Milk: The Food of Love, Longevity and Life

Fashions come and go in medicine just as they do in the world of haute couture. When I was enrolled as a cadet in the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, well over sixty years ago, I was taught that the first aid treatment for a muscle strain was to apply heat ‘to bring out the bruise’. Twenty years later this was recognised as utter nonsense. From then onwards the accepted advice has been to apply cold packs to constrict the damaged blood vessels and limit the escape of blood into the injured tissues. Anyone involved in health promotion – doctors, counsellors and medical journalists – must be prepared to judge the evidence for themselves. They must be ready to make their own independent judgements, and if necessary have the courage to buck the trend rather than slavishly follow the party line. One of my proud claims is that I’ve always maintained this independence and integrity. Anyone who cares to study my broadcasts, books and magazine articles will see that I’ve never once advocated the restriction of dairy foods because of their cholesterol content. This was once the vogue. Now it’s seen to be dangerous advice.

Our forebears were brought up on dairy foods, which provide a major source of vitamins and minerals, particularly calcium, which is absolutely essential to the healthy function of the body. In the Western world today dairy foods contribute about seventy per cent of our total calcium intake. When I was a young lad the men’s fitness magazines advised their readers to eat masses of dairy foods if they wanted to emulate their muscle-packed Hollywood heroes. One of these stars, the forerunner of men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, was Reg. Park, the British body builder who was twice crowned Mr Universe. He followed a diet stuffed with what later would be described as ‘bad’ fats. Every day he consumed a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk, yet he remained exceedingly healthy and lived until he was just short of his eightieth birthday. (The great risk for body builders is that they put on weight if they go on eating a calorie-rich diet long after they’ve reduced their exercise levels.)

My fear has always been that people’s health will suffer, not if they consume too much dairy food, but if they take too little. I’m delighted that this once unfashionable view has now been thoroughly vindicated by recent medical research. Five years ago a study in the Lancet shocked the medical hierarchy by revealing an inverse relationship between cholesterol levels and heart disease in people of retirement age. The study showed that contrary to the accepted dogma of the day ‘the lower the cholesterol level the higher the risk of all-cause mortality.’ This finding was later underpinned by research carried out by Professor Peter Elwood at Cardiff University. He tracked a group of over two thousand men for twenty years and found that those who drank full fat milk, and ate cheese and yoghurt, were less likely to suffer diabetes, heart disease and stroke. This, he said in a report published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, ‘adds to the evidence that dairy products fit well into a healthy eating pattern and that they should be promoted.’

Now there’s evidence that diets rich in dairy foods may provide protection against other chronic diseases, like cancer and degenerative brain disease. A recent American study of almost five hundred thousand adults revealed that women who enjoy a high intake of calcium from dairy foods are twenty per cent less likely to develop cancer. (For men the comparable figure is sixteen per cent.) Milk is also one of the finest sources of Vitamin B12, which plays an important role in nerve and brain cell function. Studies show that patients with low levels of B12 suffer twice as much shrinkage of their brain tissues as those with higher levels. This has led geriatricians to suggest that drinking two glasses of milk a day could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease. We’ve long accepted the benefits of the ‘Mediterranean diet’, which appears to enhance the health and longevity of people living in the southern regions of France and Italy. This is generally attributed to their high intake of wine, olive oil and fresh vegetables. But it may also be linked to their fondness for dairy foods, and their widespread use of butter, cheese and cream in their cooking. The message seems clear. The evidence of recent medical research suggests that we should follow the advice of the French Board for Nutrition and Health, which now advises the consumption of three helpings of dairy food a day for adults, and four helpings for children.

© Donald Norfolk 2010

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