Milk...It does a body ___?

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Vege Lenny

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Oct 9, 2005, 4:08:55 PM10/9/05

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DRINK MILK. DRINK MORE MILK. EAT CHEESE. DAIRY IS AWESOME. EVERYONE
SHOULD EAT LOTS OF DAIRY. DAIRY CAN HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT.

We see these messages all of the time. They are put forth by the
government, but even more by the dairy industry who would like you to
think that dairy food is an essential food group and the best thing
since manna.

I will not go off on my usual scientific expose of how lots of dairy
really doesn't make strong bones. But, I wanted to warn you all about
the new milk claims. The national dairy council claims:
"A growing body of research indicates that enjoying 3-A-Day of Dairy
as part of a reduced calorie diet can give adults better results when
it comes to trimming the waistline than cutting calories alone."
This claim is all over the place: advertisements, milk cartons,
billboards. They are at scientific meetings telling doctors to tell
their patients, "Drink more milk!"

But the research behind their claims does not merit the campaign they
are raising. A few points from a recent CSPI article:
¦ Only three small published studies have found greater weight loss
in people who were told to cut calories and eat dairy foods, and all
were
done by one researcher with a patent on the claim.
¦ The government's expert nutrition advisory panel has called the
evidence on dairy and weight loss "inconclusive."
¦ Two new studies have found that dairy foods don't help people
lose
weight.

Please read the whole article. It's only 3 pages:
http://cspinet.org/nah/09_05/milking.pdf

I could say more, but I think the CSPI article covers the issue well.
When I confronted a Dairy Dietician at a recent meeting with the
research, she said: "It mainly works for people who are calcium
deficient. And we assume most Americans are." A little deceiving??
When I pressed her further on the research she said,
"Well there are more studies coming out soon." Well then isn't it
little premature to deceive the American public???

In response PCRM is suing the dairy industry for these false claims and
petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on false
advertising: http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/dairy_deception.html.