Health Charity Slams Milk with Launch of White Lies Report
Press Conference
Far from being a healthy food, cow’s milk and dairy products are at the heart of the UK’s worsening health statistics, a new scientific report will claim. The White Lies report and details of a new health campaign to persuade consumers to ditch dairy are to be launched at a press conference on Wednesday,May 24, 2006 at 11am at Central Hall Westminster, Storey’s Gate, London SW1H 9NH. Speakers will include Heather Mills McCartney, Professor Jane Plant CBE, Professor T. Colin Campbell, Dr Justine Butler, report author, and Juliet Gellatley, director of the health charity responsible, Viva!Health.
Photocall
There will also be a photocall from noon until 12.15pm on May 24 when Heather Mills McCartney will hand in a copy of the White Lies report to the Department of Health, Richmond House, Whitehall, London SW1. She will be accompanied by a graphic image highlighting one aspect of milk production which will be of great concern to consumers.
Public Talk
Also on May 24, all those speaking at the press conference will take part in a public talk entitled Why You Don’t Need Dairy at Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt’s House, Guy’s Campus, off Great Maze Pond and Newcomen Street, London SE (5 minutes walk from London Bridge tube/mainline station). It starts at 6.45pm for 7.15pm and cost of entry is £5 for the public.The White Lies report challenges the idea that it is natural to consume milk after weaning and questions whether it is safe to consume cow’s milk at all. It looks at the latest research linking milk to certain cancers and exposes the effect of the many growth hormones it contains. It highlights the dangers to health caused by milk protein, sugars and saturated fats and reveals why dairy causes heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity. It also demolishes the calcium myth – that we, and especially our children, need milk for calcium. More than 260 scientific studies were reviewed in preparing the report. “Heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes and all the other degenerative diseases are at epidemic proportions and increasing,” says Juliet Gellatley, director of Viva!Health, “and it is diet which is principally responsible. It is now accepted that meat is one of the main culprits but dairy has largely remained beyond reproach. This report now places dairy where it belongs – at the heart of a worsening public health crisis.”
Speakers
Heather Mills McCartney is patron of Viva!Health and Viva!. She campaigns for the rights of animals and promotes healthy vegan diets. She also works to rid the world of landmines, being a patron of Adopt-A-Minefield and is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. She says: “When I lost part of my leg and the residual limb wouldn’t heal, switching to a raw vegan diet worked what seemed like a miracle for me. I found this difficult to follow when my health recovered but I am now totally vegan and enjoy a variety of alternative meat and milk substitutes; most of my house guests can’t believe they aren’t the real thing. The more I discover about dairy, the more I know this is the right choice. Dairy is far from being a wonder food but is, in fact, a contributor to many major diseases which horrifies me – especially when I see how many unwitting mothers are feeding their children cows’ milk formula.”
Professor T. Colin Campbell has for more than 40 years been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy is the China Study, the most comprehensive investigation into health and nutrition ever conducted. He is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and Project Director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project. He says: “I am happy to attach my name to the White Lies campaign as it accurately reflects the results of many years of my own and other people’s research. “It is well nigh time that the evidence on the adverse health effects of dairy be honestly presented to the public. Some of the legitimate, peer-reviewed evidence on the adverse effects of dairy has been around for decades. One of the biggest myths is that we need dairy for strong bones and teeth. Now we know otherwise. Increasing dairy consumption associates with increasing osteoporosis and we now know a lot about how this works.”
Professor Jane Plant CBE (DSc, CEng): top scientist and author of best sellers Your Life in Your Hands – Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer – Understand, Prevent and Overcome. Professor Plant says: “The evidence shows that milk is a complex biochemical cocktail that sends all the wrong messages to our bodies. I believe that dumping the dairy from my diet saved my life and that of lots of other women who have followed ‘The Plant Programme’ described in my book ‘Your Life in Your Hands’. Cow’s milk is a perfect food for a calf but that doesn’t mean it is good for human babies – or adults! If you want to improve your health by making just one change to your diet, I recommend you eliminate all dairy from the diet”.
Juliet Gellatley: founder and director of the largest vegetarian and vegan organisation in Europe, Viva!, and of the health charity, Viva!Health.
Dr Justine Butler: health campaigner of Viva!Health and author of the White Lies report.
About the author
Dr. Justine Butler
Justine joined Viva! in 2005 after graduating from Bristol University with a PhD in molecular biology. After working as a campaigner, then researcher and writer, she is now Viva!’s head of research and her work focuses on animals, the environment and health. Justine’s scientific training helps her research and write both in-depth scientific reports, such as White Lies and the Meat Report, as well as easy-to-read factsheets and myth-busting articles for consumer magazines and updates on the latest research. Justine also recently wrote the Vegan for the Planet guide for Viva!’s Vegan Now campaign.
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