<font color="0000ff">An article to share ...
Extracted from Growing Up Gifted Newsletter Term 1</font>
(Growing Up Gifted is a Pre-Nursery, Nursery, K1 and K2 School @ United Square)
<font size="+1"><font color="aa00aa">No Mooo Milk ?!?!</font></font>
Milk, cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, butter… do milk and diary products really do our body good?
Heart Diseases: Whole milk and diary products are high in saturated fats, Trans fat and cholesterol. Since regular consumption of diary foods can lead to coronary heart diseases and stroke, some of us try to eat smart by opting for low-fat or skimmed versions instead. However, what most of us don't know is that the consumption of all diary products, even low-fat or skimmed, is directly linked to major diseases like diabetics, osteoporosis and cancer.
Diabetes: There is strong evidence that diabetes is linked specifically to diary products. More children than we think are lactose-intolerant or are unable to fully digest cow's milk protein (casein), and symptoms like rashes, diarrhea and gastrointestinal problems are not uncommon. However, an accumulation of these undigested small amino acids chains can end up causing irreparable damage to the pancreas leading to diabetes.
Diabetes is a serious, chronic disease which can give rise to several complications such as heart attack, kidney failure and blindness. Numerous studies have shown that consumption of cow's milk increase the risk of Type 1 Diabetes (an incurable disease that strikes children) by 5 to 6 times, and the risk is much higher for children who are genetically susceptible. One international study of children aged 0 – 14 in 12 countries clearly showed that the greater the consumption of cow's milk, the greater the occurrence of Type 1 Diabetes.
British medical journal The Lancet, Nov 2006 reported that "Diabetes among Asian children has reached epidemic levels". A Singapore national study in March 2006 listed Singapore as having the highest rate of diabetes in Asia – with 300,000 children and adults with diabetes, and another 450,000 predisposed to have diabetes. What is more alarming is the rising trend of Type 2 Diabetes among young children. Half of the diabetes in Singapore does not know that they have diabetes, often called "the silent killer". According to WHO, Type 2 diabetes is caused largely by consuming foods high in fat and sugar.
Osteoporosis: Here's more food for thought (pardon the pun): Does drinking milk really "build strong bones and teeth"? This has turned out to be one of the biggest fallacies still alive! In 1992, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine summarized data from 34 surveys in 16 countries, all of which conclusively found that those countries with the highest consumption of cow's milk and diary products also have the highest rates of osteoporosis and bones fractures. The report explained that animal protein from meat and diary products increases the acidity of our blood and tissues. Our body then uses calcium (alkaline) from our bones to neutralize the acid. This calcium loss weakens our bones. On the contrary, plant proteins do not produce the same detrimental effect in our bones.
"There are over a hundred years of documented evidence that animal protein decreases bone health… and the depth and breadth of evidence now implicating cow's milk as a cause of diabetes is overwhelming," confirm Dr Colin Campbell, a leading scientist in nutrition research and Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. However, he says such vital and life-saving information will not be widely publicized to consumers anytime soon "because this issue has mammoth financial implications for the farming and agriculture industries." So our supermarkets will continue to stack their shelves with loads of diary milk and products for a long time to come.
Cancer: While we are spilling the beans on milk… Did you know that in today's farms factories, cows are milked about 300 days in a year? For much of that time, the cows are pregnant, and their milk contains up to 33 times more ostrogen than milk from a non-pregnant cow. Not surprisingly then, breast cancer, prostate and testicular cancers have been particularly linked to the consumption of milk and cheese. This was reported in 2004 by researchers at Harvard University. In one study, one group of rats was fed milk while the other rats had water. The milk-fed rats developed significantly more and larger tumors than the other rats.
It's not just estrogens in milk either… The protein in milk, casein, is found to be a promoter of cancer. In his book "The China Study", Dr Campbell described studies where equal amounts of aflatoxin (a powerful carcinogen) were administered to hundreds of mice divided into two groups (A and B). Group A was then fed a low 2% milk protein (casein) diet and Group B a higher 5% milk protein diet. By the end of one year, ALL mice in Group A had developed or died of cancer, while NONE of the mice in Group B had cancer! Even more shocking – the same researchers found that they could "turn on" or "turn off" cancer in these mice by increasing or decreasing the amount of protein respectively! These lab findings were later confirmed by massive human studies of 6,500 adults.
In the light of such overwhelming evidence against the "goodness" of milk, Dr Campbell and other nutrition scientists are recommending that we get our calcium from green leafy vegetables instead.
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Eating smart – don't we all desire good health for ourselves and our loved ones, and we want our children to grow up strong, healthy and disease-free? Numerous international research studies confirm that genetics account for only a small percentage (2-3%) of most diseases. The "bad" genes and toxins in our bodies are like the bullets in a gun. They will lie dormant and not cause harm until the trigger is pulled – and "what we eat" has now been determined as the main trigger for the activation of diseases. If you wish to learn more about how your food choices can help to prevent, bring on, or even reverse illness like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc., then these two books are recommended.
- The Food Revolution (John Robbins)
- The China Study (Dr Colin Campbell)
Both books are backed by well-documented, peer-reviewed studies by prominent nutrition scientists and epidemiologists. Their painstaking investigations over many years reveal why meat and animal foods are the main cause of all major diseases and why animal farming for food is one of the top contributors of global warming! Getting ALL or MOSTLY ALL of our nutrients from plant foods like vegetables, beans, whole grains and fruits is now recommended to be the most effective way of protecting ourselves from illness, and saving our environment from destruction as well. The authors also reveal why, what, and how powerful, self-serving interest groups have been deliberately keeping global consumers like you and me in the dark.
At GUG, we have taken the initiative to introduce some positive change to our snack menus and cooking activities with the aim of encouraging our students to eat and appreciate healthier snack foods. For one, we will be avoiding diary foods whenever possible. Soy milk is served instead of cow's milk.
