Milk and Dairy

May 10, 20216 min read

Milk Intro

Breast-feeding is one of the most important aspects of mammals nursing their young to optimal size and health. Breast milk comes with essential nutrients designed to give us energy and support our growth as newborns. Humans of all ages have added mammalian milk of other species into our diets such as cows, goats, camels, and more. We have taken the original purpose of animal milk and commodified it for our pleasure. As the popularity of these products has grown, there have been big efforts from marketing campaigns and health entities to misguide the public away from their negative health effects. Over the past 15 years, there has been a significant decrease in the consumption of milk and dairy products from animals. More people are becoming aware of the unethical industry practices, health concerns, and environmental concerns produced by the dairy industry. With much healthier, great-tasting plant alternatives on the rise, consumers have their questions about the differences in products. Let's take a detailed look into a comparison between animal milk and plant milk!

Mammals are classified by having the following traits:

body hair or fur
nurse their young through mammary glands
warm-blooded
vertebrates
give birth through womb (most cases)

Breastmilk is specifically defined for babies to receive the proper nutrients to grow. If we are looking for the perfect formula for our macronutrients why not look to our first food's composition. Human breastmilk's ratio of macros look like this:

Lactose (Carbs) - 52% - 61%

Protein - 25% - 28%

Fat - 7% - 10%

If those ratios look familiar, it's because they're almost identical to the recommended macronutrients for a natural Whole Food Plant-based diet. Nature definitely doesn't make mistakes! Human milk contains thousands of bioactive molecules protecting against inflammation and infections while promoting a healthy immune system and organ development. The fats in breastmilk are very important in the development of the brain, nerves, and organs. Human milk is made to grow our brains quickly and our bodies slowly. Our intelligence and brain size is the main difference between us and other animals in the animal kingdom. The human brain reaches half of its adult size in the first 9 months and is almost 3/4 of adult size by 2 years old. Lactose is the primary sugar and source of carbohydrates in mammalian milk. Lactose is broken down by lactase in our bodies to be properly digested. In the majority of mammals, lactase levels are high as infants. They decrease rapidly after weaning (because it's for babies!). It is hypothesized that before the domestication of animals, it was humans' natural condition to not be able to digest breastmilk as adults due to the downregulation of lactase. That's why for most people consuming dairy products results in farting, bloating, nausea, and cramping. However, some Eurasian cultures that have consumed cow milk for a long time have experienced a genetic adaptation referred to as lactase persistence. In these people, their lactase levels remain high throughout adulthood.

Dairy for muscle gain, strength, and protein?

Why do so many people refer to bovine (cow) products for protein and strength? It could have to do with the high BCAA content in animal products that help promote growth. But, we should ask ourselves, is growth always beneficial? BCAA's or Branched-Chain Amino Acids consist of these 3 amino acids: Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine. Leucine is considered to have a huge impact on physical growth and is well sought after by strength and power athletes. What is lesser promoted is the fact that consuming high amounts of BCAA's (especially Leucine) has a rapid growth effect for not just muscles, but also cancer cell proliferation, weight gain, and aging hormones! High BCAA levels have been directly linked to obesity in children and may predict future insulin resistance. Whey protein which derives from dairy is rich in BCAA, therefore, has the same effects. Along with whey, casein is a major protein found in milk. In a study, prostate cancer cells were treated with casein and saw up to a 228% increase in proliferation. Casein consumption from milk has shown a relation to the development of Type 1 AND Type 2 diabetes. Cow milk consumption has been directly associated with numerous cancers and chronic diseases. The question should be "Can we get all of the muscle-building protein we need from plants?" The answer is a big YES! There are tons of top-performing athletes in all sports that are vegan and use all plant milks that have all of the same nutrients in healthier plant form. No chronic diseases or side effects to deal with. Even the MYTH that soy milk (which contains the full essential amino acid profile) has estrogenic effects has been debunked by science. Let's get more into hormones and endocrine functions next!

Check out this video from Dr. Greger analyzing this study more in-depth.

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM March 13th, 2019 Volume 46

Visit https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dairy-and-cancer/ for more facts from Dr. Greger

Hormone consumption and Chronic Disease

List of hormones found in bovine milk:

IGF-1
Estrogen
PGE2
Prolactin
Thromboxane B2
Corticosteroids
Testosterone
Progesterone
Estrone
17-B Estradiol
Esteriol
More in less abundance...

All foods of animal origin contain hormones. The "standard American diet" contains a lot of animal hormones but 60-80% of sex steroids are ingested from milk products. Ingested steroid hormones are proven to increase cancer risk. Xenoestrogen is a xenohormone that imitates estrogen and is present in milk. Estradiol,which is also found in milk, is 10X more powerful than xenoestrogen. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) have shown to induce adverse health effects on human and animal health. IGF-1 is another important hormone that, in excess, has extremely negative health effects. Estrogen and IGF-1 promote breast, prostate, and endometrial tumors. Consumed estrogens play a key function in the development of endometrial cancer. A Harvard study found a significantly higher risk of endometrial cancer in postmenopausal women that consumed the most dairy. In another study, males were given a glass of milk to drink and had their hormone levels checked. After consuming milk estrogens (from a pregnant and lactating mother cow) the males saw a significant drop in testosterone and gonadotropin secretion almost immediately. Large amounts of estrogen could play a huge part in earlier sexual maturation in prepubertal children. Mammalian milk is an endocrine signaling system that activates mTORC1 which promotes cell growth (including cancer cells) and suppresses autophagy. Consuming these exogenous hormones also negatively contribute to infertility in men and women, acne issues, unusual reproductive outcomes. But wait... don't soy products have estrogenic effects just like cow milk? NO! Phytoestrogen and estrogen are two different hormones and have seemingly opposite effects on our body. Phytoestrogen found in plants has actually shown anti-estrogenic effects in the human body. Also, since soy products contain all essential amino acids making them a complete protein, they serve great for muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy. Worried about testosterone and muscle gains? DRINK SOY MILK!

Check out this video from Dr. Greger analyzing this study more in-depth.

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM September 25th, 2019 Volume 48

Visit https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dairy-and-cancer/ for more facts from Dr. Greger

What else is in milk?

Milk is known for calcium and building strong bones! But, what if that actually was a myth? In 2 different cohort studies using men and women, higher milk consumption was linked to a higher risk in fracture incidence contrary to previous beliefs. Large intakes of dairy calcium (but not non-dairy calcium) has shown to increase prostate cancer risk! Also, casein and calcium together seem to inhibit the absorption of nonheme iron resulting in iron deficiency anemia. Milk contains calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D which are supposed to support bone health but haven't shown to do so in any studies. Let's not forget vitamin D is actually a hormone and is injected into the cows to be present in their milk along with B12. Cow milk is also known to be extremely high in saturated fat and trans fat which can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Also, a key factor in the development of heart disease would be the compound TMAO which develops in our gut microbiome after consuming animals and has adverse health effects. TMAO develops from choline and carnitine in animal products. A sugar in milk called D-galactose is proven to induce aging by increasing oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. Milk contains many other things such as puss, blood, and high fat resulting in the need for heavy pasteurization (which still does not remove all contaminents).

Conclusion

Today we have learned a lot about mammalian milk and mammary glands. Breast-feeding is one of nature's amazing creations that allows newborn mammals to develop and grow the way they were intended to. Cow breast-milk is meant for a large animal whose body grows rapidly with the brain growing slower, while human breast-milk builds the brain fast and the body slower. Nature designed us that way for a reason. No other mammal drinks the milk of another species. Why do we? We are not baby calfs. Let's refrain from using products that negatively effect our health, the environment, and the animals! Next time you are in the store pick up almond milk, hemp milk, soy milk, flax milk...etc! It goes on! We have so many great options to choose from so let's make a great choice!

Disclaimer: CHEESE IS CONCENTRATED MILK

Cheese shares the majority of these issues and more! (But let's save that for its own article)

Sources

Milk and Dairy

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