One of my friends posted on FB recently that he had given up dairy products due to lactose intolerance. People’s reactions were mixed. Some shared their own digestive woes with dairy. A few expressed concern about the health impacts of a dairy-free diet. In this issue I want to explore those reactions from the perspective of healthy, sustainable eating.
What is Lactose Intolerance?
Lactose is a simple sugar found in the milk of mammals. Baby mammals produce an enzyme called lactase that enables them to digest their mother’s milk. Once weaned, however, babies stop producing lactase because they no longer need it.
In the absence of lactase, dairy consumption can cause gas, abdominal pain and bloating. Approximately 70% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. In Asia, Africa and regions of Central and South America people rarely consume dairy.
Not only are humans the only mammal that consumes milk past infant hood, we are the only ones that regularly consume the milk of another animal. Even adult cows don’t drink dairy milk. It seems to me that lactose intolerance is nature functioning as designed. One has to question whether nature intended for humans to rely on the milk of another mammal (which most of us have difficulty digesting) for optimal health.
So why is dairy consumption prevalent in Western culture? According to Britannica, lactase persistence—the ability to produce lactase in adulthood—is a genetic mutation found primarily in people of Northern European descent. Researchers theorize that people who could tolerate milk survived famines in cold climates, passing along their genetic anomaly to their offspring.
My Scot-Irish heritage may be the reason that I could eat dairy products pain-free. Over a decade ago, however, I intentionally eliminated dairy from my diet for several reasons.
Why I Don’t Consume Dairy Anymore
Bone Health
Osteoporosis runs in my family so it may surprise you that I stopped consuming dairy to protect my bones. Although I grew up believing that dairy was essential for bone health, several studies cast doubt on these claims.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence is a review published in "Osteoporosis International.” By evaluating 72 studies in 63 countries conducted over a 50-year period, researchers correlated prevalence of hip fractures with high dairy consumption. In other words, people living in countries that consume little to no dairy have the strongest bones.
You may be wondering, “Don’t we need calcium for bone health?” Yes, calcium is a very important nutrient, not just for our teeth and bones but also for the health of our nerves, muscles and heart. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends 1,000 - 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day for adults, although the guidelines are lower in other countries. The World Health Organization recommends 500 milligrams.
But many plant-based options are higher in calcium (plus lower in saturated fat) than dairy milk. This chart compares Whole Foods 365 brand dairy milk to unsweetened Silk brand non-dairy milks and Ripple, which is made with pea protein.
Nutritional content varies by brand so check the labels. Avoid flavored milks with added sugar. What we cannot deduce from the nutritional label, however, is the level of antibiotics and hormones in the milk (more on this later).
Other sources of calcium include leafy green vegetables, seeds, nuts, lentils, tofu and beans. A cup of black beans has 320 grams of calcium, which is equivalent to a cup of whole milk.
The Environmental Impact of Milk
According to the BBC, over the course of a year a daily glass of milk generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car 585 miles and consumes the same amount of water as taking a 15-minute shower every day.
The land usage requirement for dairy production—which includes raising crops to feed cattle—is 10x higher than for plant-based milk products.
Happy Cows?
Many cows spent their entire lives in an indoor pen so they are readily accessible at milking time. Dairy cows are constantly lactating, which takes a heavy toll on their health. They live for about five years compared to a typical cow lifespan of 20 years or more according to the organization Compassion in World Farming.
Dairy cows are artificially inseminated every year. They are milked year-round except for the last few weeks of each pregnancy. Once the calf is born, it is taken away and milking resumes. After 3 or 4 back-to-back pregnancies, their health is depleted and they are slaughtered for meat.
In the U.S., dairy cattle are treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to promote artificially high levels of milk production. Between 1991 and 2006, hormones increased the annual yield by nearly 5,000 pounds of milk per animal according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The use of rBGH is banned in Canada and the UK due to adverse effects on cows and safety concerns for consumers. Cows treated with rBGH are more susceptible to lameness and reproductive issues. They also receive higher doses of antibiotics since rBGH increases the risk of udder infections by 25%.
When milk arrives at a processing plant it is combined with milk from other farms. So, as mentioned earlier, we can't tell from the nutrition label whether the milk contains hormones and / or antibiotics. While many dairy farmers care about the welfare of their animals, for others cows are just a commodity.
Cancer?
The jury is out on a possible link between dairy and cancer. Dairy may be implicated in breast, ovarian, endometrial, prostate and liver cancer but—just as with studies regarding the health impacts of alcohol and nicotine consumption—the research is inconclusive. Still the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recommends limiting dairy products to 2 servings a day or less.
Personally, I wonder if the diversity inherent in agriculture products contributes to the confusion. When it comes to dairy in particular, much of the final product depends on the cow's diet, its age, how much exercise it receives, the medications that are administered and its overall stress level. So, it would be impossible for researchers to ensure that all participants in a study consume identical milk.
Your Turn
What is your relationship to cow’s milk and other dairy products? If you have comments or questions, I invite you to leave a comment below.
Watch my video on The Calcium Paradox if you want to dive deeper into the science behind the health risks associated with dairy.
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