Your mother always told you, "Finish your milk," and you did. Your high school health class stressed the USDA food pyramid which prominently displays dairy products as a necessity to healthy bones. Cereal box pictures feature milk as part of a balanced breakfast, and highway billboards everywhere show you how cool you can be if you drink milk too. When you buy groceries, you probably still automatically reach for the gallons of milk in the Dairy section. Just like many of us still believe, you think you are doing your body good.

The truth is that we do have an osteoporosis epidemic in American society, but the cause is not a lack of milk and dairy consumption. Despite one of the highest rates of dairy consumption in the world, we still have one of the highest rates of osteoporosis. A longitudinal study of nutrition across nations revealed that the populations with the highest dairy consumption had significantly higher rates of bone fractures than populations with modest dairy consumption.¹ A more individualized study found that consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20, was associated with hip fractures.²

Why isn't milk doing anything? In order for the human body to absorb calcium, it needs an equal amount of magnesium to complement it. Dairy products have little to no magnesium, so all that calcium you drink goes almost entirely to waste.³ Dr. Robert Heaney, considered a milk expert by the dairy industry, has stated that we absorb 42% of the calcium in apple juice, while we only absorb 25% of the calcium from milk!⁴

In addition to that, we get everything else in the milk package. We get plenty of protein, and when that is added on to the protein elsewhere in the diet, it can lead to an excess which leaches calcium from the bones. Excess protein produces acid in the blood which is in turn neutralized by taking calcium out of bones.⁵

The USDA's campaign to solve osteoporosis with milk is misleading and overly simplistic. What we have is far more complicated. What is really contributing to osteoporosis is an excess of protein, salt, caffeine, tobacco, and a lack of physical activity and sunlight.^{3, 6} The key to healthy bones is regular exercise, sunlight, absorbing the calcium you ingest, and keeping it in there for the long haul.

While losing out on calcium by drinking milk, we're also getting lots of things we don't want. Cow's milk is meant to be a fluid fed to baby calves so they can grow into immense animals much bigger than us. So, milk contains many growth hormones, saturated animal fat, and excess calories naturally. Farmers add even more unnatural growth hormones to stimulate the cows. When you drink milk, you're subjecting your hormone-sensitive organs to these chemicals. This eventually results in higher risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and premature puberty, in addition to obesity and heart disease.⁷ All of these syndromes have been associated with a high consumption of dairy products.⁴

As adults, we should naturally all be lactose intolerant. The enzyme lactase is present in infants so they may digest their mother's milk, and naturally declines after age 2 in response to weaning.⁸ Generally, if milk ingestion continues into development and adulthood, lactase remains. Otherwise it disappears, and when a person with lactose intolerance ingests milk that is meant for baby mammals, he or she may experience cramping, bloating and gas. This is why 50 million Americans, many Asian-Americans, and 95% of all African-American people are lactose intolerant.⁴

The bottom line is that cow's milk is for baby calves, not adult humans. If we are adult humans, we should already have been weaned long ago. Better sources of calcium include green, leafy vegetables that contain equal amounts of calcium and magnesium, seeds, nuts, and legumes, and getting plenty of sunlight. Physical exercise also allows your bones to rebuild.³

And yet, Americans are under great pressure to continue buying dairy products. You may have never thought of it, but the dairy industry is just another major governmental and corporate bureaucracy playing tricks on you to get bigger, richer, and more powerful. The USDA is heavily influenced by dairy producers everywhere who want promotion of their product, resulting in milk's occupancy ^{9, 10} on the food guide pyramid, despite a lack of good scientific evidence supporting its benefits., Eileen Kennedy, an official at the USDA, said in response to questions about the unfair and biased promotion of dairy products as a source of calcium, "There's nothing ⁹ against vegetable sources of calcium, but we have to fashion healthful eating around current habits."

But milk is not just a habit anymore; it is a governmental requirement. The National School Lunch Program sponsors milk as the only beverage that must be given to children; for low-income children, the program refuses to reimburse schools for non-dairy alternatives unless the child has written permission from a doctor.⁹

The National Osteoporosis Foundation receives 33% of their funding from corporate sources, including Kellogg's Cereal; Dairy Farmers, Inc.; and Bozell Worldwide (the advertising company responsible for the milk mustache campaign ads that litter magazines and billboards). Even more surprising is that only 2% of this funding is actually used for bone research. The remainder is primarily used toward pushing milk and other dairy products in our stores.⁹

So in conclusion, when you choose which foods to nourish your body with, think of what seems natural. Just as we aren't supposed to be eating sugar-coated, artificially colored, preservative-filled, and processed candy, we are not supposed to be drinking down the growth-stimulating fluid meant for baby calves by the gallon. Our bodies are not programmed for it. Also remember that food producers and marketers are out for the same thing as any other big business: profit. As far as your health goes: think about it, read about it, and start taking care of it before it's too late.