The Meaty Truth (15 page)

What could be hiding in your gallon of milk? Any of the following medications: “Ampicillin, Amoxicillin, Chloramphenicol, desfuroylceftiofur
cysteine disulfide, Dihydrostreptomycin, Florfenicol, fluoroquinolones, Gentamicin Sulfate, Lincomycin, Neomycin, Oxytetracycline, Penicillin, pirlimycin, Spectinomycin, Tetracycline, Tilmicosin, and other compounds.”
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Penicillin is the most tested antibiotic in milk because there is a common allergy to it. How do antibiotic allergies develop? Overuse and abuse. Clearly this blatant abuse is going to limit the number of antibiotics available to us. The scary thought is every time you add a splash of milk to your coffee or eat some cheese, you have no idea how many antibiotics you are being exposed to.

The European Union, along with Canada and the United Nations, has banned the use of rBGH in cows because of the dangerous side effects. Despite industry claims that rBST is identical, it is actually at least 5 percent different from the natural hormone. This percentage, albeit small, makes a world of difference. Not only does the rBST milk contain higher IGF-1 and antibiotic-residue levels, but it also causes differences in the actual milk composition between the long- and short-chain fatty acids.
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In fact, milk that contains the genetically modified hormones is known to go sour more quickly. This should be a clear sign that the contaminated toxins are not for human consumption. Yet to this day, the FDA has not banned its use in the United States. The FDA is aware of the harmful effects of Prosilac, both from Monsanto’s own unpublished studies and from the numerous petitions the FDA has received from scientists and researchers evidencing the shoddy research backing rBGH’s health claims.

Drinking Pus Makes You Sick

The United States has unwisely decided not to follow in the footsteps of other industrialized countries that have banned the growth hormone rBGH even though the negative-health implications are blatantly apparent.

According to Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, who was a director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine back in 1999, a few years after the drug was approved, “We review all new evidence as it comes to light, and so far nothing has caused us to believe rBGH is a hazard.”
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What studies were they looking at when they came to this conclusion? Current studies,
as well as those dating back to 1996, in the International Journal of Health Services found that milk from cows injected with rBGH have up to ten times the IGF-1 levels of unadulterated milk.

Why should we be worried about IGF-1? Insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-1, is a natural hormone found in both humans and cows that is responsible for stimulating cell division. Yet increased levels of IGF-1 can promote unwanted growth such as abnormal cell division leading to malignant-tumor growth, or cancer. Cows already have a higher level of these growth factors, which is a health risk. RBGH boosts these IGF-1 levels, which then passes from the cows’ bodies into our milk. Higher IGF-1 levels have been shown to increase breast cancer in over nineteen studies, colon cancer in ten publications, and prostate cancer in seven publications.
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More worrisome is that increased IGF-1 levels can block our bodies’ natural defense mechanisms against fighting off early stages of cancer, known as apoptosis. Just one glass of milk a day can boost the risk of breast cancer 10 percent in adolescent girls.
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Put simply, rBGH is a cancer-causing agent. If the FDA won’t protect us from its harm, we need to protect ourselves.

We have no way of knowing whether the milk carton in our hands contains rBGH because of labeling restrictions created by Monsanto. They claim listing rBGH on labels would be discriminatory.
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Who knew that stating a food product was healthier and didn’t contain toxins was discriminatory? Monsanto somehow successfully sued Baskin-Robbins to prevent it from stating that its ice cream does not contain growth hormones. It even launched a marketing campaign called “Milk is Milk” to try to defend the allegations of the differences in their genetically engineered milk.
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Unfortunately for Monsanto, its campaign can’t fool us. Think health is Monsanto’s concern or priority? Monsanto is making money in spite of the health risks.

The problem is that our milk products, like hamburgers, are not produced by one cow, but many cows. So the chances of having antibiotic residue, pus, and increased levels of cancer-causing growth factors in every single dairy product we eat are extremely high, if not guaranteed. To
be safe, we should assume every dairy product contains disgusting ingredients that are a disaster for our health.

Milk Money from the Taxpayer

The irony of it all is that there is not a milk shortage. We would think so with the way dairy farmers continue to use the growth stimulants to manipulate cows to produce an overabundance of milk. The reality is that there is a milk
surplus
and has been for years.

Since instituting the income-support program in 2002, the government has guaranteed that it will step in and buy the remaining surplus of milk each year in order to keep dairy prices from crashing. This program keeps dairy prices high and insulated from the fluxes in actual demand. Also in 2002, the government kindly decided to use tax dollars to pay the dairy farmers funds through the Milk Income Loss Contract Program when market prices are below a certain threshold.
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On top of the handouts dairy farmers are given, the Senate leaders decided in 2001 to introduce a plan that would give an additional $2 billion in subsidies to dairy farmers to help them through 2006. Most recently in 2009, on top of the $1 billion that had been paid in the Income Support and Price Support programs to dairy farmers, Congress decided to give away an additional $350 million of your hard-earned money to dairy farmers for handling a milk surplus. The amount of subsidies given to dairy farmers to keep them insulated from price influxes and keep them in business can cost taxpayers about $2.5 billion
each year.
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To be clear, our tax dollars are being spent on buying up rBGH and pus-laden milk to keep Monsanto and dairy farmers in a business that makes us sick. This milk is sent into cold storage where it just sits there. In 2009, the government bought up $91 million dollars’ worth of milk powder due to the milk surplus and declining milk sales that year.
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Warehouses were stacked with sacks of milk powder that might not ever be used. The government gives milk that doesn’t go into cold storage to the National School Lunch Program, where our children are urged to drink toxin- and antibiotic-laced milk products.

David Stockman, the budget director for former President Reagan, admitted that these dairy subsidies are “probably the single most worthless, lacking in merit program in the entire federal budget.”
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We couldn’t agree more. Our dairy products should be subject to the same supply and demand as other commodities. There is absolutely zero reason or logic in promoting dairy production. To say that this is a wasteful and unhealthy cycle all in the name of scoring high prices for the corporations is an understatement.

The Dangers of Dairy

The questions we are most commonly greeted with after describing to others their milk mustaches are a sign of infection are: “Aren’t dairy products good for our bones?” and “What about calcium?” Put simply, we don’t need dairy for calcium or strong bones. In fact, over three hundred studies find dairy does the opposite. The shocking facts are that rather than making us healthy and strong, cow’s milk can cause brittle bones and make us fat.

The science supporting dairy as healthy is junk science. The current recommendations for drinking three glasses of milk per day are not based on scientific findings. Recently the Federal Trade Commission asked the USDA, “Got Proof?” for their milk-mustache ads that prominently feature celebrities and athletes and claim that milk does the body good. Yet the USDA could not substantiate any of those claims. In fact, they found that milk does not boost athletic performance and there is zero evidence that it prevents osteoporosis and promotes strong bones. What does milk do? Filled with saturated fat, cancer-causing casein, and natural growth hormones, dairy contributes to heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 1 diabetes, chronic constipation, sinus infections, ear infections, arthritis, allergies, osteoporosis, anemia (in children), Parkinson’s disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, asthma, acne, eczema, and irritable bowel syndrome.
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Pediatricians around the world are concluding that after children are weaned from their mothers’ milk, they by nature no longer need milk. Dairy is actually the leading food allergen in our children. Increasingly,
studies are finding that weaning our children on cow’s milk is setting them up for lifetimes of health problems. The most common childhood ailments, such as ear infections, strep throat, and attention deficit disorder (ADD), are all from feeding our children the most imperfect food. Feeding children dairy at an early age is disrupting the normal functioning of their pancreases and contributing to epidemic levels of type 1 diabetes. It seems those white mustaches aren’t so glamorous after all.

Researching the funding for milk-promoting studies often reveals the National Dairy Council behind the science. Talk about a conflict of interest and unbiased resource. Unbiased studies such as a recent Harvard University study found that milk does
not
help children maintain healthy bones. “Got Milk?” does not translate to “Got Strong Bones?” In fact, the children who consumed the most dairy had the most bone fractures.
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All of the claims that dairy promotes healthy bones, prevents osteoporosis, and increases growth are unfounded.
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The dairy industry and milk companies have had to retract almost all of their advertising claims, because milk is not essential to a healthy body and does not make you lose weight. In fact, 75 percent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. If dairy accomplishes none of these benefits, then it seems we need to rethink the public-health concerns that are associated with eating dairy products.

A Hearty Problem

Studies find that dairy contains the highest levels of saturated fat, or bad fat, and high levels of cholesterol that lead to heart problems. Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, claiming one in two people’s lives. Studies show a clear link between milk consumption and heart disease.
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Cheese is 70 percent fat, most of which is saturated fat. A little-known fact is that saturated fat causes the liver to produce more cholesterol. Clearly, eating dairy products is an unending cycle of abuse for our hearts.

Now, many people say they don’t drink whole milk, just skim milk to avoid the saturated fat. Friends, skim milk is just taking the fat out and
leaving the sugar and cancer-causing casein. That glass of milk just got a calorie load akin to a soda. We all know sugar plays no role in promoting athletic performance or strong bones, as sugary drinks are linked to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
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Say Hello to Clear, Radiant Skin

Hey teenagers, let’s talk about that out-of-control acne. Acne affects about forty million Americans who spend about two billion dollars on treatments.
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How many prescriptions, pills, and remedies have we all tried to get rid of those painful, red bumps that dot our beautiful faces? Dairy is a leading contributor to acne. It creates an acidic pH environment in our bodies that clogs pores and is loaded with both natural and genetically modified hormones.
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Seriously, save your money and ditch the dairy and cheese for healthy-looking, radiant skin!

Staying Abreast of the Cure

Sadly, breast cancer is a major problem in the United States. Most people know someone who has suffered from or, in many cases, lost the battle to breast cancer. While breast cancer was previously a problem generally associated with postmenopausal women, today an increasing number of younger women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. One in eight women now has breast cancer, and only 10 percent of those cases are related to genetics. This means 90 percent of breast cancer cases are related to problems in our environment, namely our food supply. Dr. Epstein, who found that rBGH can lead to early breast development in infants and children, aptly summed up the game the FDA and Monsanto are playing with our health when he said, “The entire nation is being subjected to an experiment involving large-scale adulteration of an age old dietary staple by a poorly characterized and unlabeled biotechnology product. Disturbingly, this experiment benefits only a very small segment of the agrochemical industry while providing no matching benefits to consumers.”
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But even in its natural, unadulterated state, dairy has growth-promoting factors that make the most hospitable environment for cancer. Fats and proteins, abundant in dairy products, cause hormonal levels to rise, which increases breast cancer risk.
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Specifically, casein is a naturally forming animal protein in milk that Dr. T. Colin Campbell found plays a significant role in breast cancer. As casein intake increases, so does the risk of developing cancer.
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In comparison, when patients were given soy protein, the risk of developing breast cancer decreased.