Why the reports of ‘one glass of milk a day prevents cancer’ are bad news.

This week, my news feeds were awash with the news that ‘one glass of milk a day prevents cancer’. It came as no surprise to me that there was such a pro-dairy story doing the rounds in just the second week of January. After all, Veganuary has become so popular in recent years, that the meat and dairy industry has become prepared to push back. But having recently finished writing a book about plant-based diets, I was already aware of data showing that a higher dietary calcium intake can reduce the risk of going on to develop bowel cancer. This isn’t really controversial; it’s all about how calcium binds harmful substances in the bowel, so they can’t hang around and cause damage to the bowel wall which can then lead to cancer. But what is controversial, is that this isn’t what the headlines were stating.

The way in which this story has been reported by pretty much all of the mainstream media outlets, even those who have been previously associated with “tofu-eating wokerati”, is that we should be consuming cow’s milk to benefit from the effects of calcium. It’s an age-old myth, well one which has been around since the early 20th century when it is thought to have come from the National Dairy Council in the US. They provided, for free, schools with information booklets that contained the non-evidence-based information that multiple portions of dairy are required each day for a healthy diet. But this really isn’t the case. Even the original study being reported upon concludes that there is a ‘strong inverse association for calcium’ regarding colorectal cancer, meaning that more calcium in the diet was linked with lower rates of bowel cancer diagnosis. Not necessarily milk.

So, what’s the problem? Dairy contains lots of calcium, doesn’t it? Well, yes it does. But whilst the evidence shows that its calcium content is likely protective for bowel cancers, associations have also been made between dairy and another cancer; prostate cancer. Not only this, but dairy contains saturated fat, which has been strongly associated with heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. So, why on earth should doctors be recommending that we obtain our calcium from such a problematic food, when it is readily available from foods which are also rich in fibre, antioxidants and other deliciously healthy nutrients, like apricots, broccoli, white beans and apples? You can even use oat, soya or almond milk in the same way as dairy and get exactly the same amount of calcium, iodine and vitamin D, without the bad side effects.

In a week when the other big news story dominating my social media accounts was that of wildfires burning in much of LA, I couldn’t help but notice the awful irony. The stories might seem unrelated, but the link between them isn’t as tenuous as you might think. It is well accepted that the fires have everything to do with climate change, and when animal agriculture is responsible for around 20 per cent of all carbon emissions, and soya milk production emits less than one-third of the amount of carbon dioxide than dairy milk, can we really accept our governments, the media and our healthcare leaders pushing the narrative that milk is not only healthy, but necessary?

We haven’t even discussed the implications for dairy cows; the fact that in order to consume the milk of another species which can only be obtained by keeping a mother perpetually pregnant and lactating, whilst removing and slaughtering her infant, makes dairy a completely unacceptable product for many people. Especially when we have so many alternatives available to us. We also need to consider the human rights impact. Most people in the West don’t realise that 65 per cent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. It’s also no coincidence that these people who are forgotten by the dairy industry and those who set dietary recommendations are, largely, non-white. So how does reporting that dairy, rather than calcium, is required to prevent bowel cancer help the global majority who can’t consume cow’s milk? Surely reporting the data more accurately, and informing readers of calcium-rich foods that are accessible to everybody is a much more equitable way of ensuring good nutrition for all?

I’m really not surprised by the news stories. Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. Those of us who know the truth about meat and dairy, its impacts on animals, the earth and human health and rights know that we need to stop consuming animals and their secretions. The rest of the world needs to catch up, and quickly.