Modern Milk: What Are You Drinking?

While many people, including myself have believed for the longest time that milk is a wholesome and nutritious food, increasing scientific evidence is suggesting that milk from modern dairy farms is unlike the milk our ancestors were drinking without apparent harm for 2,000 years.

For example, a study out of Harvard University has found a link between pasteurized milk and hormone-dependent cancers. According to the researchers, the ‘concentrated animal feeding operations’ model of factory farming raises cows which produce milk with dangerously high levels of estrone sulfate. This estrogen compound, mentioned in the image above, has been linked to testicular, prostate, and breast cancers.

The scientists highlighted contemporary operations, in which cows are milked 300 days of the year, including during pregnancy, as producing 33 times more estrone sulfate than traditional practices. To compare, raw milk derived from grass-fed cattle is extracted only during the first 6 months following the birth of a calf.

By evaluating data from all over the world, Dr. Davaasambuu and her colleagues identified a link between consumption of such high-hormone milk, and high rates of hormone-dependent cancers.

While this study was epidemiological, Dr. Davaasambuu also conducted research which showed that low-fat milk caused the development of mammary tumors in rats at a comparable rate to a concentrated solution of estrone sulfate. She suggested that the high estrogen content in milk combined with its IGF-1 content may be the catalyst for the growth of such tumors.
So, should we be drinking milk? I’ll leave the ultimate verdict up to you. As for me, the case against commercially produced dairy has been mounting in my mind for quite some time, and I can say with confidence that the next time I drink milk, it will be sourced from grass fed cows and as close to its natural state as possible.

Reference:

http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/05/modern-milk.html

Li-Qiang, Q., Jia-Ying, X., Pei-Yu, W., Davaasambuu, G., Jue, L., Jing, W., Takashi, K., Kazuhiko, H., Tomoyuki, S., & Akio S. (2004). Low-fat milk promotes the development of 7,12-dimethylbenz(A)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary tumors in rats. International Journal of Cancer, DOI: 10.1002/ijc.20172.