From: molnar@Bisco.CAnet.CA (Tom Molnar)
Subject: Re: cow's milk
Organization: UTCS Campus Access
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:42:02 GMT

In article <1992Sep30.214714.4576@pixel.kodak.com> young@serum.kodak.com writes:
# In article <1992Sep30.133403.13519@wam.umd.edu> zedaker@next08wor.wam.umd.edu (Pamela Marie Weller) writes:
# >Hello, 
# >	Does anyone have an opinion on the new report on cow's milk by the  
# >Johns Hopkins University, et. al. ( also includes Dr. Spock )?
# 
# 	It was announced by PCRM (at least according to the news report I
# 	saw), which is revealing.  A nutritionist at the local university
# 	was quoted as saying that it certainly supports breast feeding IN
# 	THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE [...emphasis added...].  And even Dr. Spock
# 	allowed as how the announcement didn't mean that children who drink
# 	cow's milk are doomed.
# 
# >	Opinions?!?!
# 
# 	Well, you DID ask.....
# 
# 
# -Rich Young (These are not Kodak's opinions.)

Yes, Dr. Spock did say that the children weren't doomed, but he did say
that everyone, children and adults included should stop drinking milk
altogether.  Now. Period.  I heard him say that myself in an interview
on the CBC radio show "As it happens" which is broadcast all across
Canada and picked up in many places in the U.S.  He said he recently
gave up drinking milk because he wanted to reduce his chances of
coronary heart disease.  I would expect that he also gave up eating red meat
and other fatty foods as well, though he was not asked about that.

Given that milk is the number 2 beverage in the U.S. and the enormous size 
of the industry associated with it, every effort will be made to
discredit Dr. Spock and to discount any dangers associated with milk.
The government or the Dairy Bureau simply cannot accept such a
statement from Dr. Spock or the PCRM, for the ramifications are enormous.
No, any health or medication professional who avocates cesation of
consumption of milk products has to be ostracised.  No, there will have
to be more clear cut and irrefutable studies to indict dairy products,
similar to those linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer.  But who
will fund those studies?  Who wants to endure the wrath of dairy
proponents? I can't imagine that happening for many years to come.

My personal opinion on milk is that it should not be considered a healthy
food.  If people want to drink it, let them, but it is important to drop
the facade of how healthy a choice milk and other dairy products are.
They are not.  It should certainly not be considered a required food group.

Here is the article as it appeared in my local newspaper:

From the Toronto Daily Star, Wed Sep 30, 1992

Baltimore (AP) - Cookies and milk may never be the same.
	Child care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock, who long advocated drinking
cow's milk, is joining several other doctors in questioning its nutritional
value and warning of the possible harm it can cause some children.
	"This does not mean that every child that's been on cow's milk is
doomed," Spock said yesterday. But, he added, "breast-feeding is the best
milk feeding for babies.
	"I want to urge parents, especially with subsequent babies, to use
breast milk."
	Spock, 89, appeared at a news conference in Boston with Dr. Frank
Oski, director of pediatrics at John Hopkins University, and Dr. Neal
Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,
a non-profit association of 2,000 doctors that promotes preventative medicine
and alternatives to animal research.
	"There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life,"
said Oski. "It was designed for calves, it was not designed for humans,
and we should all stop drinking it today, this afternoon."
	In Baltimore Monday, Oski said milk's reputation as a calcium-rich
food that helps children grow is largely undeserved.
	Other foods, such as kale, broccoli or fish, provide more calcium
without the fat in milk, he said.  Cow's milk is often contaminated with 
traces of antibiotics, can cause allergies and digestive problems and has
been linked in a recent study to juvenile diabetes, he added.
	The American Diabetes Association has said more research is needed
on any possible milk-diabetes link.
	Spock, author of _Baby and Child Care_, said Monday he did not feel
guilty about his past endorsement of milk and urged parents not to 
overreact to the new information.
	"I don't think we should go from enthusiasm about milk to scaring
the bejeebers out of parents," he said.
	A dairy industry nutritionist charged that the pediatricians were
"trying to slant the message to impose what they believe is right for everybody 
in terms of dietary recommendations." "There are a lot of great things
about milk," said Greg Miller, a nutritionist with the Chicago-based U.S.
National Dairy Council.


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