Why Organic Milk is Worse for Diabetes

By Russell Eaton in Diabetes on May 18th, 2008

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by Russell Eaton

The incidence of diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions, particularly in developed countries. Poor diet and obesity are major contributors. Diabetes is a terrible disease that affects every aspect of daily living. It is caused by the body’s inability to control blood sugar levels. This is medically referred to as ‘insulin resistance’.

A 2007 study by the University of Cardiff in the UK shows that drinking a pint of milk a day can protect men against heart disease and diabetes. But when you examine the research in detail it is revealed as flawed, and the conclusions as false and misleading.

Jon Barron of The Baseline of Health Foundation makes the following five comments on this study:

1. The 20-year study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at how human insulin resistance was affected by the consumption of dairy milk. According to the study, which tracked 2,375 men aged between 45 and 59 over a 20 year period, consuming milk reduces the risk of insulin resistance. The more milk they consumed, the lower the risk of diabetes.

2. Although the study looked at a decreased risk of insulin resistance with increased dairy consumption, it found little correlation between dairy consumption and the incidence of diabetes itself. In comparing the lowest milk consumers with the highest, it found only 7 more cases of diabetes among the lowest consumers, a statistically insignificant amount. The incidence of heart disease was not looked at in the study.

3. Also, people who had diabetes at the start of the study were excluded from the results so that we don’t know if their condition improved or deteriorated while drinking milk. That would be significant information in determining the overall health value of dairy when it comes to metabolic syndrome.

4. Another failing in the study is that it only references the amount of milk and dairy products people were consuming, nothing else. Clearly, the more milk you drink the less you drink of something else, and vice-versa. If instead of drinking more milk, you drink more soda pop, more fruit juice, or more sweetened coffee, this can have a major effect on insulin and be a major factor in the risk of diabetes.

5. In other words, the so-called health benefits attributed to milk in the study may have nothing to do with milk at all. They may instead be a reflection of lowered consumption of more harmful highly-sugared beverages. It sounds likely that the men drinking milk were eating an overall better diet, but the study doesn’t tell us either way. In any case, without that information, the study is meaningless.

When you look at the research into diabetes there are many studies (too numerous to mention here) linking milk consumption with a higher incidence of diabetes, and there are virtually no studies suggesting that milk prevents diabetes.

In the book ‘Nurturing Traditions’ (1999), the author Sally Fallon makes the following comment:

‘There is some evidence that pasteurization alters milk lactase (a form of sugar), making it more readily absorbable. This and the fact that pasteurized milk puts an unnecessary strain on the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes, may explain why milk consumption has been linked to diabetes’.

This is confirmed by other published studies. It is known that milk lactose undergoes condensation and molecular changes as a result of pasteurization treatment. Lactose in the milk increases the level of glucose in the bloodstream. This in turn creates insulin resistance over time from the constant daily drip feed of glucose into the bloodstream.

The risk of diabetes is even greater for organic milk consumers. This is so because most organic milk (over 80 percent) is sold as UHT milk. In the USA virtually all organic milk is UHT! The ultra high pasteurization temperature of UHT is double that of regular milk. This means that organic UHT milk is more likely to overburden the bloodstream with glucose, increasing the risk of diabetes.

See below for information about a new book ‘Organic Milk Myth’ which covers this subject in detail.

About the Author:

Organic Milk Myth explodes the myth that organic milk is better for health by proving that organic milk is, in fact, much worse for health compared to regular pasteurized milk. See Organic Milk Myth now and get the truth.