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February 2005
Vegetarian Advocate: How Deadly Are Dairy Products?
By Jack Vegetarianberger


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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