that consumers have been mistakenly buying plant-based milks thinking they were dairy products

; arguing that consumers think plant-based milks are nutritionally equivalent is a variation on a theme.

The AAP does, however, cite two consumer surveys: One by the Midwest Dairy Association, and one by the National Dairy Council. These industry-funded studies found that consumers do not understand the nutritional differences between dairy and plant-based milks, and that many believe alternative milks to be nutritionally equal or superior to cow milk. Thus far, the dairy industry has failed to convince the courts

Dr. George Fuchs, a pediatric gastroenterologist and member of the AAP nutrition committee, told New Food Economy that as a practitioner he can attest that the public sees plant-based milks as a nutritionally equivalent dairy substitute, although he has not seen any of the “harmful nutritional deficiencies” described in Yasuda’s letter. Fuchs was not involved in drafting the letter to the FDA (and AAP was unable to connect me with anyone who was before publication) but says the recommendation is in line with AAP’s position on dairy consumption.

But Fuchs says he is not familiar with the studies cited.

“I am aware of the policy and the rationale for the policy as written I think is sound,” he says. “But if there’s a question about the data on which the policy is written, then I really can’t speak to that.”

I asked Fuchs if he thought that the dairy industry could produce fair and trustworthy studies on this topic.

“There’s a conflict of interest there,” Fuchs says. “That doesn’t mean that the study they sponsored is not accurate, but there’s conflict of interest that should be removed from the equation.”

Fuchs clarified by email that conflict of interest can be removed by inserting a firewall “between the study sponsor and implementation and interpretation of the study results.”

Outside of AAP, individual pediatricians are less strident in their recommendations.

“I don’t think that pediatricians generally have an issue with plant milks being called milk,” Dr. Michelle Dern, a pediatrician at Scripps Coastal Medical Center in Encinitas, California, wrote in an email to New Food Economy.

Deborah Tagliareni, the Clinical Nutrition Manager at the Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, says she is not aware of plant-based milks causing problems for parents or children.

Tagliareni says that giving plant-based milk like soy or almond to a child would only be problematic if they weren’t getting key nutrients from another source. Milk is nutritionally dense, containing calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein, vitamin B12 and zinc, but Tagliareni confirmed that children can have a perfectly healthy vegan diet “as long as the parent is aware of which foods contain which nutrients and how to meet vitamin and mineral requirements.”

Even the AAP website healthychildren.org makes it clear that children do not need milk.