Genetic manipulation has resulted in cows lactating into the third trimester of pregnancy, leading to milk with abnormally high hormone levels.
Hormones in Skim vs. Whole Milk
A major review on diet and acne this year in the International Journal of Dermatology. Acne is described as a disease of Western civilization, a “near-universal” disease affecting up to 95% of teens, and about half of adults here in the United States. But if you go to places that still eat more traditional diets, out of over 1,000 people studied, not one single case of acne.
Dairy appears to play the major role. The steroid hormones in milk are at high enough concentrations that it may affect our oil-producing pores. But if there are that many hormones in milk, then acne would seem to be the least of our worries.
From the Journal of the German Society of Dermatology this year: “Milk consumption: aggravating factor [not only] of acne [but a] promoter of chronic diseases” in general. Yes, the potential risks of cow’s milk consumption include affecting the skin, but I’m less concerned with the so-called “acne epidemic” than I am about the epidemic of dementia, and cancer, and heart disease—though premature puberty and autoimmune diseases are serious issues as well.
Which has the highest hormone levels, though? Fat-free milk, reduced fat milk, whole milk, or buttermilk?
Here’s the study, and buttermilk had the most hormones. But who drinks buttermilk? Which is #2? After buttermilk, is it skim, 2%, or whole milk?
The number two most hormone-packed milk is skim milk. Why are we concerned? Breast cancer, for one thing. All part of the soup of cancer-causing suspects scientists continue to find in milk. Skim milk, second only to buttermilk in terms of the levels of about a dozen steroid hormones recently found in retail milk.
Part of the reason is what we’ve done to dairy cows. Through dietary and genetic manipulation, we’re now able to force cows to lactate even in the late stages of pregnancy. And since we have to keep them constantly impregnated to produce milk, that’s good for the industry. But right at the end of the third trimester, the hormone levels really skyrocket, and that’s what we end up drinking.
Milk was designed by nature to make things grow like crazy—that’s why it’s good for babies, but bad for tumors. Good for baby cows, but bad for adult people who may have tiny microscopic breast or prostate tumors, which we don’t want growing so fast.
In a study of 140,000 men this year, 35 grams of dairy protein increased the risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer by 76%, so that’s like 2% increased risk for every gram of milk protein. So like a cup of cottage cheese a day could increase one’s risk by about 50%.
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 veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- E. H. Spencer, H. R. Ferdowsian, and N. D. Barnard. Diet and acne: A review of the evidence. Int. J. Dermatol., 48(4):339{347, 2009.
- Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, Hill K, Eaton SB, Brand-Miller J. Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization. Arch Dermatol. 2002 Dec;138(12):1584-90.
- B. Melnik. Milk consumption: Aggravating factor of acne and promoter of chronic diseases of western societies. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges, 7(4):364{370, 2009.
- D. W. Farlow, X. Xu, and T. D. Veenstra. Quantitative measurement of endogenous estrogen metabolites, risk-factors for development of breast cancer, in commercial milk products by lc-ms/ms. J. Chromatogr. B Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci., 877(13):1327{1334, 2009.
- Raloff, Janet Scientists find a soup of suspects while probing milk's link to cancer. Science News March 28th 2009; Vol.175 #7
- N. E. Allen, T. J. Key, P. N. Appleby, R. C. Travis, A. W. Roddam, A. Tjnneland, N. F. Johnsen, K. Overvad, J. Linseisen, S. Rohrmann, H. Boeing, T. Pischon, H. B. Bueno-de Mesquita, L. Kiemeney, G. Tagliabue, D. Palli, P. Vineis, R. Tumino, A. Trichopoulou, C. Kassapa, D. Tri- chopoulos, E. Ardanaz, N. Larra~naga, M. J. Tormo, C. A. Gonzalez, J. R. Quiros, M. J. Sanchez, S. Bingham, K. T. Khaw, J. Manjer, G. Berglund, P. Stattin, G. Hallmans, N. Slimani, P. Ferrari, S. Rinaldi, and E. Riboli. Animal foods, protein, calcium and prostate cancer risk: The european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition. Br. J. Cancer, 98(9):1574{1581, 2008.
A major review on diet and acne this year in the International Journal of Dermatology. Acne is described as a disease of Western civilization, a “near-universal” disease affecting up to 95% of teens, and about half of adults here in the United States. But if you go to places that still eat more traditional diets, out of over 1,000 people studied, not one single case of acne.
Dairy appears to play the major role. The steroid hormones in milk are at high enough concentrations that it may affect our oil-producing pores. But if there are that many hormones in milk, then acne would seem to be the least of our worries.
From the Journal of the German Society of Dermatology this year: “Milk consumption: aggravating factor [not only] of acne [but a] promoter of chronic diseases” in general. Yes, the potential risks of cow’s milk consumption include affecting the skin, but I’m less concerned with the so-called “acne epidemic” than I am about the epidemic of dementia, and cancer, and heart disease—though premature puberty and autoimmune diseases are serious issues as well.
Which has the highest hormone levels, though? Fat-free milk, reduced fat milk, whole milk, or buttermilk?
Here’s the study, and buttermilk had the most hormones. But who drinks buttermilk? Which is #2? After buttermilk, is it skim, 2%, or whole milk?
The number two most hormone-packed milk is skim milk. Why are we concerned? Breast cancer, for one thing. All part of the soup of cancer-causing suspects scientists continue to find in milk. Skim milk, second only to buttermilk in terms of the levels of about a dozen steroid hormones recently found in retail milk.
Part of the reason is what we’ve done to dairy cows. Through dietary and genetic manipulation, we’re now able to force cows to lactate even in the late stages of pregnancy. And since we have to keep them constantly impregnated to produce milk, that’s good for the industry. But right at the end of the third trimester, the hormone levels really skyrocket, and that’s what we end up drinking.
Milk was designed by nature to make things grow like crazy—that’s why it’s good for babies, but bad for tumors. Good for baby cows, but bad for adult people who may have tiny microscopic breast or prostate tumors, which we don’t want growing so fast.
In a study of 140,000 men this year, 35 grams of dairy protein increased the risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer by 76%, so that’s like 2% increased risk for every gram of milk protein. So like a cup of cottage cheese a day could increase one’s risk by about 50%.
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 veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- E. H. Spencer, H. R. Ferdowsian, and N. D. Barnard. Diet and acne: A review of the evidence. Int. J. Dermatol., 48(4):339{347, 2009.
- Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, Hill K, Eaton SB, Brand-Miller J. Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization. Arch Dermatol. 2002 Dec;138(12):1584-90.
- B. Melnik. Milk consumption: Aggravating factor of acne and promoter of chronic diseases of western societies. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges, 7(4):364{370, 2009.
- D. W. Farlow, X. Xu, and T. D. Veenstra. Quantitative measurement of endogenous estrogen metabolites, risk-factors for development of breast cancer, in commercial milk products by lc-ms/ms. J. Chromatogr. B Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci., 877(13):1327{1334, 2009.
- Raloff, Janet Scientists find a soup of suspects while probing milk's link to cancer. Science News March 28th 2009; Vol.175 #7
- N. E. Allen, T. J. Key, P. N. Appleby, R. C. Travis, A. W. Roddam, A. Tjnneland, N. F. Johnsen, K. Overvad, J. Linseisen, S. Rohrmann, H. Boeing, T. Pischon, H. B. Bueno-de Mesquita, L. Kiemeney, G. Tagliabue, D. Palli, P. Vineis, R. Tumino, A. Trichopoulou, C. Kassapa, D. Tri- chopoulos, E. Ardanaz, N. Larra~naga, M. J. Tormo, C. A. Gonzalez, J. R. Quiros, M. J. Sanchez, S. Bingham, K. T. Khaw, J. Manjer, G. Berglund, P. Stattin, G. Hallmans, N. Slimani, P. Ferrari, S. Rinaldi, and E. Riboli. Animal foods, protein, calcium and prostate cancer risk: The european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition. Br. J. Cancer, 98(9):1574{1581, 2008.
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Hormones in Skim vs. Whole Milk
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
For some of my recent videos on the connection between dairy and hormones, see:
Why Do Vegan Women Have 5x Fewer Twins?
Estrogen in Meat, Dairy, and Eggs
Dairy Estrogen and Male Fertility
National Dairy Council on Acne and Milk
Skim Milk and Acne
Prostate Cancer and Organic Milk vs. Almond Milk
Prevent Cancer From Going on TOR
Saving Lives By Treating Acne With Diet
For more context, be sure to check out my associated blog posts: Breast Cancer and Diet, Skim Milk and Acne, Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk, and Soy and breast cancer: an update.
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