Stay Healthy - Don't Drink Animal Milk

Did you know that human's are the only animal that consumes another animals milk?

I love ice cream. I love yogurt. I love cheese. I stopped eating these foods, at age 71. I'm now 73.

I still love ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. Why did I stop? Dr. Colin Campbell.

Dr. Campbell is a nutrition scientist and author of two New York Times best sellers, "The China Study" and "Whole". He discovered that animal milk has a protein in it called "caseine" that promotes cancer in humans.

Dr. Campbell was raised on a dairy farm. He grew up believing that milk was the perfect food. He ate and drank dairy products growing up. He did so until his research showed that animal milk is not the perfect food.

Dr. Campbell is a researcher. He earned a PhD in nutrition. After getting his PhD, he spent his life doing nutrition research. He is now in his 80's.

There is a funny thing about research. You gather real world data that can challenge your beliefs. When that happens, you can either hold on to your beliefs or change them.

When you have a belief you have held onto all of your life as Dr, Campbell did, it is not easy to change it. If facts contradict your belief, you may still not let go. But, you may begin to question it.

This is the conflict that Dr. Campbell had after he reviewed research by nutrition researchers in India. He was already doing research on animal protein at the time in the Philippines and finding a relationship between the consumption of animal protein and the formation of cancer in humans.

The researchers in India found that when mice were fed 20% animal protein, they got liver cancer. Mice fed 5% animal protein did not get liver cancer. If the mice fed 5% animal protein had their protein intake increased to 20%, they got liver cancer too.

100% of the mice fed the 20% animal protein turned on their cancer genes. 0% of the mice fed animal protein did not have their cancer genes turned on. 20% animal protein consumption is in the range of human consumption.

For Dr. Campbell, this India study was a cancer research game-changer. He had to find out for himself if it was true. He had to replicate the Indian researchers work.

Dr. conducted a study of several hundred rats. He wanted to find out if rats fed animal protein over their lifetime, formed cancer in their bodies. A rats lifetime is 2 years. The study was 100 weeks long to cover the lifetime of a rat.

To understand this research, it helps to know what the fancy word "aflatoxin" means. Also, the word "casein", the primary protein in milk

Wikipedia:

"Aflatoxins are toxic and among the most carcinogenic (cancer-causing) substances known. Aflatoxins were originally discovered in the milk of cows that fed on moldy grain. These compounds are products of a conversion process in the animal's liver."

Wikipedia:

"Casein is commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk"

Dr. Campbell found that "caseine" found in animal protein such as animal milk (80% of milk's protein), is related to the formation of liver cancer.

Dr. Campbell divided his several hundred experimental rats into two groups. One group was fed a high protein diet (with its aflatoxin and caseine). The other group was fed a low protein diet (with its aflatoxin and caseine).

The group given "aflatoxin" and fed the 20% level of "caseine" (as in the India study) were dead or nearly dead from liver tumors at 100 weeks. The rats fed the low 5% protein diet were alive, active, and had sleek hair coats at 100 weeks.

A SCORE OF 100% TO 0% IS ALMOST NEVER SEEN IN RESEARCH

In the China Study book, Dr. Campbell explains: Rats switched from a high-protein diet (20%) to a low-protein diet (5%) had 35-40% less tumor growth. Rats switched from a low-protein diet (5%) to a high protein diet (20%) halfway through their lifetime, started growing tumors again.

In other words, cancer tumor growth can be turned on or off, based on the amount of animal protein (e.g. cows milk) consumed.

Dr. Campbell conducted his experiments with "animal" protein. Not "plant" protein. He discovered that "plant" protein (such as found in soybeans) had no effect on cancer tumor growth.

Dr. Campbell's conclusion in the "The China study" P62....."Let there be no doubt, cow's milk is an exceptionally potent cancer promoter in rats dosed with aflatoxin (and caseine in cows milk)"

Dr. Campbell's conclusion: "this is especially troubling when it is clear that 10% to 20% dietary protein levels are commonly used in both rats and humans."

It's safe to conclude that drinking animal milk is not good for your health.

I still love ice cream, yogurt and cheese. But, except on rare occasions, I do not eat animal dairy products. That includes ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. If it is not good for my health, I will not eat it.

As a milk substitute, my wife and I used Almond Milk and sometimes Soy milk. These are plant-based milks.

When getting my Master's at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1968, I attended the Industrial Relations Research Institute. When doing my research for my thesis, I had a number of hypotheses. Hypotheses are "best guesses", in advance, as to what the results of my research would be.

I ended up doing my research at 65 R&D and Manufacturing companies in the Greater Boston Area. What I remember the most about my thesis research? 90% of my hypotheses (guesses in advance about what was going to be true in my research ) were wrong when I gathered the data.

This is mind-opening. A moment of truth. A moment of enlightenment. I realized that if I hold onto my belief, when real life data points in another direction, I need to change my beliefs.

Dr. Campbell's book, "The China Study" made it clear what I needed to eat to be healthy. After several decades of research in China and tests of 375 variables for people from every county of China, there was one conclusion:

"The best diet to prevent disease and to lead a healthy life, was a whole foods, plant-based diet. This means "no animal products" (fish, dairy, eggs, meat). Eat vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts and whole foods. Animal protein, including milk, is bad for your health.

The NY Times said of The China Study - "The study can be considered the Grand Prix of Epidemiology". Epidemiology loosely means the study of the source of disease.

New data made me change my beliefs about what I consumed daily. I changed to a plant-based diet (It's not really a diet. Its a lifestyle change.)

Seventeen months later, I am 55 pounds lighter. I have lots of energy. My blood #'s are in the normal range. I feel better. Joanne, my hair cutter has known me for many years. She told a hair salon customer, "he looks 100% better (than he did before the diet change)."

I dropped my blood pressure meds. I have been taking them for at least 30 years. While my blood pressure went up at first (for about 10 months), it has been gradually dropping. It is now in the normal range and continues to drop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), still promotes milk as the perfect food.The dairy industry would give the USDA hell if the came out and agreed that "milk promotes cancer."

Why change your beliefs based on real life research? Its bad for the dairy industry. Its bad for profits. Its bad for jobs.

If the USDA, a federal agency that sets the standards for what food is consumed in our hospitals, military, schools, and prisons doesn't believe the research on the relationship between milk consumption and cancer promotion, its also bad for your health.

January, 2016 Update

I made a mistake. I didn't take my own advice. Don't drink animal milk.

After 3 years of not drinking animal milk, I read an article about the benefits of drinking kefir. Keifer is fermented animal milk from cow's, sheep, goats, consumed by many for thousands of years.

I continued to maintain my 50 pound weight loss and, at age 74, remained healthy over those 3 years. What could I lose? Kefir could make me even healthier. Oh, was I wrong.

Store bought kefir, I read, had 10-12 beneficial bacteria in it. Homemade kefir had 50+ beneficial bacteria in it. It's a probiotic. It's great, I read, for building a healthy gut, and therefore, a healthy immune system.

I wanted to make homemade kefir. To make it, I needed "starter kefir kernels". I ordered the over kernels the internet.The kefir starter kernels arrived, with an excellent set of instructions.

I started making it, using organic milk from a local farm. Organic milk, I read, was excellent to use because of its large numbers of beneficial bacteria.

For over a month, I started drinking small glasses of kefir milk twice a day. That was in November-December, 2015.

On Christmas day, 2015, I started coming down with what I thought was a head cold. I was sick for 2 weeks. I had not been sick with a cold for more than 2-3 days since the early 1980's. This was different.

I was coughing, sneezing, and had a runny nose every day for 14 days. It only effected me from the neck to my head. The rest of my body felt fine.

After this 14 day ordeal was over, I realized that what I had as an allergic reaction to the kefir. I made a mistake. I had not had animal milk for 3 years. It was a shock to my system to start drinking animal milk, even as fermented cow's milk.

I will not drink animal milk. Sorry, Doctor Campbell, for my having a temporary lapse in judgement for not taking your advice (and my advice in this article) - "Don't drink animal milk!"