Drinking milk will keep your bones healthy… maybe

My attempt at combining different pictures together

“Drinking milk will keep your bones healthy” – and I know we’ve all been told by our mother’s to drink up otherwise we won’t have strong and healthy bones. But err, actually I think you’ll find that the opposite is true – dairy can cause osteoporosis.

Ok so a bit of a bold claim but let’s just think about the basic chemistry – acids and alkalines. Hmm yes I can see your eyes glazing over already so I’ll make it as quick and painless as I can.

Neutralisation, a process in which both compounds are rendered ineffective

Chemically speaking calcium is an alkaline whilst proteins found in milk are actually acidic. When the two combine they undergo neutralisation. Except that when you drink milk, there is more acid (milk proteins) than alkaline (calcium) and so in order to restore the balance again, the body in effect leaches calcium stored in your bones to neutralise the excessive influx of acidic milk proteins, (see study 1). Therefore it is logical to conclude that the more dairy you consume the weaker your bones become. Simples.

The presence of proteins is not the problem however as we need amino acids as these are building blocks for proteins, which are essential in the human body. However knowing the source of protein consumption is vital (see study 2) as it hard for the human body to convert animals proteins to human proteins whilst converting vegetable proteins in comparison is much easier. Furthermore vegetable proteins are harder to overdose on whilst the opposite is true for animal proteins.

Consuming dairy products daily does not help build strong bones and the best sources of calcium are actually from vegetable products rather than animal products. So is anyone convinced yet?

Please read through the studies I summarised below for more detail.

STUDY 1 – Harvard University’s landmark Nurse Health Study. The study lasted a 12 year period and followed 78,000 women. Those women who consumed more calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk.

STUDY 2 – University of California, A National Institutes of Health Study (published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2001). Those women who obtained their protein from animal sources had three times the rate of bone loss and 3.7 times the rate of hip fractures in comparison to women who obtained their proteins from vegetable sources.

The ad campaign that took place in the USA (2008) and featured various celebrities with 'milk moustaches'. I guess you are just not famous unless you have a milk ad! Also I love the little script on the star wars ad :)