February
2005
Vegetarian
Advocate: How Deadly Are Dairy Products?
By Jack Vegetarianberger
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Like a lot of Americans, one
of my new year’s resolutions is
to lose weight. I am six feet tall and weigh 173 pounds. My body mass
index, which is a calculation based on my weight adjusted for my height,
shows I’m well within the healthy weight category. However, I
like my body more—how it feels and how I look—when I weigh
165 pounds or less.
Losing weight over the last several months, however, has proved to be more difficult
than I anticipated. In short, I started at 173, dropped to 167, popped to 175
(yipes!), and then settled again at 173. The amount of exercise I perform is
well above average: during the week I walk for more than an hour a day; on weekends
I play soccer for two hours on one day, and I ride my bike for at least an hour
on the other day. In terms of food consumption, I need to eat less processed
food, mainly snack food like crackers, pretzels and potato chips, and less dairy
products.
In analyzing my diet, I realize I eat more dairy, particularly milk and cheese,
than I want to. At home I add nondairy creamer to my coffee or tea, but at work
I add milk to my coffee or tea because it’s what my publisher stocks in
the office fridge. I probably eat pizza five times a month or chew my way from
one end of a cheese submarine sandwich to the other end once or twice a month.
Ice cream? Less than once a month.
Like many ethical vegetarians, I feel guilty about eating dairy products. I’d
like to eliminate dairy almost entirely from my life. Now, some recent medical
research about the connection between dairy consumption and prostate and ovarian
cancers provides additional reasons for ethical vegetarians to reduce their dairy
intake. Not only do I want to enjoy my existence on Planet Earth without feeling
guilty about eating dairy, but having witnessed my father-in-law die from lung
cancer, a close friend sidestep testicular cancer, and a favorite aunt die from
ovarian cancer, I want to do what’s best for my health.
Dairy and Cancer Risks
Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. More
than 180,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. last year,
according to the American Cancer Society, and more than 32,000 men lost their
lives to the disease. In America, prostate cancer is the second-leading cause
of cancer death for men.
Are men who consume large amounts of dairy products putting themselves at an
increased risk of prostate cancer? According to a 2001 study published by researchers
at the Harvard School of Public Health, the answer might be yes. Drs. June Chan
and Edward Giovannucci followed 20,885 male patients for 11 years, gathering
their dietary, health and lifestyle data. During this time, 1,012 of these men
developed prostate cancer. Chan and Giovannucci found that men who consumed higher
amounts of dairy products had an increased risk of prostate cancer, with the
highest 20 percent of dairy consumers having a 34 percent greater risk of cancer.
“Dairy intake has been consistently associated with increased risk of prostate
cancer,” observed Chan and Giovannucci. “This is one of the most
consistent dietary predictors for prostate cancer in the published literature.”
For women, eating large amounts of dairy products can also increase one’s
cancer risk. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death for women
in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Approximately
25,500 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. last year, and
16,000 women lost their lives to the disease.
Late last year, a large Swedish study reported that drinking more than two glasses
of milk a day significantly increased a woman’s risk of the most serious
form of ovarian cancer. The study involved 61,084 women, aged 38 to 76, whose
diets were studied from 1987 to 1990. The Swedish researchers followed the women
for about 13 years. During the time of the study, 266 women developed ovarian
cancer, with 125 women developing the most serious type.
Women who consumed more than four servings of dairy products a day had twice
the risk of serious ovarian cancer than women who had fewer than two, according
to the researchers.
Of the dairy products, the worst culprit was milk. The Swedish research found
that women who consumed two or more glasses of milk a day had double the risk
of women who never or seldom consumed milk.
A Personal Change
One of the inescapable failings with diet plans, such as the Atkins diet, is
when the diet ends, a person reverts to her or his previous eating style—and
usually regains any lost weight. In reality, to lose weight involves permanently
changing one’s daily eating habits.
While change is often burdensome, I’ve decided to significantly reduce
the amount of dairy in my diet. First, I will virtually eliminate pizza from
my meals. Although this will be inconvenient as pizza is a popular and handy
food, especially in New York, the thick layer of cheese on a slice of pizza accounts
for most of the dairy I consume. Also, I will bring nondairy creamer to the office,
and although this will require more planning and schlepping, it’ll reduce
my milk consumption to near zero. Ice cream? The truth is I can live without
it.
For the time being, my guilty pleasures will be chocolate, which I eat several
times a week, and when I am visiting family in Wisconsin, I’ll indulge
in an occasional cheese submarine sandwich at Cousin’s, a favorite restaurant
chain from my childhood.
Like many vegetarians, I embraced a meat-free diet for ethical reasons. Over
the last 10 years, however, my commitment to keeping my diet free of dairy products
has taken a bad tumble. Now, I have a new resolution: to eat almost no dairy.
For that, my body and soul will be very grateful.
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