Guest guest Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 HEARTY VEXATIONS " All good things in life are either forbidden, fattening or else married to someone else. " --ANONYMOUS http://niazi.com/Milk/hearty.htm Just imagine what the world would be like, if poets and playwrights, lovers and the beloved had no heart on which to dwell. Heart, of all the vital organs in our body, is most extolled. Yet it also causes more troubles in life and is more to blame for death than any other organ. Heart disease, a malady since ancient times, is chiefly a result of our diet, especially, the milk and dairy products. To understand how something we consider as " healthy " as milk can be so damaging to health, let us first examine the basic causes of this disease. One out of every four Americans has an ailing heart or blocked arteries, precipitating three heart attacks and one stroke every minute. Half of all deaths in this country are attributed to heart ailments, ranking them first in economic cost. The estimated cost for 1986: a hearty 100 billion dollars. Fortunately, the " epi-demic " of cardiovascular diseases is on the downgrade in the U.S., having peaked in the 1950s when it accounted for 55 percent of all deaths compared to the current 50 percent. This decline, albeit small, is not a worldwide phenomenon; heart diseases are on the rise in many European and Asian coun-tries. Cardiovascular diseases include hypertension, stroke, and atherosclerosis or the blocking of the arteries. While it is easy to detect hypertension in its early stages, diagnosis of atherosclerosis is not. It develops plaques secretly in such places as in the arteries supplying blood to the heart and brain over several decades. We find about atherosclerosis when these plaques break off, causing hemorrhage and blockage of the arteries, heart attack, sudden death, angina, or stroke. Plaques on the wall of your arteries is not a pretty picture. The incidence of plaque formation is steadily rising in the younger Western population, due principally to modern lifestyle and diet. The disease itself, however, is not modern. The Egyptian mummies, several thousand years old, show extensive blocking of the arteries. Today, just about all of us have some plaques on our walls; only half of us will survive it. Plaques form in our arteries due to: ..Physical damage to arteries; .. High fat concentration in the blood; .. High clotting activity in the blood; .. Old age - fragility of arteries; .. Diseases: hypertension, diabetes etc; .. Hormones produced in stress; .. Male hormones; .. Cigarette smoking; .. Genetic effects; .. Immune system deficiencies; .. Free radicals, such as from rancid fats; .. Deficiency of vitamins such as B-6; .. Reduced antioxidant levels (A, C, E, Bs); .. High insulin levels due to sucrose in food; .. Reduced levels of selenium and zinc. Our diet is the chief cause of plaques in our arteries. For years it escaped suspicion with the blame often laid at the feet of genetics. This myth shattered when the statistics on atherosclerosis were summarized for the world population. The connection between your genes and the openings in your arteries is very weak. Postmortem reports on soldiers killed in recent wars show massive atherosclerosis in the Americans compared to the Chinese and Japanese soldiers. Was it due to the genetic immunity of the Japanese and Chinese? Probably not. New studies show that the Japanese who settled in Hawaii lose immunity to heart disease once they adopt the Western lifestyle and diet, disproving the genetic connection.Cholesterol is almost a household word and we all know how bad cholesterol is for our health. Or do we? The public bias against cholesterol is firm that hardly anyone would believe that cholesterol is not as bad as we have been led to believe. Cholester-ol is a very useful fat, serving as a precursor to various essential hormones and vitamins. The cholesterol in our skin prevents us from absorbing many danger-ous chemicals in our polluted environment and also helps restore the water in our body to prevent dehydration. Cholesterol also acts as a potent antioxidant, protecting the body from cancer-causing free radicals. Finding anything as good as cholesterol floating in the blood would be quite a task. Cholesterol is abundant in foods (appendix 12.1) with the highest concentration in the organ meats and egg yolk. Liver, kidney and brain are extremely high in cholesterol and most other foods have somewhat comparable levels of cholesterol.It is now widely accepted that cholesterol associated with low density lipids (LDL) is mainly responsible for damage to the arteries and heart. Cholesterol in high density lipids (HDL) actually prevents formation of plaques. The culprit in our blood is not only cholesterol but other types of fats as well; even cholesterol can be good when it is part of the HDL. Saturated fats, as we well know by now, cause atherosclerosis. Reducing consumption of saturated fat is, however, not an easy task because the quantity of saturated fat consumed depends not only on its concentration in food but also on the quantity of food consumed. For example, a common serving of french fried potatoes has less saturated fat than a routine single serving of yogurt or milk. Of course, there are additional considerations such as vitamins and minerals supplied by milk which are not provid-ed by french fries. The goal should be to reduce consumption of all saturated foods (appendix 12.2). Given the history and the havoc of heart disease, man has long searched for a cure. Frustrated, he has learned that while the cures are elu-sive, the prevention is not. Americans have heeded well the advise to avoid saturated fat. They have, during the past 10 years, reduced use of milk, cream and eggs by 19 percent, and that of animal fats and butter by 40 percent. The reduced use of saturated fat has reduced blood fats by about five percent, a small, but encouraging change. Epidemiologic studies often quote, " Dairy Country is Coronary Country. " Evolution shows that we descended from the trees a million years ago, took up farming less than 10,000 years ago, and started using cows about 5,000 years ago. Now dairy products make the single largest dietary contribution to what the World Health Organization calls the greatest epidemic of all time apart from malnutrition--the heart disease. The bacteria in the cow's rumen convert milk fat into saturated type leaving only three percent as polyunsaturated fat. The high proportion of saturated fat in cow's milk is responsible for the many deleterious effect of milk. It raises blood cholesterol, increases adherence of platelets and causes thrombosis or blocking of arteries. Many research studies have shown that animals fed milk fat develop blocked arteries just like humans. Milk fat is clearly harmful.In the year 1900, if you were 45 years old, you had a pretty good chance of living to age 70. Today, if you are 45 years old, you would most likely live to be 76, a change of only six years despite all the dramatic advances in medical care. This is due to two diseases which have increased significantly since the year 1900: atherosclerosis and cancer. There are about 35 grams of fat in a quart of milk. About 60 percent of milk fat is in the saturated form. If you drink one quart of whole milk per day you will have consumed over one-third of your daily quota of fat as recommended by both the American Heart Association and the White House Panel on Food, Nutrition, and Health. Autopsies performed on infants and children after accidents have revealed changes in coronary vessels believed to be precursors to atherosclerosis. Children with normal blood vessels are almost always primarily breast-fed; the children fed cow's milk or formulas based on cow's milk have diseased vessels. Even though it is the low density lipids which are most damaging to our arteries, higher consumption of cholesterol, undoubtedly, increases the level of these " bad " lipids in our body. The largest source of cholesterol in our diet is dairy products because we consume them in such large quantities. This is despite the low cholesterol in dairy foods compared to other foods. Cow's milk and human milk have almost the same concentration of cholesterol (about four milligrams per ounce). The concentration of cholesterol in human milk parallels the fat in the milk and thus the initial milk has lower cholesterol than the milk secreted at the end of the feeding cycle. However, the quantity of cholesterol absorbed in the blood has very little to do with its concentration in milk. An amino acid taurine reduces absorption of cholesterol from human milk. Taurine binds with the bile acids needed for the absorption of cholesterol. Cow's milk does not contain enough taurine to block absorption of cholesterol. As a result, adults breast-fed as infants have lower cholesterol deposits than those who were fed cow's milk in infancy. Most infant formulas have little cholesterol and infant fed these formulas show lower blood cholesterol levels than either breast-fed of cow's milk-fed infants. It is debatable whether this is good for infants since some cholesterol is essential for optimal growth.The connection between milk consumption and heart disease, though suspected for a long time, was only recently confirmed. In 1967, Dr. J. C. Annand of Edinburgh, Scotland, proposed the theory that the components of cow's milk put together make the most damaging cocktail for human health. Hundreds of studies since then confirm the inevitable conclusion there is nothing you can do which is more damaging to your heart and arteries than to drink cow's milk. Even butter is better than milk. Meat, the favorite scapegoat, does not even come close to damaging our heart and body as does milk. The following correlation factors tell the whole story. The chance of associating heart disease with diet are: Butter 50 percent Meat 58 percent Eggs 60 percent Animal Fats 76 percent Animal proteins 81 percent Sugar 84 percent Milk 91 percent There is better than 90 percent chance of increased incidence of heart disease with consumption of milk. The meat or eggs are about one-third less damaging than milk. The proponents of milk argue that statistical evaluations given above are not very meaningful because of their high variability. However, a correlation better than 90 percent clearly falls flat on the faces of those who hold milk high, perhaps for some very altruistic reasons. Some individual observations are even more convincing. Dr. G. R. Osborn reported in 1963 that 15 out of 16 infants who suffered crib-deaths were not breast-fed. The one who was, was the only infant with unclogged arteries. More startling statistics come from the data on the incidence of death from heart disease in different countries. The correlation with milk consumption is startling: Unfermented milk protein use (g/day) Unfermented milk protein use (g/day) ÚÄÄ¿30 ³ ³ Finland ³ ³ ÃÄÄ´25 Sweden ³ ³ ³ ³ New Zealand ÃÄÄ´20 U.S. ³ ³ Netherlands ³ ³ Great Britain ÃÄÄ´15 Austria ³ ³ Denmark ³ ³ Belgium ÃÄÄ´10 France ³ ³ Yugoslavia ³ ³ Italy ÃÄÄ´5 Portugal ³ ³ Japan ³ ³ ÀÄÄÙ0 Ú¿ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ 0 500 1000 1500 2000 DEATH RATE (PER HUNDRED THOUSAND) DUE TO HEART DISEASE (age 65-74, males) DEATH RATE (PER HUNDRED THOUSAND) DUE TO HEART DISEASE (age 65-74, males) Consumption of milk ranges from about 3.5 ozs of milk a day in Japan to about a quart in Finland. Correspondingly, the death rate in Finland is about seven times higher than in Japan in the 65-74 age group, 10-times in the age group 55-64 and 13-times higher in the age group 45-54. In women, who show less incidence of heart disease, the incidence of death in the age group 65-74 is five times higher in Finland than it is in Japan. The average U.S. consumption of unfermented milk proteins is the sixth highest in the world. The mortality rate due to heart disease in 65-74 age group is also sixth highest. These statistics clearly prove the point. Studies carried out between 1960 and 1970 pointed up three factors directly related to heart disease: consumption of dairy products, sugar and cigarette smoking. Common to all of these studies, but not recognized at that time, was the use of milk by all study subjects. Statistical summaries given above will mean much more if we understand the mechanisms how milk proves so damaging to the heart. Each component of milk has some deleterious role to play. For example, milk proteins, hormones, lactose, xanthine oxidase and other milk components enhance conversion of saturated fats in milk into plaques. A recent theory even suggests that milk carries a blue-green algae which is extremely damaging to the heart causing spontaneous atherosclerosis. Pasteurization and homogenization of milk only enhance the deleterious nature of milk. We will examine these claims in some detail to understand why we should never touch that glass of milk.It is not surprising that, contrary to popular belief, butter is less harmful compared to milk. The difference lies in the composition. Butter contains 81 percent fat compared to 3.8 percent fat in milk; however, butter has very little lactose or proteins which are abundant in milk. There is a 90 percent correlation between heart disease and milk use while it is only 50 percent in the use of butter. It is now known that milk proteins and lactose make a person more susceptible to heart disease than dairy fat. Fat in the milk only worsens it. Butter consumption has fallen consistently in the U.S. since the early 1940s dropping from about 37 pounds per person annually to 11 pounds in 1975, yet the incidence of heart disease has not decreased accordingly. It more closely parallels milk consumption. Similar observations are made in Great Britain and Switzerland. In Switzerland, between 1951 and 1972, deaths from heart disease decreased by 22 percent for men and 40 percent for women. During this time, milk consumption decreased by 46 percent but consumption of cream, butter, cheese, pork and eggs increased by 20 percent. The blocking of arteries is an immunologic disorder where the body reacts to protect itself from " foreign " elements and in doing so ends up damaging itself. Milk proteins, like other offending proteins, also sensitize our immune system. Though body has ample reserves of antibodies to fight-off these proteins, the process of fighting-off worsens the plaque formation. Such allergic responses are almost nonexistent when using soya milk, which has no animal proteins. Research is underway to identify and isolate the protein fractions in cow's milk which produce allergic response and precipitate plaque formation. The connection between milk proteins and heart disease is further strengthened when we observe the properties of heated milk. Heating milk breaks down the proteins. It also reduces plaque formation. However, according to one hypothesis, the remaining proteins are more active in causing atherosclerosis. Heating milk causes binding of lactose with milk-proteins. This lactose-protein complex is more damaging to the heart than lactose or proteins separately. If milk is heated at high temperatures the lactose complex and other proteins decompose. This suggests the need to heat milk for longer time and bring to boil. The process of pasteurization increases the incidence of heart disease since it does not expose milk proteins to a high enough temperature to break them down. In many cultures people drink milk only after boiling; these cultures also show much less incidence of atherosclerosis. It is therefore advisable that we make a habit of heating milk before drinking. This will also assure killing any harmful bacteria such as salmonella from entering our body. Besides, the nuisance of heating milk may even discourage use of milk altogether. Another component that affects our heart is hormones found abundantly in cow's milk. Hormones also play a significant part in heart disease. Men who have highly blocked arteries show high levels of the female hormone, estrogen, in their blood and milk is a prime source of estrogen. Milk from cows kept in a state of lactation during pregnancy is especially high in estrogens. Unlike humans, cows ovulate during lactation and thus their milk contains such hormones as progesterone and estradiol. Surprisingly, female hormones which protect women from heart disease, induce heart disease in men. Women neutralize the effect of these hormones more effectively than do men. The culprit, therefore, is dietary estrogens. Estrogens act by increasing deposits of fats in the lining of the artery, increasing growth of plaques and eventually blocking arteries. There is some controversy in scientific literature regarding the concentration of hormones present in milk and the extent of their absorption from the intestines. Some scientists claim that danger from using cow's milk is minimal since, at best, we absorb only minute quantities of hormones from milk. This argument is invalid for two reasons. First, since we consume large quantities of milk that inevitably yields substantial quantities of hormones. Second, it takes only minute quantities of these hormones to elicit their damaging effects. Even drinking skimmed milk loads you up with these hormones though it has only one-fifth the quantity of hormones in the whole-fat milk. Although the main source of estrogen is cow's milk, small quantities of estrogen-like chemicals are also found in soy beans and some dietary fungus.Lactose is another contributing factor to heart disease. Milk is the only significant dietary source of lactose. Most cheeses (other than cottage and spreading cheese) contain only a trace of lactose which is hydrolyzed and fermented to lactic acid in their manufacture. Most cheeses are high in protein and fat but there is little epidemiologic correlation between their consumption and death from heart disease. Cheese has lesser correlation with deaths from heart disease since fermentation reduces the plaque-causing properties of milk components. Further credibility for the lactose hypothesis comes from observations made in people who do not absorb lactose efficiently. These people are at lesser risk for heart disease. The Caucasian population digests lactose much better than the dark-skinned population of the world. The Caucasian population also has a much higher rate of heart disease. The Greenland Eskimos, the Masai of East Africa, some South African urban Bantu, some Polynesians and the Japanese are all intolerant to lactose. As a result, they stay away from milk. Despite high use of saturated fats and exposure to many risks of heart disease, these populations are relatively free from heart disease. Greenland Eskimos have a diet in which saturated and mono-unsaturated fats together amount to about the same as those taken by the Danes, the principal dietary difference being that dairy foods are very scarce in the diet of the Eskimos. The Masai have a high intake of saturated fat and are milk drinkers, but their milk is mostly fermented so reducing exposure to lactose. Similarly, South African urban Bantus have same risk factors as the whites with the exception that they prefer to drink sour milk. The per capita use of cigarettes and exposure to other causative factors for heart disease is the highest in Japan but the incidence of heart disease is much lower. This is perhaps because Japanese drink only one-fifth as much milk as Americans do. North Indian railroad sweepers are less prone to heart disease than South Indian railroad sweepers because the Northerners take their milk in fermented form. Conversely, Punjabi women of India and Pakistan are predominantly efficient lactose absorbers and despite lack of smoking and living sheltered lives, show high incidence of heart disease. How lactose causes heart diseases is not fully understood. We do, however, know that it breaks down to glucose and galactose, both of which are implicated in heart disease. Additionally, lactose reacts with proteins such as albumin in cow's milk to produce allergy-causing chemicals which irritate our body's immune system. The immune system, when hyperactive, enhances plaque formation in the arteries. People who do not absorb lactose efficiently are at lesser risk for heart disease because in these people absorption of fat from diet is also poor. It is the fat in diet which starts plaque formation in our arteries. Finally, the role of genes is important; perhaps those who absorb lactose are genetically predisposed to form more plaques in the arteries. Controversies in medical scientific literature are common but issues of economic importance to big business create more hoopla. Dr. Kurt A. Oster raised one such controversy in 1971. According to Dr. Oster, homogenization of milk causes increased absorption of an enzyme called xanthine oxidase, which contributes to increased plaque formation in the arteries. The reaction to Dr. Oster's theory was one of complete disbelief and such insulting epithets as " publicity seeker, " and " fathead. " An avalanche of accusatory statements poured from the pens of those who had the most to lose, financially and by reputation, from new concepts threatening their cholesterol-based empire and their vested interests. Before examining Dr. Oster's theory, let us look at the process of homogenization and pasteurization. Milk's journey from cow to consumer is long and tedious. Before the era of pasteurization and when refrigeration facilities were not common, milk was rushed from the farm to the consumer, who often boiled it before drinking it. In ancient times milk was fermented before drinking. Many ethnic populations still continue these traditions. Pasteurization was the great refinement in milk processing, first adopted in the U.S. in 1897 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pasteurization involved heating milk to about 62.8 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes or at 71.7 degrees centigrade for 15 seconds. An ultra-pasteurization process requires heating milk to 93.3 degrees centigrade for a fraction of a second to break down various enzymes, sterilize and homogenize of milk all in one process. This process imparts a partially cooked flavor and prolongs shelf life of milk.The pasteurized milk, however, separates on standing with cream rising to the top. Since many considered cream healthful, the will skim off the cream and top if off with water. Homogenization was instituted to circumvent this defrauding of the public and to increase the shelf life and palatability of milk. Homogenization reduces milk fat to extremely small globules which distribute evenly throughout and are difficult to separate. Many Western countries adopted the homogenization of milk just before World War II without questioning if homogenization caused any changes in the characteristics of milk. The outer surface of fat globules in unhomogenized milk contains a milk protein called xanthine oxidase. Homogenization of milk reduces the size of fat globules and transfers xanthine oxidase to the inside of these globules. This protects xanthine oxidase from breaking down in the intestine and thus more of it absorbs into the blood. Almost 50 percent of xanthine oxidase survives the pasteurization process. Even though stomach acidity normally destroys xanthine oxidase, milk reduces the acidity itself and help this enzyme survive the hostile environment of stomach, thus lending credibility to Dr. Oster's claims. A PHILOSOPHICAL OBSERVATION Finally, a philosophical argument. Atherosclerosis, or blocking of the arteries, is a typical human disease, not found in any other mammalian species--no other mammalian species consumes milk after weaning either. It is about time we realize the inevitable connection between milk in our diet and blockage of our arteries. There are undoubtedly other causes that bring about the wrath of heart disease. We exercise little control over pollution in the air and the tensions of our modern day life. We can only hope to have enough control left to say no to milk.Cow's milk is the ideal natural food for a calf, which needs to gain about 500 pounds a year, most of it muscle and bone. The requirements for human infant are quite different. The natural cow's milk is not what the human infant needs. It is wrong for the dairy advertisers to equate the word " natural " with " healthy " for humans. The girl adorning the dairy advertising poster, " I'm Full of Natural Goodness, " will one day have a husband who would probably die of heart disease before he reaches age 50. Even the composition of her breast-milk is dependent on her diet and thus the composition of her infant's body fat. And the vicious cycle will continue. How can we break this cycle? How about kicking the milk bucket before we hit one. http://niazi.com/Milk/hearty.htm _________________ JoAnn Guest mrsjoguest DietaryTipsForHBP http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO " Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen " Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future " http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER We have made every effort to ensure that the information included in these pages is accurate. However, we make no guarantees nor can we assume any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or process discussed. Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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