There is a case to drink milk and orange juice for hydration. Hot summer day or a little dehydrated? Try OJ & H2O over ice, it's a good bet you will feel better quickly.
Also supported by science in numerous articles... IE: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/milk-and-other-surprising-ways-to-stay-hydrated/
As for soda and sweetened drinks overall, agreed... they should be skipped.
10
Other mammals--Cats are fond of cow's milk.
7
Uh huh tell that to the Mongols who conquered China largely through staying healthy on a diet of lean meat, barley, oats, nuts, berries.....and MILK. I think milk should be viewed in the right perspective. Why is milk fed to babies of all mammals? All moms have the same line they feed all kids, it will make you grow. Now that I really, really don't need to grow any tissues, milk makes little sense. But it seems to me to be a fantastic nutritive source for children who are fussy, don't like to chew or eat properly. Perhaps children on a diet of varied meats get all the nutrients from other foods. But for vegetarians, milk is a fantastic diet as cheese, yoghurt (probiotic and vitamins) and fat from milk. As for juice, sure it is rich in fructose. But you also get great antioxidants and vitamins from it. You want your child healthy give them decent milk not weird plant based or reduced fat milks which are reconstituted from filtered, powdered milk, water and vitamins. Give them reasonably fresh juices. As for vitD, give them butter and heck send them out in the sun or better still buy cheap vit D gummies and dose them everyday in winter. These researchers need to do their studies in developing countries and see what happens to malnourished children when given milk or juice, then please report on whether their conditions improve or deteriorate.
19
Some people would argue with you on the last point, as they feel that they NEED their morning (and sometimes oftener) coffee.
12
Some mammals drink blood or nectar.
8
Good job! - This street-wise, non-corporate perspective on healthcare & diet is greatly needed, and appreciated, well reported; as we should expect from the Times all the time...
25
I see that the milk-hating fringe is out in force again. It's clear that this is just the latest food fad after millennia of human consumption of not just cow's, but sheep's, goat's, yak's, and even mare's milk across many cultures (I was half expecting someone to call dairy consumption racist). I'm a lifelong milk drinker and my health is excellent. My bones are so hard that they broke a surgeon's drill bit when I had a ruptured triceps tendon repaired a few years back. I attribute that to milk drinking and weight bearing exercise. The argument that because no other mammals drink milk beyond infancy we should not either is utterly specious. They don't use laptops to send comments to the NYTimes either.
39
Everything is bad for you and will kill you. Looking at the history of what doctors have recommended as the proper diet, I have concluded they know very little about what is good for you and what is not. I think our ancestors were able to adapt and eat any food that was available. Perhaps the big difference was food was not so abundant and their calorie intake was less than modern humans.
11
Here's one vote for what the author calls unimaginable: cereal without milk, or any other liquids. Take that, doctor!
7
"Needed"? I thought milk and juice had both been "canceled," particularly for kids. Milk is full of fat and allergens and fruit juice is just tooth-rotting sugar in a glass.
14
The protein, calcium and calories in milk are probably good for ra[idly developing brain, bone and muscles.
2
there is nothing like a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. it is one of the finer points of life. Especially if the oranges are from Valencia, Spain. Of course you don't need it. Given how much most of us consume, we really don't need much of anything, That is what the politically correct, climate minded, sugar-averse, healthy class fails to consider. Its not just a matter of doing good all the time. Its a matter of living well.
20
Thanks. So much knowledge presented as common sense.
But I wonder if it would be necessary if we weren’t misinformed by the food industries and self made gurus of fads preying on insecurities.
18
Here is information I received today from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:
Higher intakes of cow’s milk are associated with an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund and published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Researchers followed 52,795 women who were part of the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort and found that women who consumed 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cow’s milk per day had a 30 percent increased chance for breast cancer. One cup per day increased the risk by 50 percent, and 2-3 cups were associated with an 80 percent increased chance of breast cancer. Replacing dairy milk with soy milk was associated with a 32 percent reduced risk of breast cancer. The authors suggest caution with the current government recommendations to consume three glasses of milk per day.
29
Cow's milk is terrible for you and for the environment.
Terrible for you:
1) high in sugar.
2) high in casein protein, which has caused cancer in rats
3) unnatural. As the author points out no mammal drinks the milk of another species.
Terrible for the environment:
1) Factory dairy farms pollution
2) Gas from cow digestion is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
3) Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers used in growing feed for cows.
Cow's milk should not be legally sold. Some cheese but only from grass-fed cows. No ice cream.
Yes. I do live in Vermont. Ben and Jerry's will not like my comment.
37
Calf nutrition is serves the calf, while it is one, not thereafter. To think it’s also suitable for human ingestion, at any age, is beyond preposterous, but very profitable.
So is sugar extracted from fruit in the form of “juice”. That is why it’s always justified as suitable to ingest.
13
I try not to think about fluids of any kind, as I've been on restricted liquid diet for about 3 months.Seems I have too little sodium in my blood.Any liquid I drink can only dilute the sodium, making me dizzy, lethargic, nauseous---and ultimately, reach a coma and death #SIADH But, I like to read about ppl who have choices....
3
Most of us with toddlers and little kids probably worry more about our kids getting enough calories (and nutrients) to grow and develop. When kids push away their dinners and rarely eat their vegetables, milk, smoothies (which do have fiber!), and the occasional juice seem to help sneak some protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and greens into their diets (my kids will eat a berry-spinach-banana smoothie).
I understand that many kids and adults and Americans are dealing with obesity, but I wish that we could have more targeted nutritional messaging that considers whether or not a kid needs more calories or fewer, rather than one size fits all recommendations.
IF my kid is tiny and seems to exist on air alone, does milk make sense? Is juice harmful or just empty calories. Empty calories ain’t so terrible If you need more calories!!!
13
Fruit juice? Why not just give your kids full-sugar soda? The negligible amounts of nutrients in juice don't make it worth all that sugar
16
That a "group of leading health organizations released recommendations on what children should drink" happens every few years. And their recommendations change accordingly. Without entering in the merit of their work, we know that humans started to drink milk more than 10.000 years ago and we never stopped. Almond mixed with water will not replace milk any time soon.
13
Hundreds of comments, and not one mention of vegetable juice. I drink gallons of it a week. No added sugar, low sodium, lots of lycopene, potassium, Vitamin A and Vitamin C. And no inhumane practices.
36
This is news? We eschewed juice for water, or very lightly juice- flavored water. As for milk, I’m (mom) lactose intolerant so we only ever had lactose free products in the house, and in small sizes because none of us drank much of it. I always offered water or seltzer. 25 years ago. My son has great teeth and we didn’t have fluoridated water, either.
7
to those on the osteoporosis trajectory -Traditionally we've turned to dairy for the calcium and vitamin D we need for strong bones, but its naive to think that large amounts of dairy intake through childhood and adulthood keep bone loss at bay, and the amounts we haven't ingested is the cause of compromised bone health. It's much more complicated than that, and our relationship with the pros and cons of diary consumption require more individualized attention than blanket statements offer. We can ingest all the calcium we want, but if we're not absorbing it, it's not doing us much good. For some of us, the problem can be rooted in thyroid or parathyroid problems, medicines we've taken, loss of estrogen, genetics. It's also a matter of the other foods we eat. We need to supplement calcium with a supporting cast of nutrients that allow for optimum absorption. I've developed a number of recipes that speak to this, which can be found on my recent blog, osteo-blast.com. I'll be posting monthly. If only it were that easy to determine's one destiny in going through life with or without compromised bone mass/strength as a result of our diary intake as children and adults. Then big Pharma wouldn't be able to get away with developing the drugs they do that promise to protect our bones from fractures but actually increase the risk once we stop taking them and the drugs that increase our bone mass, again, until we stop taking them because of their awful side effects.
7
@osteo-blastpath
Osteoporosis is a disease of the protein skeleton of the bones and is secondary to estrogen deficiency.
All of the extra Ca in the world is not going to cure it if one has an adequate normal diet and some sun light for Vitamin D. Only sex hormones provide a "cure".
4
So - let's see --
Milk is not really necessary --
Okay - I'll buy that --
But then there are some other "food items" which are not really necessary either - such as -
Pizza -
Chocolate cake -
Cheese -
Steak -
Craft beer - (or any other type of beer, for that matter) --
Donuts -
Spaghetti --
Eggs -
Bagels - (I know I'm going to get in trouble for that one) --
Wine -
Croissants -
You get it - there are many more items we can add to the list --
Except for the two items of alcohol - I east everything from the above list -
And plenty of fat-free milk too...
8
I drink a gallon of skim milk every two or three days. I am fifty, in excellent health, and I'm not going to stop.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27882862/
Results: The most recent evidence suggested that intake of milk and dairy products was associated with reduced risk of childhood obesity. In adults, intake of dairy products was shown to improve body composition and facilitate weight loss during energy restriction. In addition, intake of milk and dairy products was associated with a neutral or reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke. Furthermore, the evidence suggested a beneficial effect of milk and dairy intake on bone mineral density but no association with risk of bone fracture. Among cancers, milk and dairy intake was inversely associated with colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, gastric cancer, and breast cancer, and not associated with risk of pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, or lung cancer, while the evidence for prostate cancer risk was inconsistent. Finally, consumption of milk and dairy products was not associated with all-cause mortality.
Conclusion: The totality of available scientific evidence supports that intake of milk and dairy products contribute to meet nutrient recommendations, and may protect against the most prevalent chronic diseases, whereas very few adverse effects have been reported.
15
Cow's milk was designed (by mother nature) to bring a newborn 90 pound mammal up to about 300 to 400 pounds within 90 days. It was not intended for any other purpose. And one thing that really gives me the shivers: when people drink milk at dinner with spaghetti and the milk gets that red residue floating on top.
25
I’ve always thought cow’s milk completely unnecessary for children. Tried it with my first because I didn’t know any better & he suffered for it (didn’t react well to dairy). With my second, we gave her no cow’s milk, except for some FULL FAT yogurt & cheese. In fact, my entire family only has limited but FULL FAT dairy. It’s filling & we only have a little at a time. Low fat dairy is a crime against taste buds & not nutritionally superior to full fat versions. Our bodies need fat—It is not something we should fear. Yet nutritional pseudo-science continues to mislead on this point (& so many others).
20
There are two points being somewhat conflated by some of the responses. The article points out, correctly, that milk is a nutritious food and a small amount of juice is probably OK. At the same time, neither is necessary, so the recommendation by the expert panel is somewhat puzzling, but, of course, not truly surprising. Hard to imagine that the motivation to recommend would be hard to find by simply following the money.
12
I had one grandmother who never consumed milk. At 91, she fell and broke her hip.
My other grandmother drank milk every day. At 88, she fell and broke her hip.
I'm pretty excited by the prospect that I may reach 90, and I don't worry about drinking or not drinking milk.
18
@MKT I am not sure two grammas really work as an adequate data set. There is actual data on whether or not drinking milk reduces the rate of hip fractures (It doesn't.)
18
@cls - That's the point. Her two grandmothers, one a milk drinker and one not, had about the same outcome.
5
This reminds me of the esteemed panel that recommended heavy meat consumption, which was led by doctors funded by the meat industry. So many quid pro quos and shady funding deals involved in these recommendations that I take them with a low-sodium grain of salt.
28
Like others here, I find nutrition information a bit baffling. There are so many factors that come into play in terms of health - nutrition being just one - that isolating topics with simple rules can become rather unhelpful. The world of diets, from Diet A to Diet Z, increasingly seem contrarian to healthy living. My own viewpoint is A) moderation, B) balance, C) don't live ideologically - enjoy the fruits of life.
10
Treat cow's milk as a food, not a beverage, and then use a skimmed low-sugar product.
1
For all you milk-bashers out there, I have one word: Oreos. The Oreo cookie was made for milk. It is impossible to eat even one Oreo with a glass of water. If you want to feel healthy, skim milk works, too. Much the same could/should be said of fresh home-baked chocolate chip bookies.
One advantage of being 80 years of age is the ability to ignore good nannies.
67
I've been spending a lot of time reading comments and replying to many of those who feel dairy products are unnecessary or even bad. My main point is that calcium and vitamin D are both important and easy to get from dairy products. I have always used cow's milk, but I wish someone had told me many years ago that our bones continue to develop until our late 20s. So if one wants strong bones late in life adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D are needed (even after age 2).
To those who feel the use of dairy products is something done because of the evil dairy industry, what about the bone "building" drugs given to women who have osteoporosis. From personal experience I feel their use is not only bad because the drug companies recommend them to doctors, they are actually dangerous.
11
Actually, I believe most bone loss is related to sedentary behaviors and not enough weight bearing activity.
15
Considering that apple juice or orange juice has as much sugar as coke for example (let’s not even look at pomegranate juice, it’s way more than coke), no you don’t need it. As for Milk, we are the only mammals who continue to consume milk after their childhood.
8
@Jonathan What you say is basically true, but consider that the reason other mammals don't keep drinking milk is a genetic one. Many people (not everyone) has a mutation that allows us to continue digesting milk, such as cows milk, and that gave us an advantage for development of civilization. Besides, milk also gives us cheese. Want to give up cheese?
14
@Jonathan That argument always felt weird to me. We are also the only mammals that use vaccines, antibiotics, exercise deliberately beyond the demands of our normal life and, most importantly, are the only mammals that have learned to milk cows.
18
@Jonathan - Okay, but we are the only mammals to do all sorts of things.
8
Milk (animal, not plant) supplies calcium, needed for bone development in children and teenagers. Girl athletes who avoided milk have higher incidence of bone breaks. Unsweetened fruit juices are not empty calories comparable to soft drinks, but a valuable source of vitamins and many healthful phytochemical compounds, in some cases easier to digest and absorb than whole fruits.
10
@MariaSS Psst - not so! Mild and milk products leech calcium from bones. The calcium in dairy is minimally absorbable and the homogenization confuses female hormones to such an extent that the highest incidence of female sexual organ cancer tracks the countries with the highest dairy consumption (US & Netherlands). Fruit juice extracts are indeed wasted calories. Without the attendant fiber of the underlying food, the sugar water gets processed as just that - sugar water, with excess sugar not processed getting detoxified by being converted to fat.
But it is so profitable to sell, people actually rationalize ingesting adulterated versions of calf nutrition and extracted moisture from plants. The world is indeed crazy!
6
@MariaSS
Can you help me with a link to show girl athletes who avoid milk have a higher incidence of bone breaks?
I couldn't find a single site that makes that claim, so I must be looking in the wrong places.
4
Marion Nestle (NYU) says that in the end dairy products are just a food and like any other, one should enjoy in moderation.
7
"All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water."
Gentle caution on the Appeal to Nature Fallacy there but otherwise great article.
Milk has a pretty powerful lobby (they're trying to remove the word 'milk' from things like Almond Milk) so its never a bad reminder to question even the most ingrained assumptions about health and nutrition.
19
Agreed, my kids grew up with breast milk then supplemented by formula as I returned to work 6-weeks as that was all the maternity that was provided at the time, then water. We tried cows milk before we had access to organic, and no one liked the taste. So water is what we drink supplemented with tea and coffee. My son is 6’2 and daughter 5’8, we do enjoy cheese and yogurt, always organic now, and I like soy and nut milks as well.
2
I'm in my 50's and just had my bone density tested. I was told I have mild osteopenia. Since I don't like most cheeses and plain yogurt, I am considering starting with a cup of skim milk with dinner as a great source for calcium.
7
@Renee Lift weights, or walk with a full backpack, and skip the milk. It will do you more good.
5
France has 300 varieties of cheese, the US about half that. Why not taste and find some you not only like but love?
1
It probably wouldn't hurt to supplement the diets that probably most Americans feed their kids - mac and cheese, hamburgers french fries, etc., with a smoothie made from kale, broccoli, blueberries, mangoes, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds. Naturally flavored plant-based protein powders will cover the taste of the veggies.
Why not pack a ton of nutrition into a pleasant drink?
11
@MT What's wrong with the taste of "veggies". I have always liked vegetables and your smoothie sounds awful. Perhaps I like vegetables because my father grew them and he liked them. Also, I always drank milk because I had brittle bones. Thank goodness there was no group of "experts" telling my parents it wasn't needed.
14
Still another food story that contradicts many other previous stories which, in turn, will be contradicted in the future. It is why the US citizens have an ill-fated affair with food and drinks and would be best left to eat what behooves them. In moderation, of course.
11
@Bruce Egert Cow milk has been known in the scientific community to be an unnecessary product for the health of our bodies.
12
The idea of feeding a juvenile human the milk of a different species literally sickens me. The proteins and hormones are all wrong, not to mention the extra chemicals that leech in via cattle feed. Gross.
Our toddler gets his nutrition from home-cooked meals and Dr.-Prescribed liquid supplements. Sugary juices are a treat. Sugar-free pea milk provides some “comfort milk” until he’s over it.
Don’t buy into the propaganda of the sick animal industry. Just feed the little one a varied diet low in sugar.
12
I see your point, but keep in mind that humans have been drinking milk from domesticated cows for a really long time. We have even adapted genetically over the millennia to drink milk - lactose tolerance. And certainly the cow has been altered genetically through domestication. Kinda softens the edges of the "it's milk from a different species" ick factor, no?
21
@Mr B [ The proteins (in cow's milk) ... are all wrong,]
We digest the proteins to amino acids and they are all the same.
[ pea milk provides some “comfort milk” ]
Aren't peas a different species, too? They aren't even in the same kingdom.
5
@Joseph You are talking millennia, but the quality of our genetic evolution is millions of years in the making. Bovidae are a taxonomic family distant and inferior to primates. That fact cannot be ignored. In fact, if you are looking for reasons on the obesity epidemic look no further than dairy products and high sugar - both of which were taken in very small amounts prior to WWII. Over the generations the cumlative effect of overeating these and meat are now, morphologically, very evident.
The only liquid that any human ever needs to consume is water - after we are done with our mothers milk.
Show me a fat kid and ill show you a kid that drinks juice.
17
Why did "leading health organizations" and "a scientific advisory committee," recommend that children should drink cows milk?
Follow the money.
The Dairy Industry spends millions of dollars every year lobbying "experts" and much, much more on advertising -- admittedly, very compelling advertising. Who doesn't remember, "Milk, it does a body good," and "Got milk?"
#1. Humans don't need another mammal's milk.
#2. Dairy "farms" are bad for the planet, they're a big contributor to global climate change, they pollute the soil, air and water.
And, what about people?
Recently I cycled through dairy country and the smell was sickening. I could not help but wonder, what are the long term health consequences for humans who live close to dairy production?
It's time to kick the cow milk habit
30
I have a master's degree in nutrition. I agree that milk or juice are not a requirement for kids, but calcium is. If your kid doesn't drink milk (my kids don't drink either cow or plant-based milk), it's a good idea to make sure your kid is getting other good sources of calcium every day. To get the calcium they're not getting from milk, I feed my kids cheese and calcium-fortified grain products.
27
@Linnea Larson Yes, calcium is important. I don't understand people who think a good source isn't needed. At age 83 I know women who have never gotten enough. Believe me their hip fractures haven't been any fun.
7
@Linnea Larson Beans, nuts, grains, dark leafy greens, and other veggies are also rich sources of calcium. A thoughtful plant-based diet (i.e. one not based on junk and processed food) will provide plenty of calcium and other nutrients. With much less impact on the environment or harm to animals.
11
Are you thinking about how climate change is reducing nutrients in our food? Less sunlight is not producing good tomatoes, green beans, kale. Yes, there are modifications, but until large scale aquaponics are widespread, vitamin supplements may be the bridge for many of us.
3
Milk is for baby cows. Period. Humans' need for milk ends when we are weaned. Let's stop over-complicating everything.
25
@Christopher Ross But it's not. The domestic cow and our dairy consumption have coevolved over many millennia. See for example..
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/12/27/168144785/an-evolutionary-whodunit-how-did-humans-develop-lactose-tolerance
11
@Christopher Ross, our need for cow's milk is non-existent, but that's not a reason not to drink it. Do you find bread too complicated too?
1
As the parent of a toddler, I try to view her diet as holistically as possible.
I don't give her juice because she eats more than enough fruit (I think she eats through the equivalent of one fig tree a week, I should probably start trying to grow them). But I don't quibble about her getting some at daycare because it's not often and her care providers are doing more than enough. She asks for water at home, so I know she's not "hooked" on juice.
I don't give her milk before her meals so that she might actually eat real food. But if she refuses what I make she can have peanut butter crackers (unsweetened), beets (unsweetened - she must be crazy), and milk.
What I try to be conscious of most of all is to not force her to eat anything, which is a hard mental block of my own. I was trained to finish my plate, which has lead to years of overeating. I do my best with portion control, because once it's on my plate I eat it. I also avoid bringing in or baking sweets because if it's there, I eat it. Poor habits that were ingrained in childhood are horribly difficult to overcome. The food landscape we live in is toxic and parents have to almost come up with an actual battle plan in order to "win."
With all of the other crap (media, cultural habits, and the actual products on the shelves) out there available to my child, I'm not going to care about milk. Juice substitutes nothing good, it's just sugar, but milk has protein, vitamins, and minerals. It's good enough.
18
@someone Yes, and with enough calcium she won't have osteoporosis as an older woman.
3
@someone I was in agreement until I looked at how the protein in milk actually promotes cancer. If I could do anything I would go back and choose to not let my toddlers start drinking milk. It is just not healthy.
2
Ye gods! Yet another expert. At 82 years of age I am no longer willing to credit any of them.
Here is what I've learned in a few studies of my own. Small data base, but no dispute as to the results. Milk remains "the perfect food" just as it was when I was six and in the first grade. Fresh squeezed orange juice and apple cider are preferable to oranges and apples. Less trouble; more satisfaction. Coffee is good; adding cream makes it better. I could go on, but let's take it one bite at a time.
Experts! Will no one rid me of these upstart priests?
12
@david lange That's correct. As a woman of age 83 I certainly agree with you. All these "experts" who feel calcium isn't important need to make friends with a few women who have osteoporosis.
7
I don't know why people love to hate on cow's milk for folks who are able to digest lactose. It's a good balance of protein, carbohydrate and fat (choose your g/ml), a good source of calcium. Sure, it's not necessary to sustain life but it is certainly not "unhealthful."
25
@Margareta
The dairy industry is very unhealthy for bovines and the environment.
7
@Margareta
Maybe because protein, carb and fat deficiencies are not a problem.
4
"All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water." Well... yes, this is true. It's also true that all other meat eating mammals eat their meat raw. I'll keep cooking most of mine, thanks. And I'll keep enjoying a glass of orange juice now and then and a glass of milk with my cookies.
45
@Stephen Collingsworth Finally, two people who have common sense.
3
@Stephen
If milk helps you consume the most essential building block of life, the cookie, by all means drink away!
2
I read a book years ago by a PhD nutitionist. He flatly stated that NO human over the age of five should be ingesting cow's milk. Juice is basically sugar water. Avoid both.
14
When I was a kid (which seems like centuries ago) we got juice, usually tomato or orange, with breakfast. It was served in little glasses that contained four ounces. That was around the same time that Coke cans were ridiculously labelled as containing multiple servings.
Nowadays a 'serving' seems to be something you can barely lift. And that is the problem.
59
Drinking cows milk in my latte or warmed up with cold brew is one of life’s most wonderful pleasures, thank you cows!
48
If you are stressing over the "carbs" or "calories" contained within (100%) fruit juice, you have bigger nutrition problems IMO. In my experience healthy people can enjoy fruit juice without any qualms. Equating fruit juice with soda is dangerously reductive. There is far more to nutrition than calories. NYT of all institutions should be abreast of this concept in 2020. On the other hand I suppose I can understand why the message needs dumbing down.
13
@Golfhard
I think there is plenty of evidence regarding fruit juice and blood sugar control. Diabetes is real and its causes are clear.
Dumping large amounts of any sweetner into the system with nothing to slow down its very rapid absorption is straining the system in a bad way.
6
And what of the Masai, whose diet traditionally was based on blood, milk and beef?
5
@Robert Not such a great example. Their life expectancy is 42-44 years.
14
@Leonardo Garcia, careful with life-expectancy statistics. They are often skewed by high infant mortality rates, which have little to do with the long-term effects of particular diets.
2
No mention of strawberry milk and it’s health benefits? It’s delicious, and I assume, healthy because of the strawberries. And way better than its chocolate cousin which is a culinary abomination.
3
@T. Rivers
Delicious, but, adding strawberry flavor does nothing to mitigate the unhealthy effects of the sugar in this drink.
6
Another great article by Dr. Carroll. As a pediatrician, I'm constantly giving this advice to my patients. Cow's milk is for cows; not that it's harmful in moderation after age 1, but it's completely optional (as is plant-based milk). As mentioned, apple juice has as much sugar as Coke; the comparison I use is that a 12-ounce serving has as much sugar as 60 M&Ms. Whoa. So treat soda or juice like it's candy, and use it as a special treat on occasion.
18
Nothing else has to be added to that first sentence of the article.
Milk and dairy products are just a massive money making machine for dairy companies.
19
@Tom Sorry Tom, but you don't seem to realize that calcium from dairy products will also prevent osteoporosis in the elderly. And, believe me, Prolia is very expensive (a money making machine) for the drug companies.
6
The diet recommendation of the day. I’ll pass knowing that it will be retracted in a year or two. A known and easy to practice diet is to eat and drink everything in moderation and do some walking or other exercise regularly. Rigorous exercise is not necessary just watch your weight and dial back your intake when it starts creeping up.
12
In 1985 I read "Fit For Life" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. I learned several things I began to employ in my life immediately, including eliminating cow's milk from my diet (occasional ice cream and cheese were fine, as was milk added to recipes.)
I carried this forward with all five of my children, who drank half water/half juice for refreshment - and even put it in their cereal.
Specifically, these two unanswerable questions stuck in my mind from then til forever:
1) Why are humans the only mammals to drink the milk of another mammal?
2) Why are humans the only mammals to drink milk past infancy?
All five of my offspring got the teat and soy formula, and all five grew up very healthy and normal-sized. Their cousins from Jersey grew up with cow's milk and most of them turned out big-boned and struggling mightily with excess weight.
Anecdotal to be sure, but the take-away is that under this policy my five turned out absolutely fine. None of them has ever even been seriously ill.
Cow's milk is Not Recommended For Humans, certainly not as a healthful part of the diet.
Any nonsense to the contrary is brought to you by the Dairy Association or by those who have bought the hype.
10
@Walt Bennett Humans are the only mammals to drink the milk of other mammals because of the gene mutation for lactase persistence that happened in Europe about 50K years ago, enabling animal husbandry. It may seem unhealthy to us now, but milk and milk products provided much-needed nourishment for a large part of our history, and this gene mutation is considered the third most important nutrition revolution after the fire and cereal cultivation.
47
@Walt. Ever been to a dry or drought stricken country in Africa? Having herds of animals that can get moisture from the scant plant life and transform it into liquid protein (and meat) that the animals also transport in their own bodies on the way to the next spring or well is still a matter of survival in many parts of the world. As it was for almost all our ancestors.
28
@Walt Bennett
Er, humans aren't the only mammals who drink milk of another mammal.
As many animal rescue shows love to highlight, when babies are orphaned and adopted by a different species of mammal, they drink the milk of that mammal without issue.
24
I grew up much bigger than my European refugee parents on milk and meat, and getting older, that protein is needed more than ever to do without a walker or wheelchair. For some time I've thought parents should be providing kids with chocolate whey protein at 25 grams glass instead of sugary chocolate milk mixes.
2
@J1111111. Growing bigger or taller has nothing to do with whether you may need a walker or wheelchair later in life. Look at Asia, for example. Far fewer elderly folks use walkers there.
8
@DYB
I have visited Japan and saw a lot of elderly people bent in half due to spinal degeneration (weak bones, low intake of calcium in childhood and youth).
1
The author discusses the nutritional needs of children and how milk does/does not supply them. But he did not discuss the hormones in milk and their effects. They are present is organic milk (they make calves grow) and also present in higher amounts in milk from cows treated with bovine growth hormone (this practice, which causes the cow to produce more milk than normal, is allowed only in the US). There are good data showing strong associations between diary consumption and both breast and prostate cancer. Perhaps the occasional glass of milk is fine for the adult who likes it, but I question it as a habit.
20
@Suzanne
Yet breast cancer rates are pretty much the same across all countries, including the ones that have no bovine growth hormone in their dairy industry.
Hormones are affected by dairy alternatives, such as soy "milk". Excessive consumption of soy (as can be easily achieved by moderate consumption of soy milk) causes estrogen imbalances in pre-menopausal women and has been strongly linked to breast cancer.
6
@Suzanne I've posted quite a few comments; mostly to people who are not aware that dairy products help to prevent osteoporosis and thereby hip fractures. As to the kind of cancers you mention, my husband drinks much more milk than I do and is at 85 cancer free. Having had brittle bones as a child I also drank more than an occasional glass and same is true for me at age 83. There are other causes of cancer.
3
@Lallie Wetzig For older men, drinking milk in their teens is strongly associated with prostate cancer in old age. I am glad you have a husband of 83, but many have lost their dear family members well before that due to milk.
1
Really, equating 100% fruit juice to soda? Solely based on sugar content? There are so, so many other things I could say. I realize i'm biased, as a Registered Dietitian working with teens with eating disorders. I don't have time to comment further, but I'm glad I read this so now I know what I need to have ammunition against with my patients and their parents. Distorted views like this just make my job harder.
11
@Jacqueline , Oranges are better than OJ; apples are better than apple juice, mangoes are better than mango juice . . . .
89
@Jacqueline I'm a dietitian too and I guess this shows there is disagreement at all levels. I would note that you're working with a clinical population with other problems and not a healthy one. I don't think they're the intended audience for this information. I've spent most of my time in pediatrics and with the obesity levels rising as they are, I'm trying to teach people the value of water and that juice isn't something that should be included or "needed" in a child's diet. Tooth decay also comes to mind as a reason that kids don't need to be sipping on that cup of juice all day under the premise that it's just as good as eating a whole fruit. Real foods, less processing--I don't think that's a distorted view.
69
@Jacqueline Sipping on 100 percent fruit juice all day has the potential to give you diabetes, heart disease and make you overweight. It's not about the calories per se. It's about raising blood sugar and insulin levels, and also keeping them high throughout the day. Fiber, which juice lacks, is also key to health.
17
Ever wonder why humans are the only mammals that once weaned drink another mammal's milk? Cow's milk is for baby cows.
Ever wonder why the dairy industry's experts warn against plant based milks, even to the point of trying to make it illegal to label them as "milk?"
Wonder no more, it's a con, and it's about making money at YOUR expense.
39
@LCR Many populations have naturally adapted (evolved, you might say) to consume non-human milk. No one was making money off it at that time.
24
Plant-based "milks" are wholly unnecessary, with its unnatural extraction process. It's a waste of fibers inherent in each nut as well vastly inefficient process due to the amount of water required to grow the nut trees to extract a small amount of milk. For the same reason that people shouldn't drink juice, they should just eat fruit, it's the same with nuts, just eat nuts.
22
This argument is flawed. Humans are also the only animals that cook food. So the comparison doesn’t hold. Also, humans are the only creatures operating a cell phone!
23
What about tea and coffee? They are great for you!
31
Bovine juice is pretty much useless to me; other than the occasional squirt in my coffee or within ice cream. Fruit juices, and soda's of all sorts, excepting they be truly fresh squeezed, is simply liquid candy.
By this point I'm sure you probably know where I'm going with all of this. Drink whatever you like; you're an adult after all and fully capable of making your own decisions; though I'd argue that should your habits impact MY healthcare costs due to you needing more attention from unwise practices, when I don't, then maybe Bloomberg has a point (heh)?
I digress. As an adult I simply drink water. That's all my body requests; so I satisfy it. It works for me.
John~
American Net'Zen
18
Cow’s milk will remain a drink in my family, with two kids under the age of 10, for one good, very simple reason: it’s a ready source of protein. Which is critically important to a child’s growth. My kids aren’t especially fond of meat. Or of other protein-rich foods, such as peanut butter, beans, tofu. They’re picky eaters. Where else to get protein? Milk is the solution in our household. My kids love milk, and they have it with every meal.
34
Complementary plant based foods can boost protein in a diet. Beans and peas. Grain and seeds. Doesn’t have to be just PB and tofu.
18
@Steven D Unpasteurized milk is also a really good source of probiotic, which would prevent your children from getting sick, leading to more absence from school and less productive learning. Let's not forget that also makes it an excellent source of calcium and growth hormones, which is a much needed for growing children. I enjoy a nice quart of kefir myself.
5
@Steven D If you take away the milk, your children’s appetite for the other protein sources you mention will suddenly appear. You are satiating them with cow’s milk so there is no additional need for other sources.
5
About osteoporosis: I stopped consuming dairy products, including milk, yoghurt, cheese and the like, at the age of 25. My eczema cleared up and never came back. A bone density scan at Auckland Hospital a couple of years ago, when I was 56, showed that my bone density was at the absolute top of the range. In fact, any higher and it would have been practically off the scale. So it turns out to be true that beans, nuts, greens and so on were sufficient to maintain my bone density. By the way, I never took calcium supplements in all that time.
100
@Lisa Same here! I gave up dairy in my 20s because eliminating it cleared up skin issues (acne), sinus issues, and digestive issues. I am now in my early 40s and had a bone density screening last year where I was told I have equivalent bone density of a 20 year old. Granted I exercise regularly and eat a balanced omnivorous diet including a fair amount of vegetables, nuts, etc. The dairy lobby (Got Milk?) has drilled it into Americans' heads that strong bones are dependent on dairy consumption and it just isn't true. I can't tell you how many people have been aghast that I don't eat dairy and are concerned I have sentenced myself to a life of osteoporosis.
36
@Lisa May I ask, how are you getting your vitamin K2 and calcium sources? And beans, nuts, and greens all have significant low sources of calcium and absolutely no vitamins K2.
5
@Lisa I was told by my doctor, at age 50, having the worst score my then doctor had ever seen, to take calcium/vitamin D supplements, limit impact to my brittle bones, get Bonita infusions and up my dairy intake to strengthen my bones. I did the complete and total opposite of what he said after doing research.
Impact exercise, zero dairy/no processed food/no animal flesh of any kind and daily aerobic and strength training. It worked - I have no osteoporosis, normal labs across the board, no medication and most importantly - NO DOCTORS!
8
At age 83, my early afternoon breakfast consists of coffee grains, Ovaltine, and 8 ounces of whole milk from a live cow, having given up breast milk a while back.
24
@Jim Dwyer Oops, in my breakfast drink, I forgot the tablespoon of honey. Sorry about that.
3
Not sure what to make of this. I do consume milk regularly; I put it on cereal and cook with it, but I don't drink it as a beverage.
I drink orange juice 3-4 times a week, but I have a citrus press I use to squeeze it fresh. There's no added sugar, and it has a fair amount of pulp I've been told is fiber.
I fail to see how my consumption harms my health in any meaningful way.
22
@Gregory E Howard That's because it dosen't. The fear mongering really needs to stop being pushed by the mass media.
12
@Gregory E Howard
The only problem with juice is it is concentrated sugar without the amount of fibre necessary to slow down your consumption and your body's absorption.
In other words, juice just amplifies the effects of sugar on our blood sugar regulatory system and makes it much easier to do so. Do enough of that and it fatigues.
And its just because our bodies weren't designed to handle a lot of something so concentrated and readily available in the digestive system.
3
Other animals don't cook their food, either. They eat their pizzas frozen!
81
You might want to tell bats and other nectar enjoying animals that they should only be drinking milk and water
19
@Scott
Squirrels drink sap that drips from northeastern US maple trees in February and March each year.
10
@Scott I love this comment, and it holds an important lesson for anyone doing health and science writing. There's always trouble with end-all, be-all statements like: "All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water."
10
@Scott
you are seriously equating dietary needs of a bats & "nectar enjoying animals" to that of humans?
2
I love milk and will continue to drink it until I die, many of my ancestors made it past 100 yrs old and they drank milk to...Irish stock.
I have no use for juice and I never bought juice for my kids or Grandkids. They got the whole fruit only and never the sugar laden juice.
27
@Margaret This is totally a personal thing but I like milk above other foods but most importantly if I abstain from it (as I did for a while as it was alleged to improve asthma to do so but when it didn't I resumed drinking it - and found better remedies for my asthma), I become depressed, which otherwise I rarely do. Something in it makes me happy!
On a trip I always request my host have some handy, making no other food requests.
9
@Margaret I have no plans to give up on milk as well. In fact, Kefir is my favorite drink to consume.
5
A lack of vitamin D is linked to depression. When you gave up milk you may have become deficient in vitamin D. I love dairy products, and enjoy them in their full fat glory.
4
My personal philosophy on how to be healthy is to ignore so-called health "experts". They are usually so fixated on their own specific views and specialized fields that they are the most narrow-minded and myopic ones in any room. We should leave them be to argue with each other on who is smartest and who is the most right. That seems to make them happy. Oh and they love getting quoted in articles, so do keep them well fed. There's a good media.
22
@Bear
Yes, of course, but you forget our most important food, hunnie. What bear's meal should not be topped off with some hunnie?
Theodore Eugene (Ted E.) Bear
7
For reasons that remain a mystery to me, I lost my taste for most flavored drinks about 25 years ago. I'm not sure about how the change has affected my health, but I don't miss them. My desire for soda, tea, coffee, fruit juice, and milk just left me. I had a sip of cola recently and nearly choked at the cloying sweetness. Likewise, milk holds no appeal at all. An occasional glass of fine wine, however, is a gift from heaven.
11
@Allison
I'm very similar, but love my (unsweetened) hot tea every morning!
1
Milk is the least processed drink as compared to soy, almond or other non-milk milks. That alone gives milk a huge thumbs up in my opinion.
23
@Old Major What is your source? Also, dairy milk is processed through an artificially inseminated female cow who has to give birth to a calf on a regular basis in order to continue to produce milk, and her baby has to be taken from her so her milk can be stolen from her to go to a human. And when she's no longer productive enough, she goes to slaughter. I'll take non-dairy milk over that any day.
26
@Kayla I raise dairy goats for personal milk consumption. I don't breed every year. I leave the kids with their mothers'. Dairy can be humane. It can be done small scale. I do not sell my milk. I am not a licensed dairy
17
Did it ever occurred to you that we can also eat or drink something for PLEASURE? I'm 69, and I drink milk from time to time, especially in the summer, because I find it the most refreshing of beverages.
28
@Fidelio I also enjoy drinking milk in the summer, especially raw milk, due to the cows switching to grass and producing high quality milk.
5
It's true that no other animals drink milk from other species. I hear this used as a criticism of dairy consumption.
On the other hand: no other animal builds irrigation systems; grows almonds, soy, rice, etc.; manufactures artificial "milk": and spends millions of dollars trying to convince fellow species members that this white plant juice is "milk".
Also, genes for lactose tolerance have emerged independently and spread in different parts of the world in the last several millennia to enable milk consumption by adult humans. From a Darwinian perspective, this implies some advantage.
72
@A B My parents had a litter of (white) English setter puppies and a black kitten. Guess who also visited the milk bar on a regular basis!
8
@A B I think you miss the point there; people tend to use the "other animals don't drink milk from other species" as a response to the defense that drinking milk is naturally or biologically ordained. It's not a standalone criticism.
4
@Sally. And, from who-knows-when until only about 250-300 years ago, even in Western Europe, if a family had a baby goat or lamb that was rejected by its mother, a lactating human mother would sometimes wet nurse the animal baby, because its survival was so important to the family’s economy.
7
What IS milk? It is baby calf growth fluid. It's purpose is to help a 65 pound calf grow into a 1,600 pound cow as quickly as possible. Again, intended for consumption by cows, and only cows, it's a GROWTH hormone, whose primary function is to help COWS grow as quickly as possible.
This is what milk does. It helps things grow real fast. It matters not what form the milk comes in--be that milk, butter, cheese, whey, yogurt, ice cream, etc.--if YOU eat a lot of it, YOU are going to "grow real fast" too.
So, if you, too, would like to grow as quickly as a baby calf and get as big as a cow, milk is definitely the way to go. Toss in cheese, which the average American eats in excess of 33 pounds a year, and you have the ready explanation for what you see around you on the streets of America every day of the week. Two legged cows.
As if all that's not bad enough, dwell on this. At the end of the day, milk is a "growth fluid" made for another species. It's for COWS. Unless you walk on all fours, chew your cud and find yourself mooing at all times of the day, it's not for you.
In short, it makes as much sense for you to consume the milk of a cow as it would for you to consume the milk of a rat. Just another species, right? I hope you're not anti-rat!!
Bon appetit.
60
@Greg Gerner I suspect that all mammalian milks can be used in place of cows milk. Cows milk is easy to obtain in large parts of the world. Goat and camel milks are popular in some places. Nothing wrong with rat or mouse milk, just difficult to supply in an adequate volume.
27
@Greg Gerner people are not gaining enormous amounts of weight drinking milk and eating cheese. It is from all the processed foods, sodas. Milk consumption has dropped 40% since 1975 in the USA, to be replaced by copious amounts of sugared soda. That is one culprit.
Additionally, smoking rates are down dramatically over the decades. So many those supposed healthy skinny people you see in so many pictures taken in the bad old days were actually smokers. But hey - at least they were thin!
Why do you insist on calling people cows?
44
@Greg Gerner
Well, if you're going to bring up that "Nature intends" argument . . .
OK, you've presented the thesis that nature intends cow's milk for baby cows, not for humans.
Now let's consider the tomato.
Nature did not intend the tomato for human consumption. See all those seeds? Nature intended that tomato to become future generations of tomato plants. We rob it of its destiny when we eat it.
40
Okay, so you totally failed to discuss this sentence "with the exception of soy milk" which is a HUGE exception. Why? You mention it as having protein and then you completely ignore a discussion of it.
8
@Lafosner No mention of the estrogen in soy products either.
6
@Margaret
phytoestrogen rather than animal hormones which all animal milks richly contain.
It's the insulin-like growth factor (IGF 1) that is most worrying.
7
Soy has phytoestrogens. Not the same as animal estrogen.
9
i like 2% milk on my cereal, but once i was forced to try it with something else...Newman's Limeade. i pay close attention to the sugar content of drinks like that and now rarely buy them. i take my pills in the morning with homebrewed kombucha and then its water for the rest of the day. i'm on a quest for the most refreshing glass of water but i don't buy it in bottles, so i don't know how i'm going to finesse that. i'm looking for water with the properties of miruvor.
1
@David
a drop or two of liquid minerals like Concen Trace will make even the nastiest tap water palatable.
2
I think you should distinguish the difference between lactose ( natural sugar in milk) vs and added sugar in soft drinks and sports drinks
11
Electrolyte balance? I was told by a nurse that my "64 oz. of water per day" is wrong because that much water will leach electrolytes right out of the body (how water OD kills those poor frat boys trying to get in). She recommended trying milk, juice and broth for calcium, fructose and salt; I do drink a lot of water but I also consume extra salt. This seems a narrow, short-sighted bit of science. (I miss milk terribly but after losing my colon, it wreaks havoc on my digestion.)
3
@kschwrtz coconutwater is amazing for electrolytes. I no longer get leg cramps at night. it is low in sodium, however
9
@Pat Sommer watermelon water is also an excellent source of electrolytes and so is a green smoothie with coconut water or coconut milk as the base.
1
What about osteoporosis? Don’t we need dairy foods to prevent and treat that? Dairy calcium is the most easily absorbed form of this essential mineral to build bone
8
@Nina, dairy consumption is positively correlated with dairy consumption. The more a country consumes, the higher its rate of fractures and osteoporosis. Milk does contain calcium but it is also acidic and our bodies counter that acidity by leaching calcium from our bones.
For reference: https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/feb/whenfriendsask.htm
16
@Nina greens excellent source and will benefit eyesight as well. also, phosphorus must be in balance: not too little but no 6 pack of coke either.
Sunshine vitamin, D, the 3rd side of the triangle.
4
@Nina after reading this article I did a decent amount of Googling and certainly found a lot of studies to support a belief that calcium from dairy helps prevent Osteoporosis. Some links to studies in here:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-dairy-good-for-your-bones#section5
And here's an article trying to address the milk acidity thing and saying none of those studies show any form of causality:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/trends-fads/is-milk-bad-for-your-bones
I'm not claiming to know anything about this topic. Just beware people on the internet who act like they have the answers and then send links to weird blogs from 2007.
10
Instead of worrying about milk, there should be more worry about added sugar in almost everything now. Why does peanut butter have added sugar? Or "toddler milk" with corn syrup? Regular milk is cheaper and healthier.
The main concern is also the type of sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, which our pancreas cannot convert to glycogen and instead is sent to the liver to become fat. The corn lobby has a stranglehold on attempts to limit it's use.
Learn to read labels. Avoid anything if one of the top 3 ingredients is listed as added sugar. Otherwise, only consume in small amounts as a dessert.
12
@LT Why can't I find mayonnaise without sugar in it in the USA? Had to make my own for a mountain of family picnic sandwiches the last time I was there.
5
@Margaret Duke’s mayo has no sugar. Try that if it’s available in your area.
3
Ain't nuthin' like an Oreo and cold glass of milk
48
@Annie
I'd say a homemade chocolate chip cookie!
3
The analogy of kids drinking milk to adults consuming alcohol is a bit much. I get it, but it really gave this article an angle that wasn’t necessary.
And, how about this: The people that like milk, continue to drink it! And, the people that don’t like it, or have an agenda against drinking milk, don’t drink it! So much preaching and quantity policing.
40
@A 90% of American kids have fatty streaks in their arteries by age 8.
Type 1 Diabetes, Crohns, Staph infections etc affecting many children that someone better get on a soapbox and preach vector-of-disease that is dairy
8
Genetic mutations that allow humans to digest lactose after infancy have arisen and spread through human populations multiple times. Milk is an important source of protein.
Some kids really struggle to gain weight and height. Milk and cream are excellent sources of protein and fat for these kids. My kids drink chocolate milk fortified with cream and/or coconut oil. This has really helped them to finally catch up in height. Neither has much interest in meat.
11
@MM And how would you know your kids wouldn't have finally caught up in their heights otherwise? That's what kids do, based on genetics. I've seen boys that lag until they're 17-18 and then shoot up several inches in a short time period. It has nothing to do with milk or fat, unless they've been very inadequately underfed for most of their lives.
13
@LT
It actually has a lot to do with drinking milk. Milk is high in grown hormones, fats, and proteins. Yes, genes play a role but it is also critical that children consume proteins and fats, especially at the start of the onset of puberty. Or else, it would stunt their growth.
1
Despite what the author says, it is possible to eat cereal without milk. I've been doing this all my life; as a child, I didn't like combining solids and liquid (e.g. I hate pulp in orange juice), and this childish habit has continued all my 68 years. BTW, I do drink milk after cereal, but I can't abide the two combined. I was a heavy milk drinker as a kid, and even now enjoy lactose-free milk. I also drink a small glass of pulp-free orange juice in the morning as a guarantee I will get the needed Vitamin C for the day.
6
@craig me too, I always had them separately, b/c I hate soggy bread. I don't eat cereal anymore, but other bread products occasionally.
2
"All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water."
This is the kind of statement that passes for wisdom, but the reality is that 'other mammals' never have the opportunity to drink anything else. They can't afford the little machines you need to make juice, you see.
The essence of the argument should be this: Water is for hydration, other liquids are food. Liquid food should always be separate from water, because simple hydration is a constant necessity to mammals, while nutrition is far less urgent. When you're thirsty, drink water, hungry, eat or drink food.
16
@Sera
Other mammals eat fruit which have a high liquid content.
7
@Sera True- my cat will gladly consume cow's milk and lick at olive oil given the chance.
19
@Sera My childhood dog insisted on drinking Pepsi/Coke along with the humans. But she didn't like the fizz, so we had to keep an open can in the fridge so she could drink it flat. BTW, she lived a long, healthy life.
5
Maybe TMI, but … there is exactly only one reason for an adult to drink juice … apple juice ( no pulp ) was on the list of beverages, from my GI, I was allowed on the pre-colonoscopy liquid diet. Still have 4 little juice boxes left in my fridge, saving them for next time …
8
First It is difficult enough in our society for many women to breast feed exclusively for an entire year, therefore unrealistic to expect breast milk to serve as a babies main source of milk for two years.
Second there is some classicism in assuming all women have choices in the type of milk they feed their babies. Plant based milks are significantly more expensive than cow's milk.
10
@M. Because the dairy industry is subsidized.
30
@M.
No one should breastfeed exclusively for one year: at age 6 months solid food should be introduced as per American Academy of Pediatrics.
6
@Mickela Exactly my point.
4
Cereal tastes good with applesauce. No milk required.
7
". . . there’s not much of a health case to drink any beverage other than water after the age of 2 . . ." The soundest health advice of this or any other day. There is nothing--nothing--like a cool glass of water on a hot summer day. Or any other day. I know, boring. But true.
17
@Cody McCall Sometimes a cup of warm water - esp. in cold weather - feels great too.
7
@Grant And my very best Chinese girlfriend has several cups of very warm water each morning as I guzzle a couple of cups of coffee!
3
I'm not convinced that worrying about whether one's diet provides necessary nutrients is a fool's errand. Determining whether one's doctor can find a legitimate insufficiency before one starts treating it as a medical problem seems far more important.
2
Juices are completely worthless and I stopped drinking any years ago. Cereal is also worthless junk food. I almost never eat it, but occasionally I buy a pack because I really like it, with milk and some fresh fruit. But it's like candy; I can eat a huge bowl and an hour later I'm hungry again. So I very rarely buy it, it's in the same category as ice cream or cake.
Cow milk is a convenient but still natural way to consume sufficient protein every day, so I drink quite a lot of it. But certainly if someone gets enough protein from other sources, cow milk is optional too.
5
@GS What about calcium? I had osteogenesis imperfecta. Thank goodness this anti-cows milk "information" wasn't available back in 1940s. My father taught at a college with a dairy and I drank plenty of milk.
This reader does drink milk, but all those saying it's not necessary; where do they get enough calcium.
5
@Lallie Wetzig greens beans sesame amaranth kale figs tofu almonds works for me
10
@Lallie Wetzig: Perhaps from water. A 1999 study out of Italy identified calcium-rich (hard) water as a factor in the maintenance of bone mass in post-menopausal women.
6
You forgot about wine.
10
@Paul And beer, which was the beverage of choice in earlier eras before water purification.
7
Milk and sugar are highly subsidized. Is it any wonder that they appear in dietary guidelines at all? (sure, sugar is supposed to be "limited" - but it should be ZERO.)
There is NO need for either - added sugars in foods only serve to make them more addictive (along with fat and salt).
19
@Lou See my reply to GS. Yes, I know some vegetables have calcium, but how much kale can you eat at one sitting.?
6
Don't believe them!!!
Milk and calcium are essential elements for a healthy bone structure. I am a living example. After infancy I never drank any milk because the taste of it gagged me and no taste additives helped. I ate cheese and other calcium rich foods but took no calcium tablets. Today, in spite of efforts to improve, I have very weak and thin bones, with six separate cases of fractures.
Trying to get children NOT to drink milk (if they can) is a crime in my opinion.
15
@Dale Eliasson Calcium is widely available - and more readily absorbed - from leafy green vegetables. I'm sorry you have trouble with your bones, but could it be BECAUSE of the dietary calcium in your cheese, and not IN SPITE of it? There are some studies that show supplementing calcium does more harm than good.
23
@Dale Eliasson Cows milk is fortified with vitamin D and calcium. Lots of people all over the world grow up without cows milk, and have no problems with their bones.
10
@Dale Eliasson I also remember being told in grade school that the most complete 'food' a person can consume is milk - cows milk was referred to all those many years ago as there were no such things as vegetable-based milks. I have believed this all of my life and there's no way my mind will be changed. Still, I do believe that it may not be necessary to drink quite as much milk as a person maturers, it is mainly during the growing stages in life that one needs such nutrition. As for juice, I think of it as a treat more than nourishment. I do like my morning OJ though, and a squirt of lemon or lime in pure fresh cold water.
5
What about calcium consumption? Osteporosis runs in my family, and I wonder if that is argument for consuming more dairy than my relatives did (they consumed very little dairy). Calcium is hard to come by outside of dairy, unless it's added, but your body might not absorb added calcium as well. Spinach and a few other foods have calcium, but you need to consume a LOT of those foods.
Sure, I can get protein from plenty of other sources. But when I think maybe I should cut out dairy, I think about the calcium.
9
@Itsy Actually, spinach is a great source of calcium. A cup of cooked spinach does not have as much calcium as a cup of milk, but it is relatively close. There are other dairy drinks/foods that can provide calcium without drinking milk. Yogurt, for example, has 50% more calcium than milk (450mg/cup vs. 300/mg for milk). I get plenty of calcium from a variety of sources. I drink milk because I like it, but I do not need it to get sufficient calcium.
2
@Itsy Yes, finally someone I can agree with.
1
@Itsy Japanese people have lower rates of osteoporosis and injuries from low bone density and they generally consume little to no dairy. It is entirely possible to have healthy bones without dairy.
20
I find our approach to health absurd. Sugar has been around for 300 years and it was not until HFCS was invented that diabetes and obesity began. Perhaps we only need to give up HFCS. This face is never mentioned.
As for milk one of our poorest groups are children. If they could get real milk at school it would be a positive step in spite of the naysayers. Sadly it tases awful as it is low fat and it is illegal to sell whole milk in school so kids drink Coke. More absurdity.
We are 35 on the list of the healthiest countries in the world. This is an outrage.
Every nutrition study includes cereal and grain but for many it is simply never eaten.
In 1914 the Supreme court said it was ok to poison our food as long as it seemed not to harm people. An outrageous decision.
( bleached bread decision)
For thousands of years wheat was considered a perfect food but we have destroyed it with Round Up in the grain and removing all the nutrition from wheat to make it a worthless food.
It may be that the diet foods have created the obesity crises in this country.
In short the government is poisoning the people of this country.
ps i suggest purchasing a wheat grinder and home grinding flour from organic wheat.
7
@Allan If you do not like low fat milk, then do not drink it. However, whole milk provides way too much fat to be healthful, which is why the health recommendations are for low fat milk. Our family drinks 1% milk, so to us, even 2% milk tastes like cream. I find it discouraging that when we are traveling, the allegedly "reduced fat" milk served at restaurants is actually 2%. If you are worried about "the government poisoning the people of this country," perhaps you should pick a different example from one that health professionals generally agree makes an important contribution to public health.
2
@Allan
No diabetes or obesity until high fructose corn sugar was invented? That's just not true!!!!!!!!!
3
@Allan Sugar has been around for 300 years and it was not until HFCS was invented that diabetes and obesity began.
Are you kidding? Look at what royalty ate 500 years ago - if you had a rich diet you suffered from diabetes, obesity, etc. Now the unwashed masses did not - but everywhere food was readily available - generally the rich classes - they suffered from gout, and all maladies that we suffer today. The first sugar was recorded in 1099 in England. The subsequent centuries saw a major expansion of western European trade with the East, including the importation of sugar. It is recorded, for instance, that sugar was available in London at "two shillings a pound" in 1319 AD.
3
Thanks for the input but juice and milk, despite their risks, can be extremely satisfying in quench thirst and accompanying a cookie.
12
I have loved milk since I was a kid and continue to drink it frequently today. I am almost 70. I am not obese, my lipids are good and my glucose levels are good. I drink no soda, hardly any juice. Beer is another staple drink.
I love dairy and it is a staple part of my diet in yogurt and cheese.
Food is food and everything in healthy moderation. I don't buy into this thing that dairy is somehow unhealthy and for calves only. I don't subscribe to political diet agendas.
58
I couldn't stand milk when I was a kid, never drank much of it. Juice I can take or leave. It was never served as a staple. I like juice from the source. An apple or an orange. I don't take vitamins either. I eat real food. Even meat. Period. And plenty of beer. I am healthy at 70 and hope to continue on my current dietary regime.
8
Lactose intolerance affects roughly 70% of the world's population. The ability to digest milk is viewed as a genetic adaptation for a relatively small percentage of humans. Most don't realize cows have their natural hormones passed in their milk. There is no industry removing that!
22
@N. Isip Whoa! Seventy percent! Can you cite any sources for this astounding assertion? And just who is doing the viewing in "Is viewed as"? By whom? "Genetic adaptation" to digest milk"---even mother's milk? Tell it to Darwin; this must have happened very early in the history of homo sapiens, and over the whole population, otherwise the species would have died off rather quickly.
I find comments like N. Isip's about as informative and enlightening as the article itself, IOW, not very.
3
@HS
Here's a link supporting the OP's point:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(17)30154-1/fulltext
1
@HS
Whatever the number is, for sure the world's population is more likely to be lactose intolerant.
Cow's milk tolerance is likely just an adaptation by our species.
1
I cut out fruit and vegetable juices years ago. Whole fruits and vegetables are infinitely preferable because they have fiber and, in the case of vegetables, they don't contain excessive sodium. I use unsweetened almond milk mostly because it is enriched with calcium, vitamin D and other vitamins and minerals and has only 30 calories a cup. But I'm not a child.
6
Milk is white sugar water that had little value for anyone other that small children.
That said, ALL foods/beverages should be consumed in balance with others.
3 rules:
Eat real food.
Mostly plants.
Not too much.
39
@PhilO
Great advice - but difficult to follow all the time !
3
@PhilO
Or as I would add:
Drink Water.
Mostly liquid.
Don't Drown.
(sarcasm intentional)
7
Eventually the agonizing, nitpicking, and holier-than-thou-ing over food choices will lead to the development of People Chow. Then we can all move on to fighting about something else.
27
@Di Remember Soylent Green? That was People Chow - made from people!
4
@Di Soylent Green is the final food...LOL
5
How much rocket science does it take to figure this out?
Milk made the transition from our agricultural based economy to our industrial based economy because before we had enough mass processed, sugary beverages to fill a dictionary, the choices were water, milk and alcohol.
Everyone drinks water so which of the remaining two are you going to give to your children? And now that we have more soft drink choices than you could possibly consume in a single childhood, milk is still a better choice than anything but water.
Allergies and intolerance aside, why demonize milk now?
22
@Angieps Many of us don't "demonize" it. We just say that 1) it is not necessary, and 2) if drunk or eaten in other forms (cheese, yogurt), should be taken in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
3
The article assumes "juice' equals the junk that goes under that name in the common supermarkets. real juice is squeezed at home from real fruit using a juicer or a blender.
4
@trolley still has the high sugar.
11
@trolley
No, even fresh squeezed juice has a sugar content which is similar to coca cola.
17
@trolley Using a blender to breakdown fruit still preserves the whole fruit. Juicing leaves behind many nutrients, as well as fiber.
6
The health benefits of cow's milk have been oversold, but it's an effective way to get my kid enough calcium and Vitamin D (we don't have the means to eat salmon daily or even weekly, and while we're lucky to have a 5 year old who likes dark leafy greens, she can't eat enough to meet her daily requirements). We serve a small cup of milk with meals. She probably drinks 8-16 oz./day. We also offer water with meals, and that's the beverage of choice outside of meals. Juice is just a special treat.
24
@Emily Are you concerned at all about saturated fat content, exposure to bone fractures from increased milk consumption, and association with prostate or ovarian cancer?
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/0284186X.2011.636754
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/100/suppl_1/386S/4576503
https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6015
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001973.htm
13
@Aldo
With that small amount, there are no worries.
As a teen-ager I was an avid body-builder trying to max my protein; thus I would drink a quart of milk at a sitting. Now as a senior, having given up milk etc., I have very good vital signs.
6
The author never makes it clear: is he talking exclusively about the juice that comes from a factory, or is he including the juice that is made at home?
Because what I consume at home is juice straight from the fruit, be it a grapefruit, orange, banana, papaya, mango, etc. If necessary to dilute the pulp, in goes reverse osmosis filtered water. It's organic fruit and often includes the skin. No 'empty calories,' just pure good taste and the benefit of the whole fruit.
When the IARC designated red meat as a carcinogen, the public ran into the same kind of problem with 'expert advice': they didn't (and couldn't) distinguish between factory processed feedlot meat fed on slop (inferior protein), and ethically farmed, organic meat, preferably animals that run free.
When it comes to nutrition experts, watch for what they don't say, then stay away from factory produced stuff.
2
"Juice" generally means a strained product. Those aren't particularly nutritious no matter how they are made. If you're liquifying whole fruit, you're retaining the nutritional value. However, you're likely making the sugar more quickly available and reducing the ability of the fruit to produce a sense of satiety.
7
@Svirchev If you take the fiber out by juicing you basically have straight sugar with some nutrients.
7
Now 75, I have consumed copious quantities of milk and juice nearly everyday since childhood. I rarely drink water. My weight has remained the same for the past 50 years--a brief gain of 25 pounds during graduate school--but then began running (two half marathons so far this year)--and have maintained my high school graduation weight since the early 1970s (or maybe now weigh a little less). I have incurred ZERO dollars of Medicare expenditure. Yes, ZERO.
I attribute good health and fitness to milk, juice, and exercise.
27
@Gerry Professor One's story is not representative of the masses'. Consider yourself fortunate.
15
@Gerry Professor
You mean you never have had a physical exam paid my Medicare? If not, you should - maybe you're not as fit as you believe. But ... keep up the running.
4
@Gerry Professor Medicare allows one exam a year. Why don't you use it - you are paying for it.
Saying you have incurred ZERO dollars of Medicare expenditure doesn't mean you are healthy - it means you don't get checked as you should. Nothing to brag about.
5
As the spouse of a nutritionist, I've read many peer reviewed publications showing that for bone health, nothing beats one percent milk and as we age, we need plenty of protein which milk provides.
"You never outgrow your need for milk" still rings true.
20
@AGoldstein while your husband may believe that, and there may be "peer reviewed" article in nutritional literature regarding that, I would venture that there are zero controlled studies between those who drink milk and those who don't regarding osteoporosis or other health benefits. Anything else is opinion masquerading as fact.
7
@alan
I follow many nutritionists on the Web. My fav is Dr. Michael Greger who is known for evidence based information. He does not recommend any dairy product; his beverages are tap water and hibiscus tea.
8
@AH I have his book too and I can only wonder how many elderly women he knows. At age 83 I know a few who have had hip fractures. They did not consume enough dairy to have needed calcium in their diet.
4
The Dutch consume a great deal of dairy, including milk, and I believe they are relatively healthy and not known to be overweight. Both milk and orange juice contain healthy nutrients. It is probably not these things that contribute to obesity, but things like foods fried in poor quality vegetable oils probably do.
21
I've been drinking milk since infancy, and it and water are the only things I really drink. To me, there's nothing as refreshing as a cold glass of milk. For me, it's a keeper.
23
It's like that old Calvin & Hobbes' panel, the one where Calvin is starting to note how weird so many of our daily practices are, like drinking milk. Calvin: "Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and said, 'I'm going to drink whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze 'em'?"
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@RexRiley The first time I read that strip I was 11 or 12 and the way the timing in that strip worked and the way Watterson illustrated it I just lost it and had a hearty laugh for a few minutes. I don't know what it was about it, but it was just funny as hell.
12
Plant based “milks” are not actually milk. In many countries the manufacturers are banned from calling them milk, for the simple reason that they are not milk.
But in America if Coca Cola wants to call their products “milk” they would be allowed to.
What ever happened to truth in advertising?
39
@Thomas - probably the issue is that people understand that almonds, for example, are not actually mammals.
So they call it "almond milk", not "milk" and people aren't deceived, despite the protests of the dairy industry.
30
The phrase "nut milk" is actually much older than the phrase "peanut butter." It's probably medieval. In other words, the word "milk" has always extended to whitish liquids.
25
Truth in advertising? When was the last time you bought "cow's milk" at the grocery store? I've personally never seen it. but if you think that plant-based milks shouldn't use the term milk, then do you also believe that the dairy industry should be explicit in their labeling, just in case people don't understand that they're drinking the milk of an animal? The dairy industry doesn't own the term "milk." It's always been used to describe not only the milk from mammals, but also any white creamy substance. But if the dairy industry is going to continue to lobby for ownership of the term on the basis that product labeling should be more explicit, then they should start at home, by labeling all of their products as cow's milk.
27
" All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water." I'm 78, was breast fed, and have lived a far more interesting life than the manatees in our bay. As a Peace Corps volunteer clean water was hard to prepare and a treat. With the Red Cross in Vietnam during the war cool, not very warm, water was appreciated; cold a rare treat. Iced sometimes worth the risk. But one of the things, in addition to reading, I like about my life that the manatees can't enjoy is a varied menu over decades, more than 3/4 of a century; water and seaweed just won't cut it.
16
There has never been any need to drink cows milk. The agricultural industry has lobbied heavily for it and that it why it ended up in the food pyramid. Plant-based milks are so much healthier and taste better.
21
@Frank I couldn't agree more! My husband and I watched, "Forks Over Knives" several years ago and have since adopted a plant based diet. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn lay out clear researched evidence that not only explains we don't need milk, but also emphasizes the dangers of milk. Contrary to the propaganda the dairy industry feeds us, milk leaches calcium out of the bones.
10
@Frank
Have you access to studies conducted that show plant-based milks are "so much healthier [sic] and taste better" than cow's milk? Please cite.
24
The naturalistic fallacy is thick in these comments, statements like "nature didn't intend for humans to drink cow's milk".
All of agriculture is "unnatural", including the soybeans and the almonds. With the exception of fruits/berries for the purpose of seed dispersal, no food that we eat is "intended" to be food.
Water filtration is "unnatural".
The question is the specific health effects, not whether or not a practice is "natural".
271
@The Pooch yeah that and the impact on the environment. If it is unnecessary for our health but devastating to the environment, we should stop our consumption of it.
8
Many of us simply like milk. It enhances the flavor of several foods and is rich in high-quality protein. Yes, the protein is also available from other sources, but milk is inexpensive.
Fruit juice is different, since it is rich only in sugars that are harmful.
28
@Dwight Oxley
I drink cow's milk -- and goat's milk -- because I like it. But, more important, my life wouldn't be worth living without the hundreds of beautiful cheeses in the world made from dairy milk.
41
One of my favorite sayings is if nature wanted us to consume all of the different beverages that we humans consume, then God would have made it flow through the mountains and woods like water does.
Water is it. That's what our bodies are mostly made of and that is what we need to survive. Now, that being said, the article points out what children need. All mammals lactate and so that is a necessary way of enriching young bodies. But at a certain point, that becomes unnecessary. Watch other mammals. You don't see animals drinking anything other than water in nature. We should be the same way! Let's drink to that.
10
How do the plant-based milks taste?
2
@Catherine Vivio Better than cows milk and clearly much healthier.
6
How are they healthier? I have read many of their nutrition labels and they have practically nothing helpful in them. Almost no protein. Not better than, and in many ways less health than water!
22
@Catherine Vivio depends on the type. Soy milk tastes the most like milk, almond tases kinda like milk and good in muesli and coffee. Cashew is a bit more nutty, also ok for muesli and coffee. Rice and oat milks don't taste like milk at all, have a taste I'd describe as "like grains". I like hazelnut milk the most bc I mostly use milk for my coffee and it makes the coffee taste really nice as if you'd put in a flavor shot. I don't really consume milk apart from coffee and muesli.
The problem with plant milks is that they don't really have protein (apart from soy milk), and some, like almond milk are very questionable environment wise. Almonds need tons of water to produce and are often produced in regions which are short on water.
Plus, many plant based milks are more expensive than milk from free range organic grass/hay fed cows on pastures, even the cows milk from programs where the calfs can stay longer than normal with their mothers are cheaper than the nut based milks.
If you want to drink cow's milk, those are the ones to drink - milk from cows who aren't fed mostly grass/hay have a weirded up ratio of omega 3 to omega 6. That ratio being wrong has been correlated with depression and a lot of other problems. We (and our feed animals) eat way too many grains instead of leafy greens and that's not good.
So, I use hazelnut milk in my coffee for the taste and grass fed cow milk based other products like yogurt and cheese for the nutritional aspect.
2
All other mammals consume only two liquids over the course of their lives: breast milk and water.
There is proof. No other animal brews beer? Hope the story was good after that sentence.
16
@Just Me
Maybe they don't brew beers, but one can find stories of animals enjoying fermented berries.
18
There's one glaring omission from this well-considered and thoughtful article. Home-Made CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. Factoring in this, now makes it the only time I must go to the market for milk. I simply cannot have a mouthful of chewy-cookie without a sip of milk to go along. (Some cow somewhere is now saying 'mooo!' for 'thank you'.)
14
@david Did you watch the MSNBC program "What's Eating America" last Sunday. Included in the problems brought on by climate change was that chocolate chip cookies will soon be unavailable thanks to climate change.
3
Milk and juice is very American. Having grown in an European culture, we did not have either during the day, or at any time. Balanced meals fill all the needs. We had seasonal fruit, cheese, bottled or filtered water at the table and a little wine for the adults. Plain silky yoghurt was for dessert (if no cheese was consumed) and each added as much sugar as needed: nothing to do with the sweetened goo you buy here in the supermarket.
The ever increasing obesity problem of American society is due to the overconsumption of sugar in everything, preservatives and fried food. This, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, and you have a ticking bomb!
Bad habits must be broken.
213
@Ghislaine Eyer , what European culture is without wine?
12
@joan - Decades ago I worked with a guy from the Netherlands, and he'd show a map of Europe, split into zones running roughly east to west. After asking a roomful of Americans what it represented, he'd tell us it was the lines of demarkation separating (from South to North)
- wine drinkers
- beer/ale drinkers
- aquavit/vodka drinkers
He lived in the beer zone, when over here would drink Heinekin for patriotic purposes, then kind of wince and note that they exported the bad stuff and kept the good stuff at home!
17
@Ghislaine Eyer Pretty sure cheese and yoghhhurt come from milk, so maybe you weren't drinking it but you were eating plenty of it.
31
No one other than a calf should ever drink cow's milk.
101
@Polaris Having had osteogenesis imperfecta and needing calcium I must disagree with you. Hope you are getting enough calcium; hip fractures aren't much fun.
14
@Lallie Wetzig There is more calcium in a cup of bok choy or two cups of broccoli than a glass of cows milk. It is not difficult at all to get enough calcium without consuming dairy.
12
@Polaris
Nonsense. Milk is nutritional and delicious. It's also essential when consuming Malomars, Fig Newtons and Oreos.
15
Are emotionally intelligent creatures tortured with unnatural confinement, painful over distention of their udders and an unnatural diet that causes constant, painful bloating? Sure. is 2,000 gallons of water required to produce one gallon of cows milk. Ya. Does industrial farming waste contribute to the pollution of groundwater, streams and rivers. Kinda. But we can't imagine eating cereal without milk.
91
@James We need to reignite our imagination. In many countries, cereal is not common and certainly not breakfast. For the sake of our environment, we need to rethink choices made for the sake of comfort or habit. By the way, one of the worst culprits is almond milk. It is too resource-intensive.
14
@EML No one has mentioned "milk" made with pea protein. It is actually higher in calcium than milk and better for the environment since it does not produce the harmful wastes that cows do. There are benefits to health and the environment eating lower down on the food chain. Check out Ripple's website.
11
@Wallstreet Jon
Also more expensive.
4
Oh boy. Here we go again. Milk, to many like me, is delicious. Are we humans allowed to enjoy something for its' own pleasure and deliciousness? I guess the crazed over-controllers don't think so. Just let it go, please. There are millions of other issues that are far more important.
101
@John OBrienj -- unless you are one of the young children whose diet is discussed in this article, please curb your outrage long enough to re-read the closing sentence of the article: "The bottom line, as I’ve written before, is that every beverage other than water and breast milk might be treated the way alcohol is for adults — you can have it if you want it, but don’t be under the illusion that you need it."
So be an adult and enjoy your delicious milk. I don't care for it since my teens but the writer of an article about child nutrition is not trying to over-control you. We leave that to you.
145
@John OBrienj The question is not "do you enjoy it." The question, instead, is 'are these things actually good for you, or have these industries convinced millions of Americans they are good when they are in fact not?'. Beer, obviously, is not "good for you", and Americans know that when making the choice to consume. If you choose to consume milk, you should be under no misconceptions about its benefits, and we certainly shouldn't be doing things like requiring children buy milk as a part of school lunches simply based on industry marketing and weak 'science'.
62
@John OBrienj . I agree, I have enjoyed milk all my life and am now over 90 years old. Need the calcium & Vitamin D but no supplements agree with me.
22
Without Simply, I would live more difficultly...
3
There are some places on earth where it's unhealthy to drink anything lacking alcohol.
13
Excellent piece, moderation is always the key in life with food.
One can pervert anything in life including motherhood, apple pie and nutrition and all have been perverted.
Make sure an infant/child gets a adequate amount of standard milk and water, checkups as needed and tell the "expert" nutritionists to ply their snake oils elsewhere.
7
Where do you think the cow gets its calcium from?
33
@Greg Gerner they get their calcium from grass, something we are not equipped to digest. In places where the most reliable crop is pasture and grass (colder, wetter areas), using animals to convert that inedible-to-us material into meat, milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt makes a huge amount of sense.
10
@kms Greg is correct. Humans don’t eat grasses but they can eat wild greens such as dandelion, nettles, sorrel, chicory and others. Dandelion, for example contains a high percentage of calcium. These are some of the healthiest greens available to humans.
3
Good for Professor of Pediatrics Aaron Carroll for calling out fruit juice as something that is not healthful for children!
Now let's see Professor Carroll call out America's for-profit healthcare system in America for also being unhealthful for children.
Let's see Professor Carroll advocate for measures that will help children and mothers, such as free maternal care throughout pregnancy and childbirth to help turn around our shameful infant mortality rate; for paid family and medical leave for all mothers for at least six months, and for fathers for another six months, as is the norm in most of Europe and Canada; for free or heavily subsidized high-quality federal child care that has been shown to help child development and health; for much better nutritional assistance to low-income families so that their children don't suffer developmentally in school; for substantially higher federal support for schools, so that a child's zip code does not determine his education and future economic prospects, reversing our now woeful social immobility rank.
Yes, Professor Carroll is right to point out that the empty calories in fruit juice aren't good for you. Now let's see him argue for something really important: universal healthcare.
96
Agree in part however, the juice we either purchase locally or make ourselves has no added sugar. Second, if one can convince a youngster to drink milk instead of an added sugar juice or soda, is that not better for them? We willingly concede water is best of all. Third, as we are now old, what about calcium additions recommended by geriatric doctors everywhere? I would much rather have a glass of milk than a pill.
11
@tom As Dr. Carroll correctly points out, “added sugar” is not the problem with processed fruit juice, it is the natural fructose that is in the juice.
When NYC schools tossed Coke machines they substituted cans of “100% juice” that contained 160-170 calories in an 11.5 oz can — virtually the same as a 12 oz can of Coke. True, the juice had added vitamin C and D, but the juice cans were otherwise just empty calories. Fructose is fructose is sugar, whether “natural” or added.
135
@tom ,
Juice doesn’t usually have added sugar. But it is basically sugar water, because all the fiber and many of the other nutrients are stripped out of it.
Have you heard of “concentrated apple juice” used in the place of sugar? That’s because apple juice is basically sugar water; when the water is evaporated out, what’s left is basically sugar. That’s true of all juices.
Did you read this sentence from the article: “ A 12-ounce glass of apple juice has the same amount as a can of soda (grape juice has even more).“ All that sugar was present in the apples; it isn’t added.
So, the juice you purchase locally or make yourself is still sugar water.
37
@Dr. J as noted, we make our own so the nutrients are kept.
2
I've been thinking a lot lately about daily recommended calcium consumption. It's virtually impossible to hit those numbers (1000-1200 mg) without either consuming a whole lot of dairy or taking a supplement. Which makes me think - maybe those recs are wrong? How did pre-livestock humans keep their bones healthy? Were they eating eggshells? A recommendation that is so very artificial can't possibly be based on evolutionary physiology, and thus maybe doesn't reflect what humans actually need for bone and neuron health.
19
@Mimi I love your idea that pre-livestock humans had the time to think about bone health. 10,000 years ago, you would be pretty damn lucky to live long enough to worry about osteoporosis. :)
50
@Mimi People continued evolving after they domesticated livestock. For instance- we evolved lactose tolerance that lasts into adulthood. This is likely because milk and dairy was a really important nutritional source for our ancestors.
11
@Mimi , Google plant based calcium sources. Cows get enough calcium from eating plants. Or do you think cows keep drinking milk all their lives? Or any other grown mammal ?
10
Juice is never a good idea. It's too much sugar. It was pushed on us all more than a generation ago by the Florida citrus growers. Milk is pretty much not necessary for adults. Cereal and milk for breakfast is basically a sugar loaded meal. Try a protein based meal, and you will be sated longer. Water is the perfect beverage. Although, coffee is pretty delightful for adults.
72
@Meighan Corbett all depends on what cereal you eat. Not all of it is loaded with sugar. Coffee tastes terrible.
These food and beverage choices are personal and not one will eclipse the other, not matter what you say people "should" consume.
7
@Meighan Corbett - And tea for us adults who prefer tea over coffee.
5
@Meighan Corbett
Try some nice Oatmeal, without additives!
3
I worked on small scale pasteurizers for a while. Got me around enough cows and dairy farms to appreciate how important pasteurization is, but also convinced me that dairy is widely over hyped. It's costly and cruelty based, even if the cows or goats have names and are coddled and petted. Milk is for baby cows.
Cheese is a different story, however, and you can't have one without the other. It's complicated and complex and enjoyable and adult, more or less. One of life's little conundrums.
At the moment, I'm milk-free. Plant milk works fine. But I am not cheese or butter free. For cooking, it's hard to find good substitutes with similar characteristics. Still, I think the sooner we trim consumption of those two, the better off we'll be as a planet and species. The amount of trouble we go to in order to subsidize dairy and the tolerance we have for the negative consequences of dairy herds is out of proportion to the benefits.
Preaching moderation to Americans however, is a losing battle.
260
@LocalOscillator what are you basing this assertion on? Milk consumption has dropped 40% since 1975. So there is moderation being practiced.
15
@Mary Unfortunately, the reduction in milk consumption has been replaced by soda and other "sports drinks", "energy drinks" and super sweet "coffee drinks".
15
@LocalOscillator
The vegan and plant-based milk trend is killing dairy farmers in Wisconsin (and probably other places). The five-generation farmer, the small farmer, is literally dying because he/she can't keep the family farm. The big industry farmers are the ones who can keep on, keep oning despite the downturn. I for one have decided that milk isn't as horrible as people make it out to be. In fact it's cruelty-free to dairy farmers, the small farmers who take care of their livestock. Also: real milk products taste very good.
26
In their tween age years, my grand nephews observed me eating cereal with plain cereal. Yuk, ugh was the initial reaction. Once they tried it, they adopted the practice. I've since switched to goat's milk yogurt (also various goat's milk cheeses). I wonder if they'd make that switch too!
4
I like the author's recommendation that moderation is the key. Absolute rules imposed on children can create imbalanced ideas about food.
And, while it is gently pointed, out, the fact that fresh, whole foods are better sources of nutrition cannot be overstated. However, if the best source of calcium and protein a person has access to is cow's milk, and juice the only "fruit", it may be the best they can do.
16