help with resources to combat the dairy pushers
I got an email from my mother in-law today about the wonderful health benefits of milk :-X. She sent me some article from MSNBC that sounded like a milk commercial and didn't bother to cite sources or name the mysterious British scientist from which the author was basing his claims. I do not drink milk, and this was an attempt to make me see the light. I understand that she cares about me and is completely brainwashed by the dairy industry and their cohorts at the USDA and FDA, however, I was curious if anyone might have access or know where to access articles that speak of the dangers of dairy that are scientific and contain reliable sources. I would really love to enlighten her to some real information.
Thanks in advance if anybody has save resources :).
I just googled this & found www.notmilk.com - haven't had a good look yet (I don't need to convince anyone lol) but it looks pretty darn extensive with links & references.
Good luck setting her straight!
I wish I could be of more help on this, but Sunday is my study day, and I have over 100 pages of physiology to read :( I just wanted to suggest a pubmed search, or if you have access to Ovid or medline, that is where you will find some original sources. Try to use keywords such as osteoporosis, prostatic neoplasm (not that that would relate to the females, but there is a link between dairy and prostate cancer), obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovasculardisease, myocardial infarction etc. The problem is that the Dairy Council sponsors a lot of the research on milk, and they have such power in the medical field that a lot of health care professionals and researchers have been duped. If all else fails, you can always make the argument that the nutrients that are supplied by milk can be found elsewhere and that it is completely unnecessary to drink dairy milk when there is soy/rice/hemp/oat milk, calcium set tofu, soygurt, leafy greens, sesame seeds, almonds, etc.
Another thing to point out to her, is that MSNBC and other media outlets do not always use a scientific approach to reading scientific literature. They are not aware of study design limitations, confounding variables appropriate statistical analysis, other interpretations of the data, so that the reliability of these types if sources is pretty low. For example, as a student in a MS in clinical nutrition program, I am given numerous articles a week to read on various topics. At first glance, some pro dairy articles look OK, but when you are carefully reading them, and not just looking at the abstract, you can see major differences in their case and control groups, perhaps there are confounding variable, such as the dairy group also did not drink as much alcohol, were 5 years younger on average, etc, so with the article that your mom gave you, I would first and foremost, look at the research that that article was discussing and try to poke holes in their logic, before trying to find articles that argue against the points made.
I've read in several places about how the high protein in cow's milk inhibits the absorption of calcium, or takes calcium out of your bones, or something. I bet with a google search you'll get enough hits to help you figure out what lingo will get you more info. Like, start with "milk calcium absorption osteoporosis".
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
http://www.pcrm.org/search/?query_string=milk
i think the best course of action would be to reply with nothing and avoid a pissing contest.
And then let her see how youll be lving healthy or healthier w/o dairy. Thats the best arguement I think someone can make, is by their personal examples.
A bookmama sighting! It's been too long. I mentioned your absence yesterday, as a matter of fact.
:howdy: (like our new emoticons?)
A bookmama sighting! It's been too long. I mentioned your absence yesterday, as a matter of fact.
:howdy: (like our new emoticons?)
Awww, thanks. I've been around, sort of, but haven't been keeping up with many threads recently. Taking a bit of a break. Thanks for missing me. And, yes, I love the new emotions!
Thanks everybody!
Hibiscus
I started looking on one of the health/science library databases at my school before I posted. I did find that in the articles I read, the abstract supported dairy while the full article listed all the problems with dairy and the way it is handled (heated) in today's practices. I didn't want to send her anything too complicated to get through. Thanks for your help, good luck with your education. ;)
Adam,
You are probably right, but I have a hard time with blind acceptance.
Bookmama, HH, VeganVic,
Thanks so much. I sent her a bunch of articles from pcrm.org, and I am going to look at the notmilk site in a minute.
i think the best course of action would be to reply with nothing and avoid a pissing contest.
And then let her see how youll be lving healthy or healthier w/o dairy. Thats the best arguement I think someone can make, is by their personal examples.
Couldn't agree more. The most convincing aspect of my diet to any of my relatives is living by example, because unlike my lectures and pamphlets about factory farms, health risks, etc, someone's good health cannot be ignored. ;D
I believe that John Robbins also has some anti-dairy literature on his website. ETA I thought he had his own site, but I can't find it. Anyone know where it is if it exists?
feelingsoreal, were you looking for this? http://www.earthsave.org/
After reading the diabetes article on the notmilk site, I feel quite even more betrayed by something i used to love so much.
Jess--I just know that when they were putting together the new food pyramid two years ago or so I must have read dozens of articles that quoted the American Dietetic Association as saying that milk was not necessarily for a healthy diet and thus posed a challenge to the dairy industry which was hoping to get it included in the guidelines.
I also know that Dr. Spock is (was) quite anti-dairy so you could find a used copy of his "your baby and child" and send her that!
i think the best course of action would be to reply with nothing and avoid a pissing contest.
And then let her see how youll be lving healthy or healthier w/o dairy. Thats the best arguement I think someone can make, is by their personal examples.
Couldn't agree more. The most convincing aspect of my diet to any of my relatives is living by example, because unlike my lectures and pamphlets about factory farms, health risks, etc, someone's good health cannot be ignored. ;D
I believe that John Robbins also has some anti-dairy literature on his website. ETA I thought he had his own site, but I can't find it. Anyone know where it is if it exists?
Jeez, this makes me so sad... for my (overweight) self... I wish I were a better spokeswoman for veganism, or at least a good spokesMODEL... but although I know the initial weight loss - from removing dairy - was good, I have other habits... which kinda shoot myself and my efforts in the foot. :-\
I WANNA DO BETTER.
Sorry, kinda off-topic.
I know these first two sites were suggested already, I want to back them up too.
www.pcrm.org
www.notmilk.com
Also, there are links on this site to some good articles that are from sources (like cnn and times online) that may be more believable to the average person. I realize that is quite the generalization. That said, more specifically, it isn't coming from a site that blatantly denies the Standard American Diet, therefore making it more believable to a person that is conditioned into thinking milk is essential.
are you talking about THIS article?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22349307/
A friend sent it to me and we got into a huge discussion that went no where. He sort of backed down and didn't really have a leg to stand on-and he's a lawyer! I love the misquote right at the beginning-saying the Dairy Ed. Board calls milk poison. I think they mean Rober Cohen of Notmilk.
"The China Study" by Dr. Campbell is what convinced me that dairy is unhealthy. I also recommend "Food for Life" & "Skinny Bitch" oh and the PETA website has a "what's wrong with dairy" phamphlet you can download.
are you talking about THIS article?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22349307/
A friend sent it to me and we got into a huge discussion that went no where. He sort of backed down and didn't really have a leg to stand on-and he's a lawyer! I love the misquote right at the beginning-saying the Dairy Ed. Board calls milk poison. I think they mean Rober Cohen of Notmilk.
Yes. That would be the article. My mil emailed me back and thanked me for being open-minded. She really believes in milk. She shoves it down my children's throat everytime they go over there. They love soymilk and do not drink cow millk at home. I used to buy it because my husband drank it and they still chose soy. My husband has now switched to rice milk.
I know these first two sites were suggested already, I want to back them up too.
www.pcrm.org
www.notmilk.com
Also, there are links on this site to some good articles that are from sources (like cnn and times online) that may be more believable to the average person. I realize that is quite the generalization. That said, more specifically, it isn't coming from a site that blatantly denies the Standard American Diet, therefore making it more believable to a person that is conditioned into thinking milk is essential.
Thank you. I sent an article about osteoporosis, since that is the big issue she keeps trying to throw at me. I believe cnn and times articles might actually be more convincing.