%) percent protein in mammals, nature suggests that man is not supposed to ingest the milk of other species.

There are impurities in milk. Most cow's milk have measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, up to 52 powerful antibiotics, blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses, including such things as radioactive fallout from nuke testing. As a source of large quantities of environmental chemicals, like DDT, milk can affect one's health and the health of a mother's offspring during pregnancy and nursing. This can happen because cows are allowed to graze on pesticide-sprayed pastures and are given chemicalized feed, antibiotics and hormones. Moreover, the concentration of pesticides, strontium 90, iodine 131, bio-recycled antibiotics and hormones that end up in milk are at unacceptable levels in terms of daily intake cumulatively over time.

It is said that fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds, allegedly accomplished by drugs, antibiotics, hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding.19 Dairy cows now are injected with genetically engineered versions of their own growth hormones which makes greater milk production possible. The "new milk" is different from the "old milk" because accordingly, biotechnology has made possible cows being treated with the genetically engineered bovine protein containing increased levels of potent growth factors.

Milk doesn't do the body good. The medical profession and the media encourage the public to drink milk and eat dairy products because "it does the body good". Nothing could be further from the truth, however, according to Dr. John McDougall. In fact, as early as the stage of babies, the risk of influenza and spinal meningitis for bottle-fed babies is as much as sixteen times greater than the risk for breastfed babies.

Recent, comprehensive studies involving thousands of babies that were bottle-fed found a direct correlation with the development of immune system disorders, including diabetes, chronic liver disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, spastic bowel disease, food allergies, obesity, coronary heart disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Milk is not readily broken down. Lactose is the principal carbohydrate of milk. Seemingly, nature provides new-borns with enzymes to metabolize lactose, but by age 4 or 5 years, this ability often extinguishes. Lactose or milk sugar is a disaccharide said to be too large to be absorbed into the blood stream without first being broken down into monosaccharides, namely galactose and glucose. This requires the presence of an enzyme, lactase plus additional enzymes, to break down the galactose into glucose. After age 5, there is none of these enzymes to speak of.

At least half of the adult humans on this earth are lactose intolerant. Certain racial groups, namely blacks are said to be up to 90% lactose intolerant as adults. Caucasians are 20%- 40% lactose intolerant. Orientals are midway between the above two groups. Diarrhea, gas and abdominal cramps are the results of substantial milk intake in such persons. Most American Indians cannot tolerate milk. This is one reason then that geneticists want to splice genes to alter the composition of milk

Milk is being attempted to be modified. Amidst public complaints about milk, the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (WAAESD) came up with a statement of wanting to modify milk fat composition for improved manufacturing qualities and consumer acceptability. WAAESD gave out a statement of issues and justification and said changes will be done primarily through specialized diets to dairy cows. Milk fat composition, the association said, also can be altered by manufacturing processes. These practices, however, may compromise flavor, mouthfeel, or other physical properties of the modified dairy products. Increased unsaturation of milk fat may also cause problems with oxidative stability, which may or may not be alleviated by supplementing with vitamin E and may cause rejection of milk by consumers.

The Effects of Milk and Milk Products
CANCERS. Several cancers, such as ovarian cancer, have been linked to the consumption of dairy products. The milk sugar lactose is broken down in the body into another sugar, galactose. In turn, galactose is broken down further by enzymes. According to a 1989 study by Daniel Cramer and his colleagues at Harvard, when dairy product consumption exceeds the enzymes' capacity to break down galactose, it can build up in the blood and may affect a woman's ovaries. Add to this the fact that some women have particularly low levels of these enzymes, and when they consume dairy products on a regular basis, their risk of ovarian cancer can be triple that of other women. The Jerome Westin study of 1993 also echoes this finding.

SYNTHETIC HORMONES. Outwater's study links breast and prostate cancers to consumption of dairy products, presumably related, at least in part, to increases in a compound called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I). These are echoed in the study of Chan et al. and one done on World Cancer Research Fund. This IGF-I hormone is found in cow's milk and has been shown to occur in increased levels in the blood by individuals consuming dairy products on a regular basis. Other nutrients that increase IGF-I are also found in cow's milk. A recent study showed that men who had the highest levels of IGF-I had more than four times the risk of prostate cancer compared with those who had the lowest levels.

Even lung cancer has been associated with milk ingestion. The beverage habits of 569 lung cancer patients and 569 controls at Roswell Park were studied in the International Journal of Cancer, April 15, 1989. Persons drinking whole milk 3 or more times daily had a 2-fold increase in lung cancer risk when compared to those never drinking whole milk.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE. Dairy products - including cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt - contribute significant amounts of cholesterol and fat to the diet. Diets high in fat and saturated fat can increase the risk of several chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease. A low-fat vegetarian diet that eliminates dairy products, in combination with exercise, smoking cessation, and stress management, can not only prevent heart disease, but may also reverse it.

OSTEOPOROSIS. Milk is claimed to prevent osteoporosis, yet clinical research shows otherwise. The Harvard Nurses' Health Study which followed more than 75,000 women for 12 years, showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. In fact, increased intake of calcium from dairy products was associated with a higher fracture risk.

VITAMIN D TOXICITY. Consumption of milk may not provide a consistent and reliable source of vitamin D in the diet. The study of Jacobus shows that samplings of milk have found significant variation in vitamin D content, with some samplings having had as much as 500 times the indicated level, while others had little or none at all. Baby's milk that come in boxes and cans can taste bitter due to unequal mixing of ingredients where they may have too much of one thing, and too little or nothing of another. Too much vitamin D can be toxic and may result in excess calcium levels in the blood and urine, increased aluminum absorption in the body, and calcium deposits in soft tissue.

Other effects of habitual milk ingestion are mentioned from researches done by Robert Cohen who gives some of the reasons for going zero on diary products that includes milk. Accordingly - Heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure, are found six times more in milk drinkers. Diabetes, autism, schizophrenia, and milk antibodies are found in the blood of diabetic children. Antibiotic residues of 30 to 80 different antibiotics found in milk cause chronic resistant infections; and pesticide residues are linked to cancer, chronic fatigue, and infertility. Moreover, hormone residues found in milk cause menstrual problems and osteoporosis.

The alternatives
Milk is a familiar, one-of-a-kind beverage consumed by humans and other animals. But humans are said to place themselves in the odd position of being the only animals that consume milk after weaning. Moreover, humans do not only drink human milk, but drink the milk of other species, and do so commonly throughout their adult lives.

There are new alternatives to milk have stormed the markets such as calcium-enriched juices, soymilk, and rice milks. In Asian markets, powdered calcium is a popular commodity, often spooned into a pot of rice or soup. Milk and other dairy products are large parts of many diets around the world, but Lee & Wei say these are not smart choices. Milk is familiar yet an ever-changing substance. This may explain the "new milk" and "old milk" constructs of Cohen in Milk - the deadly poison.

There are plenty of plant sources for calcium, and these include citrus fruits, legumes, nuts, soy, and anything green. Fruits and vegetables yield an alkaline ash, and don't deplete calcium stores unlike meat, eggs, milk products, and fish that are the most acid-forming foods. Whereas the latter are high protein diets that can lead to a gradual decrease in bone density, vegetable proteins do not have such effect, having no cholesterol and have vastly less saturated fat.

According to separate studies of Finn, Nordin and Reid one can decrease one's risk of osteoporosis by reducing sodium and animal protein intake in the diet, increasing intake of fruits and vegetables, and ensuring adequate calcium intake from plant foods such as leafy green vegetables and beans, as well as calcium-fortified products such as breakfast cereals and juices, and exercising. Incidentally, potassium, magnesium, and fruit and vegetable intakes are found associated with greater bone mineral density in elderly men and women.

Milk proponents think one should get one's calcium "from exactly the same place the cow gets the calcium, from green things that grow in the ground," mainly from leafy vegetables. As for the key to the osteoporosis riddle, one is suggested not look at calcium, but at protein.

Milk can be thought of as "liquid meat" because of its high protein content which, in concert with other proteins, may actually leach calcium from the body. Countries that consume high protein diets (meat, milk and dairy) have the highest rates of osteoporosis. By inference, therefore, it is not a matter of how much calcium one ingests, but how much one does not lose.

Milk can be concluded to be bad for the human body. Four most important diseases associated with habitual milk ingestion are cancer (ovarian, breast and prostrate), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Researches mentioned in this study, notably those of Hans Larsen, Robert Kradjian, Robert Cohen, and the doctors' group, particularly the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) substantiate several deficiencies of milk and its propensity to channel diseases to the human body mainly through chemical impurities, bacteria, and synthetic hormones.

Judging also from the persistent protests registered by Robert Cohen and his NotMilk group, characterized by his 90-day hunger strike over the rBGH growth hormone allowed for Monsanto Chemical company by FDA, and the cases Cohen had filed, it can be inferred that something is quite wrong about animal milk being ingested by human beings.

Furthermore, there is this obvious unethical practice to consider: that of forcing cows to produce milk beyond normal capacity by injecting rBGH growth hormone until these animals incur mastitis of the udder from overload. With this, concerned government institutions cannot be said to be in the right about milk for being insensitive to animal needs. Watchful groups like the Vermont public interest research group (VPIRG) would not have sprang up if not for questionable interventions being made on food chains allowed by the FDA.

The call of the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (WAAESD) based in Colorado to have the composition of milk modified - for public acceptability - implies that milk is indeed "unacceptable, "a health risk to human beings. Finally, if people wanted labels in what they buy and the FDA does not require them in sensitive cases like milk with rBGH hormones, milk can be said to have really reached a very risky status of a politicized commodity whose primary purpose is business at the expense of people's lives.