Feeding infants cow’s milk formula may adversely alter metabolic programming.
Formula for Childhood Obesity
4.9/5 - (33 votes)
We’ve known that breastfeeding infants may protect against subsequent obesity for over 30 years, but why? Well, giving human infants formula based on cow’s milk presents an unusual situation. Cow’s milk is designed to put nearly 2 pounds a day onto a growing calf, 40 times the growth rate of human infants.
The perfect food for humans, finely tuned over millions of years, is human breast milk. Remarkably, among all mammalian species, the protein content of human milk is the lowest. The thought is that it’s the excessive protein content of cow’s milk-based formula that sets the child up for obesity later in life.
And then instead of being weaned, we continue to drink milk. The question thus arises as to whether consumption of a growth-promoting substance from another species throughout childhood fundamentally alters processes of human growth and maturation. This study, for example, found evidence that greater milk intake is associated with an increased risk of premature puberty; girls drinking a lot of milk starting to get their periods earlier. Thus, cross-species milk consumption and ingestion into childhood may trigger unintended consequences.
In contrast to feeding artificial infant formula, only human milk allows appropriate metabolic programming and protects against diseases of civilization in later life. However, continued consumption of cow’s milk and dairy products during adolescence and adulthood is an evolutionarily novel behavior that may have long-term adverse effects on human health.
Teens exposed to dairy proteins–for example, casein, skim milk, or whey–experienced a significant increase in BMI and waist circumference compared to controls, whereas not a single study funded by the dairy industry found a result unfavorable to milk.
The head of the Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and the chair of Harvard’s nutrition department wrote an editorial recently to the AMA’s Pediatrics journal questioning the role of cow’s milk in human nutrition. We have no requirement for other animal’s milk, obviously, and in fact dairy may play a role in certain cancers due to the high levels of reproductive hormones in the U.S. milk supply.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A S Wiley. Cow milk consumption, insulin-like growth factor-I, and human biology: a life history approach. Am J Hum Biol. 2012 Mar-Apr;24(2):130-8.
- B C Melnik, S M John, G Schmitz. Milk is not just food but most likely a genetic transfection system activating mTORC1 signaling for postnatal growth. Nutr J. 2013; 12: 103.
- B C Melnik. Excessive Leucine-mTORC1-Signalling of Cow Milk-Based Infant Formula: The Missing Link to Understand Early Childhood Obesity. J Obes. 2012;2012:197653.
- M S Kramer. Do breast-feeding and delayed introduction of solid foods protect against subsequent obesity? J Pediatr. 1981 Jun;98(6):883-7.
- B C Melnik. Leucine signaling in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and obesity. World J Diabetes. 2012 Mar 15;3(3):38-53.
- A S Wiley. Milk intake and total dairy consumption: associations with early menarche in NHANES 1999-2004. PLoS One. 2011 Feb 14;6(2):e14685.
- D S Ludwig, W C Willett. Three daily servings of reduced-fat milk: an evidence-based recommendation? JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Sep;167(9):788-9.
- K Arnberg, C Molgaard, K F Michaelsen, S M Jensen, E Trolle, A Larnkjaer. Skim milk, whey, and casein increase body weight and whey and casein increase the plasma C-peptide concentration in overweight adolescents. J Nutr. 2012 Dec;142(12):2083-90.
- P Wilde, E Morgan, J Roberts, A Schpok, T Wilson. Relationship between funding sources and outcomes of obesity-related research. Physiol Behav. 2012 Aug 20;107(1):172-5.
Images thanks to European Parliament via Flickr.
We’ve known that breastfeeding infants may protect against subsequent obesity for over 30 years, but why? Well, giving human infants formula based on cow’s milk presents an unusual situation. Cow’s milk is designed to put nearly 2 pounds a day onto a growing calf, 40 times the growth rate of human infants.
The perfect food for humans, finely tuned over millions of years, is human breast milk. Remarkably, among all mammalian species, the protein content of human milk is the lowest. The thought is that it’s the excessive protein content of cow’s milk-based formula that sets the child up for obesity later in life.
And then instead of being weaned, we continue to drink milk. The question thus arises as to whether consumption of a growth-promoting substance from another species throughout childhood fundamentally alters processes of human growth and maturation. This study, for example, found evidence that greater milk intake is associated with an increased risk of premature puberty; girls drinking a lot of milk starting to get their periods earlier. Thus, cross-species milk consumption and ingestion into childhood may trigger unintended consequences.
In contrast to feeding artificial infant formula, only human milk allows appropriate metabolic programming and protects against diseases of civilization in later life. However, continued consumption of cow’s milk and dairy products during adolescence and adulthood is an evolutionarily novel behavior that may have long-term adverse effects on human health.
Teens exposed to dairy proteins–for example, casein, skim milk, or whey–experienced a significant increase in BMI and waist circumference compared to controls, whereas not a single study funded by the dairy industry found a result unfavorable to milk.
The head of the Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and the chair of Harvard’s nutrition department wrote an editorial recently to the AMA’s Pediatrics journal questioning the role of cow’s milk in human nutrition. We have no requirement for other animal’s milk, obviously, and in fact dairy may play a role in certain cancers due to the high levels of reproductive hormones in the U.S. milk supply.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A S Wiley. Cow milk consumption, insulin-like growth factor-I, and human biology: a life history approach. Am J Hum Biol. 2012 Mar-Apr;24(2):130-8.
- B C Melnik, S M John, G Schmitz. Milk is not just food but most likely a genetic transfection system activating mTORC1 signaling for postnatal growth. Nutr J. 2013; 12: 103.
- B C Melnik. Excessive Leucine-mTORC1-Signalling of Cow Milk-Based Infant Formula: The Missing Link to Understand Early Childhood Obesity. J Obes. 2012;2012:197653.
- M S Kramer. Do breast-feeding and delayed introduction of solid foods protect against subsequent obesity? J Pediatr. 1981 Jun;98(6):883-7.
- B C Melnik. Leucine signaling in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and obesity. World J Diabetes. 2012 Mar 15;3(3):38-53.
- A S Wiley. Milk intake and total dairy consumption: associations with early menarche in NHANES 1999-2004. PLoS One. 2011 Feb 14;6(2):e14685.
- D S Ludwig, W C Willett. Three daily servings of reduced-fat milk: an evidence-based recommendation? JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Sep;167(9):788-9.
- K Arnberg, C Molgaard, K F Michaelsen, S M Jensen, E Trolle, A Larnkjaer. Skim milk, whey, and casein increase body weight and whey and casein increase the plasma C-peptide concentration in overweight adolescents. J Nutr. 2012 Dec;142(12):2083-90.
- P Wilde, E Morgan, J Roberts, A Schpok, T Wilson. Relationship between funding sources and outcomes of obesity-related research. Physiol Behav. 2012 Aug 20;107(1):172-5.
Images thanks to European Parliament via Flickr.
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Formula for Childhood Obesity
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
So what’s The Best Baby Formula? Click on the link and find out!
More on dairy and infancy:
- Cow’s Milk-Induced Infant Apnea
- Cow’s Milk Casomorphin and Crib Death
- Cow’s Milk Casomorphin and Autism
And in childhood: Childhood Constipation and Cow’s Milk
In adolescence: Saving Lives By Treating Acne With Diet
Before conception: Dairy Estrogen and Male Fertility
During pregnancy: Why Do Vegan Women Have 5x Fewer Twins?
And in adulthood:
- Is Milk Good for Our Bones?
- Preventing Parkinson’s Disease with Diet
- Prostate Cancer and Organic Milk vs. Almond Milk
- Estrogen in Meat, Dairy, and Eggs
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