Milk - Does the Body Good?

For years I suffered with allergies and severe, chronic sinus infections before I made the connection between my stuffy nose and what I was eating. It was milk products that seemed to be the source of my sinus problems. You mean my beloved Jamocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream is a force of the enemy?

After weeks of denial, I finally resolved to be one of those people who suffered from lactose intolerance, or more specifically, a real allergy to milk – and began to consider therapy for my withdrawal symptoms to all things dairy. (At least I wasn’t allergic to chocolate!) But two years ago, as I began researching health and wellness issues, I ran across source after source, challenging the milk industry’s claims that milk helps build strong bones, prevents osteoporosis, or is even a great source of calcium.

As it turns out, milk is linked to a wide array of illnesses including heart disease and prostate cancer, as well as diabetes, sinus problems, irritable bowel syndrome and digestive problems. (And remember, I’m only giving you tid-bits, here.) Suddenly, my bowl of Baskin Robbins didn’t seem so appetizing!

It kind of makes sense if you think about it. What if we traveled to a remote village in Africa and our tribal friends offered us a nice tall glass of fresh-squeezed elephant milk? What if we witnessed our neighbor milking his cat for his morning bowl of cereal? We only think it’s normal to drink the breast milk of a cow because we’ve done it all our lives.

So what’s the flipside? If we lay off the milk, how do we get our calcium, right? Well, I found out that excellent sources of calcium include rich greens, sesame seeds, beans, nuts, and uh… sardines. (We’ll just pretend we didn’t know about that last one.)

I’m only here to be the messenger, so you may want to do your own research. But be aware that milk may not do the body good after-all. Pass it on.

The main source of information in this post is a book called Ultra-Prevention, by Mark Hyman, M.D. and Mark Liponis, M.D. I highly recommend it, and it may be found at Barnes & Noble.