Milk - it DOESN'T do your body good
Milk - much vaunted by nutritionists and fitness gurus as a "perfect food" may actually be the most atherosclerotic food in existence. Ah, you say - but I drink skim or low fat milk. It's the fat in the milk that clogs up the arteries. Well, yes and no. It's true that dairy fat is one of the more unhealthier fats out there, but it seems that the protein from milk is actually causing more harm.
Stephen Seely, a leading researcher in the field, examined data obtained by the World Health Organization and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development about the correlation of coronary mortality with the consumption of various foods. Guess what topped the list? Not meat. Not eggs. Not animal fats. First on the list was milk protein, second was milk fats, and third was sugar. Milk protein consumption had an almost perfect correlation (r=0.93) to coronary mortality. I know that correlation does not necessarily mean cause and effect, but Seely actually discussed some very plausible theories by which milk protein could cause heart disease.
The first theory is the estrogen theory. Milk is the leading cause of estrogens in our diet. Exogenous estrogen has been shown to be associated with a higher risk of both stroke and heart disease in men being treated with estrogens for various conditions. Furthermore, the liver usually clears away endogenous estrogens from the bloodstream pretty quickly, but exogenous estrogens can linger in the blood for a while, and can thus cause their damage. A second theory is the antibody theory. It is known that the body makes antibodies against milk proteins (especially casein), since they essentially act as antigens. Scientists in Wales observed that men who had heart attacks had higher levels of these milk antibodies than the controls. These antibodies not only activate platelets and thus act as a thrombogenic agent, but also cause inflammation of the artery walls, which initiates atherosclerosis[1].
Other researchers at the NASA Langely Research Center found that the highest correlation of any food to heart disease was non-fatmilk and milk carbohydrates depending on the age group (as an aside, for women under 64, the highest association between diet and heart disease was with sugar intake). Among their proposed mechanisms was: 1. increased homocysteine production from the milk protein, which, unlike meat has low levels of B vitamins, rendering it unable to neutralize the potential harmful effects of the homocysteine, and 2. The lactose increasing the absorption of a concentrated source of calcium promoting calcification of the arteries [2].
To be fair though, despite the high correlation between milk and heart disease, there is no one mechanism that has been proven without a doubt, and so more research needs to be done to uncover what’s going on.
Milk is also a cause of malabsorption disorders[3], may be a cause of some mental illnesses[4],[5], as well as juvenile diabetes[6][7][8], and may promote prostate and testicular cancer[9].
From the perspective of the TBK diet, the above information makes perfect sense. Not only are we the only species to consume another species' milk, but cow's milk is meant to foster rapid growth in calves, not to feed adult human beings.
Finally, an important point to be made is that newborns and babies SHOULD be preferably breast fed or at the very least given formula. Although dairy products are not on the TBK diet, hunter-gatherer babies ARE breast fed. Mother's milk is very important nutritionally for babies, and dairy products are only harmful for children and adults. Children can get any calcium they need from other sources such as fortified orange or grapefruit juices, green leafy vegetables, or, if so inclined, sardines or canned salmon (yummy).