Milk: It Does a Body - Hey, wait...

We went to the mall this weekend and found a new discount Christian Bookstore. The books I'm reading these days tend to fall more into the health and wellness category, so I wasn't really excited about browsing the store. But they did have a small Christian health section, so I checked it out. As it happened, I found a book that broke down various passages of scripture relating to food and then explained how these scriptures instruct us to eat today. Hm. Interesting. So I thumbed through the book and found a chapter on milk.

I have read a lot from the vegan camp about how we are the only species that drinks the milk of another animal and how our bodies aren't meant to process milk as adults. We don't need milk to get the nutrients it provides, so we're better off without it. Initially I latched right on to that mindset. But because I am so fabulously open-minded, I decided to see what this book had to say about our need for milk.

Bottom line: We absolutely need milk for all the calcium it provides so that we can have strong bones.

Okay. Prove it.

I skimmed the chapter for the author's sources: none.

I skimmed the rest of the book for sources and/or citations of studies or other medical professionals: none that I could find.

Now, folks, this is why, at the beginning of my blog, I asked for you to provide sources for any information you may provide. I figure if there has been a non-biased extensive study done that can support your theory, or if several non-biased medical experts have drawn conclusions about your theory based on scientific research, your theory has merit and I will deem it worthy for induction into my arsenal of information.

Golly. Last resort, I went to the back of the book for the list of resources. Ahhhh. There it was. But hold on... 95% of the author's resources were cookbooks. The two resources that weren't cookbooks were resources published by the FDA, which, if you've read any vegan literature, you know the theory about the FDA's marriage to the meat and dairy industry. Now, I'm not saying for sure that there's governmental food conspiracy going on, but at least the vegans have plenty of evidence to back up their claims. I was livid. How dare you publish something, call it a nutritional guide, and then just expect us to follow your advice blindly because you're you and you're important enough to have had a book published so you must be right? I have no objection to drawing lines between the Bible and eating habits. In fact, I think it's kind of a cool concept. But don't include scientific information as a part of your book unless you can tell me where you got your facts. Amen and amen.

At the very least, this book did get me thinking...am I really getting enough calcium? So I googled. (Actually, I made my husband google because he was at the computer.) Turns out the vegetable with the most calcium is spinach. Hazzah! I love spinach salads! I had a spinach salad right away for lunch.

Then I went to write this blog and decided that I needed to do a little more research on calcium before I spouted off a bunch of half-right information. I was really hoping to find some information that said something scandelous, like the dairy industry lies about how much calcium is in milk, or that although there's tons of calcium in milk, none of it gets absorbed. I didn't get my scandal, but here's how it actually works itself out:

Milk does have TONS of calcium. It actually has 3 times the calcium of turnips, which is the veggie with the highest calcium content. However, the issue is with how much of that calcium will be absorbed by the body. Anti-milk vegans point out that milk's absorption rate is only 32%, whereas many vegetables have a calcium absorption rate of over 50%, with several approaching 70% (www.dairygoodness.ca).

Food (1/2 cup / 125 ml serving unless otherwise stated)	Serving size (g)	Calcium content (mg)	Estimated absorption (%)	Calcium absorbed (mg)	Servings to equal 1 cup/ (250 ml) of milk
Milk (1 cup)	260	315	32	101	1.0
Turnip greens boiled	76	104	52	54	1.8
Kale boiled	69	95	59	56	1.8
Cabbage (Pak-choi) boiled	90	84	54	45	2.2
Almonds , dry roasted unblanched	73	206	21	43	2.3
Mustard greens boiled	74	55	58	32	3.2
Rutabaga boiled	90	43	61	26	3.9
Brocoli boiled	100	46	53	24	4.1
Brussels sprouts boiled	83	30	64	19	5.3
Sesame seed kernels, toasted, shelled	68	89	21	19	5.3
Cabbage, green boiled	79	25	65	16	6.2
Watercress raw	18	22	67	15	6.6
Kohlrabi boiled	87	22	67	15	6.7
Beans, white boiled	95	85	17	14	7.1
Radish raw	61	15	74	11	9.2
Cauliflower boiled	66	10	69	7	14
Beans, pinto boiled	90	42	17	7	14.4
Spinach boiled	95	129	5	6	16.8
Beans red boiled	94	26	17	4	25.3

Here's the thing: even though milk's absorption rate is so much lower, it contains so much more calcium than vegetables that you'd still end up absorbing almost twice as much as you would with turnips in a serving size of each.

Uh oh. Dairy - 1. Vegans - 0.

But wait! Take a closer look at the chart. Not all serving sizes are equal. In fact, they've made the veggie servings quite a bit smaller. In fairness, these are probably standard serving sizes, but still...

Hm. I think each team may have enough artillery to defend their positions for calcium. So then, why NOT dairy?

According to www.organichealthandbeauty.com, the following are all common side effects of drinking milk:

"Gastro-intestinal- canker sores, vomiting, colic, stomach cramps, abdominal distention, intestinal obstruction, bloody stools, colitis, mal-absorption, loss of appetite, growth retardation, diarrhea, constipation, painful defecation, irritation of tongue, lips, and mouth.

"Respiratory- nasal stuffiness, runny nose, otidis media (inner ear trouble), sinusitis, asthma, pulmonary infiltrates.

"Skin- rashes, atopic dermatitis, eczema, seborrhea, hives

"Behavioral- irritability, restlessness, hyperactivity, headache, lethargy, fatigue, allergic-tension fatigue syndrome, muscle pain, mental depression, enuresis (bed wetting, often caused when the bladder tissues become swollen and insensitive to the feeling of fullness).

"Blood- abnormal blood clotting, IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA (dairy products are the cause of at least 50% of childhood iron deficiency anemia and an unknown percentage of anemia found in adults; this condition results from bleeding of the small intestine caused by dairy proteins and is not responsive to iron therapy until milk and other dairy products are eliminated), low-serum proteins, thrombocytopenia (low platelets), and eosinophilia (allergic-related blood cells).

"Other- anaphylatic shock and death, sudden infant death syndrome (crib or cot death)

And guess what...If you actually go to the page you'll see the 9 different sources they list to back up all of these claims.

I know that this may all come off as very extremist, and maybe it is. But I think I'll stay off the milk for a while. I mean, do you ever wonder how much of our occasional physical discomfort (headaches, cramps, joint pain, fatigue, etc.) could actually be remedied by just making better food choices? I think I'll see where this no-dairy thing takes me.

By the way, as it turns out, spinach is the one leafy green veggie that has a really crappy calcium absorption rate. The moral of the story? Eat broccoli, kids.