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( milk facts - benefits of milk ) 

Many people encompass milk of their weight-reduction plan, but few meet the daily recommended quantities. Specialists now urge us to reconsider these suggestions and give an explanation for why milk might not be as healthful as we think.

According to recent research, milk may not be as good for our health as we once believed.

Dairy milk’s image has taken a bit of a beating, with the likes of oat, almond, and soy milk being hailed as environmentally friendly alternatives.

But for many humans of all ages, cow’s milk remains a firm favorite —sloshed over cereal, as a frothy companion to coffee, or enjoyed as a bedtime drink.

The United States 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines recommend that individuals aged 9 years and over consume 3 cup-equivalents of fat-free and low-fat (1%) dairy products. According to the guideline, put together by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this includes milk, yogurt, cheese, and fortified soy milk.

But the average amount of dairy that U.S. Adults eat is round 1.6 cups every day, far short of the recommended levels.

Does that mean we should all look to boom our dairy consumption?

Experts writing in the New England Journal of Medicine do not think so. Instead, they name into question the high-quality of the evidence underpinning those tips and endorse alternative assets to provide us with the nutrients necessary for our health.

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Strength of evidence is ‘limited’

milk

The controversy approximately milk is, in fact, no longer a new one.

Back in 2014, Connie M Weaver, emeritus professor and formerly the Head of the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, wrote an article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlighting the lack of good quality evidence in support of dairy guidelines.

In her article, which was, in part, funded by using Danone Institute global, Weaver alludes to the historic reasons behind milk’s importance to our diet.

“Dairy meals play a crucial position in most nutritional steerage pointers. They provide a package of critical vitamins and bioactive constituents for fitness which can be difficult to reap in diets with no or limited use of dairy products,” Weaver writes.

“Since the agricultural revolution, whilst power assets shifted from plant foods incredibly excessive in calcium within the diets of hunter-gatherers to cereal crops with low calcium content, the fundamental supply of dietary calcium has been milk,” she keeps.

Milk has featured in each generation of U.S. Nutritional pointers for the reason that its first publication in 1917. Every 5 years, the nutritional recommendations for Americans Advisory Committee update the manual, reviewing the available evidence.

Weaver references research that highlights how following a dairy-free diet in the context of a U.S.-style Western diet left adolescents aged 9 –18 years struggling to obtain the endorsed consumption of calcium.

To meet daily nutrient consumption, milk and cheese contribute “46.3% of calcium, 11.6% of potassium, and 7.9% of magnesium in the American diet.”

Yet, when it comes to health overall, Weaver writes, “the energy of the evidence for dairy consumption and fitness is restrained by the lack of appropriately powered randomized controlled trials.”

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Studies have ‘serious’ implications

Milk

Of their article, the professors spotlight the contributions that milk may additionally make to the multitude of factors of our health.

Bone health is probably the most familiar to many people.

Milk is a ready source of calcium, a mineral valuable to growing and maintaining good bone function. Yet, the studies that set the daily recommendations for how much milk and by extension calcium, we need to eat, were very small.

“The premise for the U.S. recommendations for milk consumption derives from research assessing the stability of calcium intake and excretion in only 155 adults in whom the estimated calcium consumption needed to hold balance was 741 mg per day,” the professors write in their article.

“Beyond small size, these balance studies have other serious limitations, including short duration (2 to 3 weeks) and high habitual calcium intakes,” they continue.

The evidence does not support milk consumption to reduce the risk of hip fractures, they further explain.

On the opposite, they factor out that nations with high milk and calcium intake also have the highest hip fracture fees.

They reference a 2014 study in JAMA Pediatrics by Dr. Willett that examined the risk of hip fracture in men to how much milk they drank during their adolescent years.

The outcomes showed that higher milk consumption leads to an increased danger of hip fractures later in existence.

How speedy and how tall we grow are different examples. Research has established a link between these and milk consumption. Yet, the professors urge warning when concluding this point.

“The health consequences of increased increase and extra adult top are complex,” they write. “Tall stature is related to lower risks of cardiovascular ailment but with higher risks of many cancers, hip fractures, and pulmonary emboli.”

Weight, heart health, and cancer

Milk

Dr. Willett and Dr. Ludwig then turned their interest to a bunch of other elements of our fitness that milk intake can also or won't affect.

Numerous studies have investigated whether milk intake is beneficial for weight control in adults and youngsters. The professors argue that those showed no “clear outcomes.”

Moreover, they point out that “opposite to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advice to choose reduced-fat dairy, low-fat milk does no longer seem to have blessings over entire milk for weight manage — and in youngsters, available evidence suggests greater long-term weight gain with reduced-fat milk than with complete-fats milk.”

They also argue that the evidence to support a favorable effect of milk on high blood pressure and cholesterol levels is weak and that studies do not support milk as a risk factor for type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

When they looked at cancer, studies showed mixed results. Some studies connected milk consumption to a lower risk of growing colorectal cancer, likely due to the excessive stages of calcium found in milk. Different research, however, pointed to increased rates of breast, prostate, and endometrial cancer.

But when it comes to heart disease, they said that “for persons living in low-income countries where diets are very high in starch, moderate intake of dairy foods may reduce cardiovascular disease by providing nutritional value and reducing glycemic load.”

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Are recommendations unjustified?

So, what is the professors’ general take on milk?

“In our opinion, the modern recommendation to substantially growth intake of dairy foods to 3 or extra servings per day does now not seem like justified,” they conclude inside the paper.

How much milk a person should consume will, they suggest, depends on individual circumstances.

“If someone is consuming a poor-quality diet high in refined starch and sugar, as is common in many [low-income] populations around the world, milk can fill in some important nutritional gaps,” Dr. Willett explained to MNT. “However, if diet quality is otherwise good, the added nutritional benefits of milk will be much less.”

But what does that mean for our calcium and vitamin D intake?

“when intake of milk is low, the 2 vitamins of primary subject, calcium and vitamin D (that's of precise concern at higher latitudes) can be obtained from different foods or supplements without the ability bad consequences of dairy foods,” the professors conclude in their paper.

And here is how they propose we can achieve this:

• “For calcium, opportunity nutritional assets consist of kale, broccoli, tofu, nuts, beans, and fortified orange juice; for vitamin D, dietary supplements can provide adequate intake at a far lower fee than fortified milk.”

• — Dr. Walter C. Willett and Dr. David S. Ludwig

Should we drink milk or not?

natural milk

When MNT asked Dr. Willett whether or not he thinks humans have to don't forget keeping off milk, he explained: “In our overview, we concluded that milk isn't always an essential part of a healthful weight loss program, but intake of modest quantities is well-matched with true health. As a consequence, we suggested a likely variety for the health of zero to approximately 2 servings a day for adults.”

“I think having flexibility is good because different people have different preferences for many reasons,” he continued.

“For environmental reasons, keeping this to about 1 serving a day on average would be important. This is not very different from current consumption, which is ready 1.6 servings a day; going to a few servings a day as has been endorsed might be a thorough change and is not necessary,” Dr. Willett concluded.

• “Milk is deeply woven into the culture of many populations in cold climates because this was a way to provide nutrition year-round when many other foods were not available. In most of the world, people do not consume milk as adults, and it is not essential.”

• — Dr. Walter C. Willett

MNT additionally spoke to Adda Bjarnadóttir, who's a registered dietitian nutritionist in Iceland and our in-residence nutrition professional, approximately Dr. Willet’s and Dr. Ludwig’s article and all matters milk.

So, how conscious are the majority of the advocated milk recommendations?

“I think most people are aware of the recommendation but not necessarily taking it to heart,” Bjarnadóttir commented. “This recommendation is also special in a way that it can’t apply to everyone. A great deal of the world’s population doesn’t tolerate dairy, and therefore dairy is not a part of their daily routine.”

“There’s already a good amount of research available on milk and dairy, and it’s one of those things that may be hard to study and get concrete results,” she explained.

“Although dairy is not a necessary component of a healthful diet, I think that if you tolerate milk and dairy, they can be healthful additions to your diet. Milk is nutrient-dense, high in protein, and readily available,” she said.

“My recommendations would be to limit your intake to no more than 2 servings per day and emphasize consuming non-sweetened, full-fat dairy, such as yogurt or whole milk. That being said, if you don’t like or don’t tolerate dairy, there are plenty of other ways to get the nutrients found in milk and live a very healthy life.”