Milk And Health: Diametrically Opposed

You need milk to build bones, right? This is the message that a vast amount of advertising muscle has been shoving down the throats of Americans for generations, and it's working.

Americans consume more milk and other dairy products per person than almost any other country, so surely we should have some of the strongest bones, right? Nope.

American women over the age of 50 have the highest rate of hip fractures in the world (1). Guess which countries have more hip fractures? Yep, those which consume more dairy than we do, namely the Nordic countries (1).

Hip fracture rate is used as a indicator of osteoporosis, a bone disease that you usually hear is caused by an inadequate amount of calcium. Because milk is high in calcium, it's often promoted as the ultimate bone-building food.

To some degree, milk does build bones. Cow’s milk is full of hormones meant to directly stimulate the growth of the calf, the most powerful being insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Another is estrogen. About 70 percent of the estrogen available in foods is found in dairy (2). Together these can cause bone growth.


Despite the hormones in dairy increasing growth, the net effect is bone loss. The reason is simple: Animal protein (meat, dairy, and eggs) increases the acid load in the body, while plant protein does not (3).

This extra metabolic acid draws calcium alkaline salts from the bones. Doubling animal protein intake from 35-78 g/day causes a 50 percent increase in urinary calcium, meaning that your bones are being destroyed 50 percent faster and the remains excreted (4).

Unsurprisingly, those countries with the lowest rate of hip fractures are those that eat little or no dairy and other animal protein and instead eat lots of plant-based foods (1).

So how does the dairy industry get away with claiming dairy builds bones? They generally pad their studies. The most common practice is to neutralize the acid in dairy by having study participants eat lots of extra fruits and vegetables or take antacids, such as with this one (5), which shows bone growth.


Research has shown those who drink more milk to be no more successful in slimming down than those who abstain, however.  A Journal of Nutrition review of milk weight loss studies concluded that: "Nine studies of dairy product supplementation were located: In seven, no significant differences in the change in body weight or composition were detected between treatment and control groups. However, two studies conducted in older adults observed significantly greater weight gain in the dairy product groups (6).”

At the Dairy Product Components and Weight Regulation Symposium of 2002, Dr. Susan Barr said, "“In conclusion, the data available from randomized trials of dairy product or calcium supplementation provide little support for an effect in reducing body weight or fat mass” (6).

There's no evidence to back up the industry's claims, but that doesn't stop them from trying. At the end of the day, a drink with calories in it means more calories, unless you cut back your food intake to compensate for the drink. If anything, milk leads to weight gain. I certainly lost weight when I cut it out of my diet.