Milk is bad for your health! But where to get the calcium from???

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Recently my friends Sham and Carole voiced their opinion that they need to drink milk in order to meet their daily calcium requirement. When I told them that drinking processed milk is actually detrimental to health, they did not believe me… of course. The media and dairy boards worldwide did a good job in making us believe we need to include processed milk into our diets to take care of our body’s calcium requirements! This is definitely far from the truth and I promised to write a detailed report with all the evidence. Here it is:

First, I don’t want to debate here, if it is ethical to drink another mammal’s milk, which is actually meant to feed the calf. But it is an interesting thought and you might like to give it some consideration. Another fact is that most milk cows are worn out after only 4 to 6 years, while the natural lifespan of a cow is around 25 years. In order to produce these vast amounts of milk, their genes are manipulated and they are kept in a constant cycle of pregnancy, lactating and milking. And finally, you need to be aware of the environmental impact of cattle farms. Did you know, that only 10,000 cows produce waste equivalent to the household waste of a city of 1, 6 million inhabitants? That animal agriculture consumes intense amounts of water and emits so much ammonia into our atmosphere that it threatens the air quality and contributes highly to the acidification of our waters and soils?

Second, you might have already noticed I’m always referring to “processed” milk, not organic raw milk, which on the contrary has at least a high nutritional value, but you will get it only straight from the farmer or in health food shops.

The milk you can buy in any supermarket is either pasteurized, ultra high temperature processed (UHT), homogenized and/or fortified. The result is a far cry from the original raw milk, but who has ever tasted fresh, unprocessed milk straight from the cow? I was fortunate to grow up with it, and the most delicious thing was to leave the milk outside in a low dish for a day or two. The natural bacteria of the milk fermented into homemade sour milk (yoghurt), leaving all the cream (milk fat) on top. Yummy! Try that with the processed milk….it will turn into a foul smelling disgusting something, isn’t it?

Let me explain these different processes and how they affect your health.

Pasteurization is a process that uses temperatures below boiling to reduce the bacterial count. The real reason for pasteurization is to make milk less perishable, so it can be easier distributed and stored refrigerated up to 7 or 10 days. The opponents of raw milk argue that pasteurization makes milk safer, because it will kill most of possibly harmful bacteria. I certainly agree that pasteurization kills bacteria, but I also would never buy milk produced by a conventional dairy farm, because, despites an inferior milk quality, the risk of contamination with pathogenic bacteria is much higher due to the ways they treat their cows. You will be surprised that milk’s available calcium is cut in half through the process of pasteurization! And if you think the low-fat milk is healthier, you’re wrong again. It makes calcium unabsorbable because fat is an essential part of the transportation and absorption of calcium

Milk is a living product because of the good bacteria! Unfortunately, pasteurization will not only kill the bad bacteria, but the good ones too. During this process the membranes of the bacteria cells are broken open and releasing so called cytotoxins. These substances are foreign to our body and we therefore can react to with immune responses like asthma attacks and mucus production, as well as tearing eyes or inflammation. Let me say it again: pasteurization will not remove the dead bacteria, nor will it remove the cytotoxins.

UHT, or ultra high temperature treatment, takes this process a step further. It is a partial sterilization by heating milk for a short time at a temperature exceeding 135°C (275°F) and results in an extended self live of 6 to 9 month, no refrigeration required! This alters also the characteristic taste of milk. Needless to say, that this product has not much in common with milk.

Ok. The next process they force the milk through is called “homogenization”. The milk industry says it is done to prevent the natural separation of cream from the rest of the emulsion. You may not know, if you never bought raw milk, that the fat in milk normally separates from the water and collects at the top. What’s wrong with that, I’m asking you? You would only need to shake the bottle! That’s why the real reason for homogenization is, that the industry takes all the (butter)fat out of the milk to make butter and then add milk powder to the strapped milk for the better taste and according to the fat content that’s stated on the label!

Homogenization breaks up the fat globules into smaller sizes so that they no longer float on top, but are rather evenly suspended in the milk. This is accomplished by forcing the milk at high pressure through small orifices, that unfortunately will also destroy the butterfat structure and releases enzymes that are not suppose to be in the milk. Not only can they cause problems in your intestines, but also heart diseases are related to homogenized milk. Epidemiological researchers (these are the ones that study the origin and spread of diseases) have also found correlations between breast/prostate cancer and milk consumption. Milk can cause acne, increases childhood diabetes and, you may have never heard about, the risk of bone fractures!! Let me also remind you, that milk from conventional dairy farms are contaminated with pesticides and genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.

Are you having any more doubts about milk being hazardous to your health?

Ok, then we can start talking about milk and calcium.

Evidence is coming up everywhere, that milk is not a good source for calcium. But of course, this information can hardly be found in mainstream media. The head of the “Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine“, Neal Barnard, says, “It would be hard to imagine a worse vehicle than milk for delivering calcium to the human body”. This nonprofit organization was founded in 1985 and promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research. They have gathered over 700 links regarding the terrible effects of milk.

Furthermore a 12-year Harvard study of 78,000 women showed that those who drank milk three times a day actually broke more bones than women who rarely drank milk.

Also an Australian study has shown that people in those countries that consume the highest levels of dairy foods, break two or three times more bones than people with the lowest calcium intake! How can this be explained?

Well, milk and other dairy products, although rich in calcium, are high in animal protein. And that has been shown to create calcium loss through the urinary tract. Might the high protein consumption of the western world be the reason, why the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium is set to 1,200mg daily against the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 500 mg for children and 800 mg for adults?

Interestingly also, that areas of the world where dietary protein is very low have low national calcium recommendations, like in Thailand, where the RDA is set at 400mg for all ages! Inuit’s’, in contrast, consuming daily up to 400 grams of protein through fish and even though their RDA of calcium is set at 2,000 mg daily, they show the highest rate of osteoporosis in the world!

So how does a high protein diet affect our health?

Milk, cheese and other dairy products, coffee, black tea, meat, fish, eggs, pasta, sugar, bread and all deep fried junk food forcing the body to produce profuse amounts of acid, because to digest these foods, our stomach produces hydrochloric acid. In order to maintain a pH balance in the blood and to neutralize strong stomach acids, the body needs massive amounts of calcium. It alkalizes the acidic digestive mixture when it enters the bloodstream. Later, when they will be excreted with other metabolic wastes, calcium compounds can get stuck in the kidneys causing kidney stones, or in the gall bladder producing gallstones.

A diet high in animal protein depletes calcium also through excess protein turning into urea in the liver. This creates a diuretic action in the kidney that let the calcium (together with other minerals) escape through the urine. Interestingly vegetarians rarely get kidney stones.

When the body uses calcium to neutralize the acidic mixtures, it creates a negative calcium balance which will result in osteoporosis! That shows us, that protein consumption has the greatest impact on calcium depletion of the bones, even greater than the level of calcium intake through diet.

Harvard professor Mark Hegsted explains that we adapt to low calcium intake by using what is available. On the contrary, high calcium intake causes the body to decrease the amount of calcium that is absorbed and excreting the excess. This is another explanation for why people with low calcium consumption still manage to form healthy skeletons.

Also Dean Ornish, MD (author of “Eat More, Weigh Less) shares this view. He writes, “The real cause of osteoporosis in this country is not insufficient calcium intake, it’s excessive excretion of calcium in the urine…..Vegetarians, in contrast, excrete much less calcium, and this is why they have very low rates of osteoporosis even though their dietary intake of calcium is lower than those on a meat-eating diet.”

Let me sum it up: While calcium is important for bone health, increasing consumption does not improve bone integrity! Milk and other dairy products are actually a bad source of calcium because they are also loaded with cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics, and saturated fats and lead even to excretion of calcium into the urine.

You don’t need more than approximately 600mg calcium per day and this is an amount that can be easily achieved without dairy products or calcium supplements, provided you reduce intake of animal protein and increase your intake of fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Not a single nutrient can be found in dairy products that cannot be found in other sources!

Let me just state here the plant products with the highest calcium content per 100 grams (3.5 oz):

Sesame seeds 1000mg, Seaweed 600mg, Sardines in oil 550 mg,Tahini 420 mg, Blackstrap Molasses 400 mg, Leeks 360 mg, Flaxseeds 255 mg, Almonds 216 mg, Mustard Spinach 210 mg, Kale 205 mg, Dandelion Greens 200 mg, Turnip Greens 200 mg, Raw Garlic 181 mg, Cuttlefish 180 mg, Brazil Nuts 169 mg, Dried Figs 162 mg, Anchovy 147 mg, Okra 120 mg, Watercress 120 mg, Pak Choi 105 mg, Olives 90 mg.

Please note, that oxalic acid, which is found in spinach, rhubarb, chard, and beet greens binds with the calcium in those foods and reduces its absorption. These foods should not be considered good sources of calcium compared to the ones I stated above. Another advantage of a plant based diet is also that you will get enough of magnesium, one more essential mineral that is needed to absorb calcium.

I don’t think it is very difficult to obtain your calcium from these resources. You agree?

If you, in addition, make sure you’ll get enough vitamin D (through sunlight), which promotes calcium absorption and helps form and maintain strong bones and some weight bearing exercises (pulling builds bones!) then you’re basically all set to prevent osteoporosis.

If this all has not convinced you yet, I have only one final remark:

How do the largest animals that walk the earth, like the elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, horse and cow grow these massive skeletons without the aid of cow milk and calcium supplements?