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Health> Dairy
for Health
Dairy
for Health?
By Dan Hall
Published May 2002
Old myths tend to die hard in the medical
profession. The status quo explanation for
heart disease appears to be one of these.
For over a decade, various studies have
demonstrated a very plausible link between
increased blood levels of the amino acid
homocysteine and damaged or clogged
arteries. Research into the decrease of
homocysteine levels in the blood has made
promising headway in showing that the B
vitamin, folic acid, lowers homocysteine
levels, thus lowering incidents of clogged
arteries, regardless of the amount of bad
cholesterol within the blood. The correlation
between high levels of cholesterol consumed
and cholesterol housed within the bloodstream
has yet to be dismissed by the medical community,
but there is good cause to believe that
unregulated levels of homocysteine better
explains incidents of heart disease than
does over-consumption of cholesterol.
Harvard Medical School released a report
in the April 2002 edition of JAMA that suggested
a correlation between the consumption of
dairy products and lower risks for diabetes
and heart disease in overweight persons.
The longitudinal study involved approximately
3,000 volunteers from a variety of lifestyles.
Some of them consumed upwards of five servings
of dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt,
etc.) per day while others consumed very
few dairy products. The Harvard researchers
concluded that dairy products quite possibly,
the nutrients within dairy, such as calcium
and animal protein are capable of lowering
the body’s resistance to insulin, a
condition that can lead to diabetes and
is believed to lead to heart disease. It
was argued that five or more servings of
dairy products per day could also reduce
the risk of dyslipidemia (a disease marked
by the increase of LDL or bad cholesterol
and decrease of HDL or good cholesterol),
which supposedly increases risk factors
for heart disease. This study and others
like it are prime examples of how some scientists
refuse to update their procedures in light
of new evidence.
As aforementioned, quite a bit of evidence
exists to link unregulated homocysteine
levels with high levels of bad cholesterol
within the blood. Homocysteine damages the
walls of blood vessels, and the body produces
cholesterol to patch these damaged areas.
The more patches that exist, the thicker
the blood vessel walls become, and this
is the true cause of clogged arteries. A
well-balanced diet high in the proper nutrients
(including folic acid) is responsible for
lowering levels of homocysteine, reducing
bad cholesterol and saturated fats, and
keeping the arteries from becoming or remaining
congested.
The current Harvard study correlating the
consumption of dairy products with decreased
risk for certain diseases has left many
researchers slapping their knees and chuckling.
This study seems to contradict numerous
others that have correlated the increased
consumption of dairy products with
diseases such as diabetes. Many of these
studies also downplay the need for dairy
products in large quantities, if at all.
In fact, another Harvard study, which followed
75,000 women over a 12-year period, showed
that the consumption of dairy products not
only had no effect on the disease of osteoporosis
but could also lead to osteoporosis
due to the high inassimilable calcium content.
Other research into the damaging effects
of dairy products shows that they can cause
diabetes due to their ability to harm the
pancreas, they can cause obesity due to
their high saturated fat content, and they
can lead to many other adult and childhood
diseases such as earaches, Chrone’s
disease, and even sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS) or crib death.
So, why did the Harvard researchers correlate
the increased consumption of dairy products
with increased resistance to diabetes and
heart disease? One explanation could simply
be that they didn’t correlate
the increased consumption of dairy products
with increased resistance to diabetes and
heart disease. Typically in science, longitudinal
studies such as this one are only able to
show correlations within the test subjects.
So, the only true correlation that can be
made is that the people studied
over the 10-year period who consumed more
dairy products benefited from this consumption.
Another explanation is that this study was
merely poor science; chances are, lifestyle
choices, consumption of other foods, nutritional
supplementation, specific brands and types
of dairy products, and numerous other variables
were not considered. Thus, something else
altogether could have contributed to the
decrease in diseases such as diabetes.
Of course, the best explanation is that
overweight people are typically unhealthy
due to their diets. The increased consumption
of dairy products might have provided increased
levels of certain vitamins and minerals.
Ordinarily, dairy products are not the best
sources of nutrients as a foodstuff, but
for people who are otherwise nutritionally
deficient, dairy products could contain
certain ingredients necessary for health.
People who are normally eating diets low
in nutrition might benefit from increased
dairy products for a time, thus reducing
the short-term risks for diabetes and heart
disease; however, long-term dairy consumption
will increase saturated fats within the
bloodstream, decrease nutrients, harm the
cellular structure of the pancreas, and
increase risks for diabetes and high blood
levels of homocysteine. The Harvard study
failed to include this information, and
the media failed to report the scientific
facts as they should have been reported.
Dan Hall is a freelance
writer based in Atlanta, GA, the author
of You Can't Catch a Cold and other
books on disease-free living and longevity,
and an accomplished musician and Webmaster.
For more information, visit his official
site at http://www.endlesspath.com
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