Humans have been conditioned to believe that dairy milk is a cure-all elixir. In 1992, U. S. Department of Agriculture created the purposely generic food pyramid to convince the public to increase their dairy intake, while pushing the dairy industry and political lobbyists’ agendas forward under a thinly veiled attempt to better Americans’ nutrition. 

However, according to Harvard scientist Dr. Walter Willett, who ranks in the top one percent for citations as reported by Clarivate Analytics annual list of Highly Cited Researchers, dairy milk consumption does not reduce the risk for bone fractures.

Willett said, “Most populations around the world don’t drink any milk as adults. Interestingly enough, they have the lowest fractures. And the highest bone-fracture rates are in milk-drinking countries such as northern Europe and the United States. Calcium is important all through life, but the amount of calcium that we need is probably overstated.”

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine conducted research that showed, “A plant-based diet that avoids milk and dairy products can help protect against prostate cancer.” According to meta-analysis from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “Milk and dairy products are linked to an increased prostate cancer risk due to the hormone-insulin-like hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I), saturated fat, and dairy calcium and protein.”  

According to a Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, milk might be responsible for increasing the risk of bone fractures by 50 percent. The USDA’s suggestion that men and women need three cups of dairy milk per day is completely contrary to modern scientific research. This vague suggestion does not include the disadvantages of dairy milk consumption because of individuals, such as Land O’ Lakes and The Dairy Farmers of America, who are eager to enforce the industry’s interests to gain political influence. The science behind the research is sound; the dairy industry’s propaganda is not.

If the research is not enough to stop you from drinking milk, maybe the inhumane treatment of dairy cows and the composition of their milk is. Cows, like humans, only produce milk while pregnant. This means a dairy cows are repeatedly and invasively inseminated within three months after giving birth to produce enough milk. Once a dairy cow can no longer handle the treatment she is subjected to, she is killed and used for her beef. 

 During a dairy cow’s shortened lifespan, she is often housed in poorly ventilated buildings, increasing the risk of infections, especially for mastitis.  Mastitis is a painful infection that occurs in a cow’s udder and causes a higher somatic cell count.

According to the USDA, “When a cow is infected, greater than 90 percent of the somatic cells in her milk are neutrophils, the inflammatory immune cells that form pus.” In the U.S., the FDA allows for 750 thousand of these cells per liter of milk, while other countries limit the cell count to 400 thousand. 

To avoid supporting the lobbyist agenda surrounding the dairy industry and inhumane treatment of dairy cows, try reaching for a milk substitute like rice, almond, coconut, or soy milk. These options and others are more cost effective in comparison to dairy milk because they have a longer shelf life. Plant based alternatives also provide similar nutritional profiles, which allows consumers to maintain their health and nutrition while promoting humane treatment of dairy cows.