Organic Milk Worse for Diabetes Compared to Regular Milk
The incidence of diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions, particularly in developed countries. Poor diet and obesity are major contributors. Diabetes is a terrible disease that affects every aspect of daily living. It is caused by the body’s inability to control blood sugar levels. This is medically referred to as ‘insulin resistance’.
A 2007 study by the University of Cardiff in the UK shows that drinking a pint of milk a day can protect men against heart disease and diabetes. But when you examine the research in detail it is revealed as flawed, and the conclusions as false and misleading.
Jon Barron of The Baseline of Health Foundation makes the following five comments on this study:
1. The 20-year study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, analyzed how insulin resistance was affected by dairy milk consumption. According to the study, which tracked 2,375 men between the ages of 45 and 59 over a 20 year period, eating dairy products reduces the risk of insulin resistance. The more they consumed, the lower the risk.
2. In fact, although the study tracked a decreased risk of insulin resistance with increased dairy consumption, it found little actual correlation between dairy consumption and the incidence of diabetes itself. There were only 7 more cases of diabetes among the lowest consumers of dairy versus the highest. The incidence of heart disease was not tracked.
3. Unfortunately, people who had diabetes at the start of the study were not included in the results. We therefore don’t know if their condition improved or deteriorated as a result of milk consumption. Such information would have been significant in determining the overall health value of dairy milk in relation to insulin resistance.
4. Furthermore, the study only references the amount of milk and dairy products people were consuming, nothing else. If they’re drinking more milk, they’re drinking less of something else. Conversely, if they’re drinking less milk, they’re drinking more of something else. If that something else is soda pop, sugared energy drinks or coffee with sugar, that can be a major factor in the onset of insulin resistance.
5. It seems that the so-called health benefits attributed to milk in the study may have nothing to do with milk at all. They may instead be a reflection of a better diet. It is likely that the men drinking milk were consuming less sugary foods, but the study doesn’t tell us either way. Clearly, without the data, the study is meaningless and misleading.
When you look at the research into diabetes there are many studies (too numerous to mention here) linking milk consumption with a higher incidence of diabetes, and there are virtually no studies suggesting that milk prevents diabetes.
In the book ‘Nurturing Traditions’ (1999), the author Sally Fallon makes the following comment:
‘There is some evidence that pasteurization alters milk lactase (a form of sugar), making it more readily absorbable. This and the fact that pasteurized milk puts an unnecessary strain on the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes, may explain why milk consumption has been linked to diabetes’.
This is confirmed by other research. It is known that lactose undergoes condensation and molecular changes as a result of heat treatment. Lactose in milk feeds glucose into the bloodstream, and this in turn can over time create insulin resistance.
The risk of diabetes is even greater for organic milk consumers. This is so because most organic milk (over 80 percent) is sold as UHT milk. In the USA virtually all organic milk is UHT! The ultra high pasteurization temperature of UHT is double that of regular milk. This means that organic UHT milk is more likely to overburden the bloodstream with glucose, increasing the risk of diabetes.
See below for details of a new book ‘Organic Milk Myth’ which explains this in more detail with supporting evidence.