Viva! 8 York Court Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QH Tel: 0117 944 1000 Fax: 0117 924 4646 email: media@viva.org.uk	10 December 1999 Osteoporosis - Milk the Cause not the Cure An article in Viva!Life magazine by nutritionist Laura Scott, demolishes the myth that milk is an essential part of our diet (‘Losing Your Bottle’) and claims that it helps to cause osteoporosis, not prevent it. She goes on to list a string of diseases which are exacerbated by milk drinking. Inuit (Eskimos) have the highest intake of dietary calcium in the world but they also have the highest incidence of osteoporosis. The link is animal protein, which may cause calcium to be lost from bones! The article maintains that the way to cut your osteoporosis risk by half is to eliminate all animal protein from the diet, including cow’s milk. But this isn’t the only downside to cow’s milk and far from being essential for children, it can damage their health, particularly if given to babies under a year old. It is likely to increase their risk of developing cow’s milk allergies. There is also a link with diabetes - 50 per cent of diabetic patients drank cow’s milk before three months of age. There are also problems for older children, for whom prolific milk drinking can lead to intestinal bleeding resulting in iron deficiency anaemia. Cow’s milk has also been linked with some forms of cancer, particularly prostate and breast. The guilty party is thought to be a compound called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which is a potent stimulus for cancer cell growth. The EU’s ban on US milk produced from the hormone BST is directly linked to this - BST has been shown to increase levels of IGF-1 even further. The other epidemic killer linked to cows milk is heart disease, which will kill one in three men and one in four women. Even drinking low-fat milk has its problems because as fat content is lowered, protein content increases - accelerating the risk of osteoporosis. Juliet Gellatley, director of Viva! says: “Cow’s milk is perfect for calves but not humans. It’s no more natural for us to drink the milk of a cow than that of an elephant or cat. We are also the only species to drink milk after weaning - and the consequences can be painful and unhealthy.” For further information/list of references contact Tony Wardle on 0117 944 1000