I grew up on a dairy farm so when I see people bad mouthing milk I take it personally. Not really, I just think some of the arguments against dairy make no sense from a nutritional perspective and I want to talk about it. There is a lot of chatter these days about the adverse health effects of consuming milk and dairy products with many people claiming that milk is bad for your skin, causes inflammation, messes with gut health and causes heart disease, among many other issues. I recently watched a YouTube documentary that claimed that the health benefits of milk are exaggerated by “Big Milk” in order to convince the public to buy more milk and keep the industry profitable. Well lets delve into this and figure out if it is true or not!
In Ireland and the US, it is recommended that we consume 3 dairy portions daily with a standard portion being defined as a 200ml cup of milk, a 25g block of cheese or a 125g pot of yogurt. This is because dairy is an excellent source of both macro and micro nutrients, containing protein, fat, calcium, selenium, zinc, iodine, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin B12 and B2 and vitamin A. In terms of nutrition, milk is inarguably very good for us and gives us a wide range of nutrients that can be hard to find in other foods. Now taking this into account, I am going to debunk some milk myths I have recently seen floating around the internet.
Milk Myth Number 1: Milk has lots of lactose, which is a sugar so it is bad for us
Yes, milk contains sugar. According to popular Irish milk brand Avonmore, a standard portion of milk contains 9.4g of sugar, which is actually considered to be low, at least by our traffic light system which states that 5g or less of sugar is green or low in a 100 gram serving of food. In a 100ml serving of Avonmore milk there would be in and around 4.7g of sugar or lactose, so calling milk a high sugar drink would be very inaccurate. Unless you are lactose intolerant, the consumption of lactose in milk will do you absolutely no harm and is not something to worry about.
Milk Myth Number 2: Milk is only meant for babies and is bad for our digestion and gut
Yes, milk is designed specifically to provide babies with adequate nutrition before they are able to consume solid food but that doesn’t mean we can’t consume it if we so wish. Many people consider the consumption of milk after infanthood to be unnatural as the presence of lactase in our guts (the enzyme that breaks down lactose and allows us to digest milk) is only present through a genetic mutation. This mutation occurred in certain populations, mainly in Europe and Africa, as humans started to consume milk after infanthood, causing lactase to continue to be present in our guts so that we could continue to break down milk without experiencing digestive issues. If lactase is present in our guts and we find that milk causes us no digestive distress then I don’t see why we shouldn’t consume it. Afterall, it is nutritionally dense and our bodies have adapted to accept it so what is so bad about it? As well as this, fermented milk products such as yogurt and kefir have been shown to be beneficial to our gut microbiome and a healthy gut microbiome leads to better immunity and reduced inflammation. If you find that you are experiencing digestive issues and you do think milk could be a contributing factor, speak to your doctor or make an appointment with a registered dietitian as it may be the case that you do have a slight intolerance which can develop at any stage of life. It could also be possible that you could have undiagnosed Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as some people with IBS find that dairy can be triggering for their symptoms. On the whole though, if you experience no issues when consuming dairy then you can absolutely continue to consume and enjoy it!
Milk Myth Number 3: The Nutrients Found In Milk Are Found In Other Foods Too So We Shouldn’t Drink Milk Because We Don’t Need It
I honestly find this argument against milk a bit silly because you could say the same about any food. I could turn around and say you shouldn’t eat dark chocolate because even though it’s high in antioxidants, it is also high in saturated fats which will increase your risk of heart disease and you can get antioxidants from other healthier foods like blueberries anyway. The thing is, if you enjoy dark chocolate there is absolutely nothing wrong with including it in your diet in moderation. It should be in your diet for the simple fact that in moderation it will do you no harm and you enjoy it! In terms of milk, I would argue that if you can consume it and you would like to consume it, you absolutely should consume it because many people enjoy it and it has so many essential nutrients. One argument I saw claimed that you could get calcium from green vegetables like spinach instead which is true but spinach also contains something called oxalic acid which unfortunately inhibits the absorption of calcium. The calcium in milk however, is highly bioavailable meaning that milk is both high in calcium and the calcium is easily absorbed. If a person is trying to increase their body’s calcium uptake, milk and dairy products are a superior choice to other foods, simply for this reason. The same person also argued that the protein in milk could be replaced by the protein in tofu and beans which again, yes these foods contain protein but they have a lower biological value which means that they have less amino acids than dairy and other animal products. Milk has a biological value of 91%, meaning it contains most of our essential amino acids needed to keep the body functioning optimally but tofu only has a biological value of 64% and beans have even less at 58%. This means that these lower biological value foods would have to be paired with other foods that contain the essential amino acids that they are lacking, in order to receive a similar amount of essential amino acids to milk. Lastly, this person says that vitamin A can be sourced from pumpkin or kale instead, which again is true but this is a different form of vitamin A to that found in milk. The vitamin A found in milk is known as retinol, which is the active form of vitamin A whereas the vitamin A found in plant foods like pumpkin and kale is known as beta carotene, which is a provitamin A and is slightly more difficult to absorb by the body. So, the issue with claiming that we shouldn’t drink milk because the nutrients can be found elsewhere is that we would have to consume a wide range of foods in order to consume the same nutrients that we could easily gain from simply drinking a glass of milk and as well as this, the nutrients are often of a lower bioavailability. I would also say that another benefit of drinking milk is that it’s so versatile and can be used in so many different things, such as in sauces, in cereal, in different drinks such as smoothies and milkshakes, in baking and many many more so it really is an easy way to get a lot of essential nutrients into your diet. One could argue that you could just replace dairy milk with a plant based milk, which is true you definitely can but the issue with this is that many of these plant milks are mainly water based and contain very little actual nutrition. If you are looking for a plant-based alternative, I would recommend that you choose an option that is fortified with calcium and other nutrients in order to make up for the nutrients lost. It is also important to note that vitamin B12 is not found in plant sources and that if you choose not to consume dairy and you are also not consuming meat you should be taking a B12 supplement as low B12 levels can cause a form of anaemia which will negatively impact your health.
Milk Myth Number 4: Milk Will Give You A Heart Attack
“If you look at what’s in milk, it’s a recipe for a heart attack,” ~ Some researcher guy on youtube. Yes, milk contains saturated fat and yes, high levels of these in your diet will increase your risk of having a heart attack but it’s just not that simple. According to Avonmore, milk contains 4.4g of saturated fat per a 200ml serving which is considered high. This does not necessarily believe that drinking milk will cause you to have a heart attack. When we consider saturated fat, we must consider it as part of the whole food. Just because a food is high in saturated fat doesn’t mean it is bad for us, after all milk is also very nutrient dense making the consumption of it overall beneficial to our general health. It is also silly to say that the consumption of one food that is high in fat will give you a heart attack. When it comes to weight gain and the risk of heart disease, one must look at a person’s whole diet, not one food as the human body is just not that simple. In fact recent research suggests that including 3 portions of dairy to your diet can help with fat loss. A study in 2012, came to this conclusion, as did several others (1). This is likely due to the fact that foods high in fat and protein can have a satiating effect, i.e. make us feel fuller, which can lead to less snacking throughout the day as we feel more satisfied with the food that we have consumed and are less likely to crave more. Also there are plenty of low fat options on the market for milk and also cheese and butter so if a person did want to avoid the high levels of saturated fat and still consume dairy they easily could.
Milk Myth Number 5: Milk Causes Prostate Cancer
Okay I wouldn’t necessarily call this a milk myth but I would say that the evidence suggesting this is conflicting (2). By this I mean that there are studies that say that milk consumption is positively correlated to the development of prostate cancer or to the increased risk of dying when having prostate cancer, but there are also studies that contradict this. Some also say that it is the Western Diet that increases the risk of developing prostate cancer, which is high in dairy, but is also high in highly processed fatty, sugary and salty foods so in these studies we can’t necessarily point out dairy as the culprit. If you are at high risk of developing prostate cancer and you are concerned about your dairy intake, I would suggest speaking to your doctor where they may suggest lowering your intake, but for the general public the general consensus is that it is perfectly safe to consume dairy.
Links:
(1) Abargouei AS, Janghorbani M, Salehi-Marzijarani M, Esmaillzadeh A. Effect of dairy consumption on weight and body composition in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Int J Obes (Lond). 2012 Dec;36(12):1485-93. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2011.269. Epub 2012 Jan 17. PMID: 22249225.
(2) Sargsyan A, Dubasi HB. Milk Consumption and Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review. World J Mens Health. 2021 Jul;39(3):419-428. doi: 10.5534/wjmh.200051. Epub 2020 Jul 27. PMID: 32777868; PMCID: PMC8255404.
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