Does milk do a body good? Maybe not, a new study suggests

[n2doc]

Got milk? If you’re drinking it to prevent bone fractures or to boost your overall health, you might want to go back to the fridge and opt for a yogurt or a slice of cheese instead.

A new study in the journal BMJ casts doubt on the widely held view that milk can help adults ward off hip fractures and broken bones. After tracking more than 100,000 Swedish men and women for up to 23 years, the study authors saw no link between milk consumption and fracture risk. However, they did find that avid milk drinkers were more likely to die at younger ages than their counterparts who drank little to no milk.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise everyone over the age of 8 to consume three cups of milk per day or the corresponding amount of yogurt, cheese or other dairy products. Many European countries offer similar suggestions. After all, milk is a convenient source of calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus, three nutrients that are important for bone growth.

However, the researchers -- from the Uppsala University, the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish National Food Agency -- wondered whether this advice was scientifically valid. No randomized clinical trials have shown that drinking milk causes the risk of fractures or premature death to fall, and observational studies that might reveal an association between milk and better health have had mixed results.

more

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-sn-milk-health-risks-20141029-story.html#page=1

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. most peoples of the world are lactose intolerant.

We are the only mammal that drinks it past puberty. Some people northern europeans evolved to cintinue producing acidophillis which breaks down the sugar lactose beyond weaning...being lactose intolerant is acually the norm

[Salviati]

3. Not just Europeans...

Lactose tolerance is neat because there are actually several different populations that have independently evolved to be able to digest lactose in adulthood. The European population is the largest, but there are also groups that independently evolved the trait in Western Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

There's a neat map at the following link where you can see each of these population centers as hotspots on a map of lactose tolerance.
http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471#/lactasemap

[djean111]

2. I have not had a glass of milk for 45 years. Adore cheese, sour cream, would eat a lot of yogurt,

but too much sugar and carbs. I add butter to pretty much everything but jello. Butter is one of my food groups. My cholesterol is just fine.
Just the thought of drinking milk is yucky to me, dunno why. Glad I am not missing out on anything.

[Warpy]

4. Agreed. Milk is horrible stuff

I became lactose intolerant at five with a mother who thought I'd die if she didn't pour huge glasses of it down my neck at every meal. When the diarrhea got especially bad, she'd allow me iced tea or a little glass of beer with the evening meal.

Good days are when she'd leave the room just long enough for me to pour it down the sink. I also managed to give the cartons away in school.

I can tolerate cultured stuff like sour cream and yogurt. I get ice cream when I'm constipated.

For recipes calling for milk, I have instant soymilk.

And yes, butter is a food group. My last cholesterol was 170.

ETA: I'm convinced cheese was discovered by lactose intolerant people hiding gourds of the stuff in the back of the cave and people finding it later as something that looked and tasted good, a solid foodstuff that came in very handy when hunting and gathering wasn't producing enough.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. I go through phases.

Sometimes I crave it. But really, I am craving sugar, I believe.

~ littlemissmartypants 🙆

[tridim]

6. Did the avid milk drinkers take Vitamin K2?

Because getting too much D and Calcium without it is dangerous.

I have yet to meet a doctor that even knows K2 exists.

[Dorian Gray]

7. Do most people

drink more than three glasses a day?

My daughter (four) drinks a glass a day of whole milk. Her dentist suggests it for strong bones. I have some once in awhile with cereal, but don't like drinking it straight up. If I make a smoothie I prefer coconut milk, which doesn't have the protein that regular whole milk has.

I think that there is room in our diets for it, but, like anything else, moderation.