Michael Pollan on Milk January 7, 2008

I was just listening to Michael Pollan on the Everyday Foods show on Martha Stewart’s channel on Sirius radio.

I am really loving his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma so I was excited to hear him on the radio.

However, I completely disagreed with him!

A woman called in and asked about feeding whole milk to children and what about obesity.

He said soda is the main cause of obesity.

I agree with that, because soda contains high fructose corn syrup.

However, it is not only soda that causes obesity in children. A lot of moms are feeding their children fruit juice and white bread products and crackers. Fruit juice is often loaded with high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar. And refined flour products and sugar also cause obesity.

He also said that giving children whole milk is preferable to giving them soda.

OK, yes, agreed. (Whole milk is also preferable to fruit juice, particularly fruit juice with added sugar and/or HFCS.)

Then he said that most milk has growth hormones in it so it is not safe to drink.

Agreed.

The caller asked, “Even organic?”

He said, “Yes. Even organic.”

I agree with that. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

However, he didn’t talk about grain-fed vs. grass fed.

Most milk comes from grain-fed cows (even the organic milk) and is not safe to drink because those cows are not healthy — because eating such an unnatural diet makes them sick. I’m not sure why he didn’t mention this fact because he writes about it at length in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

And why didn’t he mention the dairies out there that are producing HEALTHY milk from grass-fed cows? Cows that receive no growth hormones and no antibiotics and eat only green pasture and hay?

He made it sound like all milk is bad. Which is NOT true!

He went on to say that if you are going to give your children milk, you should give them low-fat milk because, while fat is not as bad as we thought it was, lots of saturated fat is not good for you.

Huh? He lost me. What is the basis for that statement?

Mothers around the world have been feeding babies and children milk — human milk as well as milk from cows, goats, and camels — for thousands of years. We have only recently — in the past few decades — seen a huge surge of obesity and diabetes.

Sure, it might be due to hormones in milk and meat but most likely it has a lot more to do with the sharp increase in other things we are now feeding our children for the first time in history: large amounts of refined grains, flours and sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Weston Price studied many cultures all over the world that fed their children meat or fish and dairy almost exclusively (the Eskimos, many African tribes, people living in the Swiss Alps, Scottish fishermen, etc. etc. etc.).

They had no obesity, no diabetes. No degenerative diseases whatsoever.

You can read his entire book online here and see for yourself:

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Just look at the pictures and tell me those kids aren’t healthy. And what were they eating? Whole raw milk, butter, cheese. Meat, seafood. Whole grains and some vegetables and fruits. Some nuts and seeds.

These are people who got over 50% of their nutrition from fat, much of it saturated fat. And they had no degenerative disease.

Anyway, back to Pollan. He went on to say that humans are not meant to drink milk and that they can get the same nutrients from broccoli. He made some point about cows only drinking milk for 6 months — and then the go on to eat grass and get all their nutrients from grass.

Um, Michael? Did you forget something?

Humans are not cows. Cows have 6 stomachs. We have one.

They have a completely different digestive system than humans.

Here’s an interesting article about the human digestive system compared to carnivorous animals like dogs versus herbivorous animals like sheep:

Comparison Between the Digestive Tracts of a Carnivore, a Herbivore and Man

Just look at that chart on that page and tell me we should be eating mostly plants.

We are not herbivores.

And yet Michael Pollan’s advice to us is, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Why? Based on WHAT?

Feeding babies broccoli instead of milk. Sheesh!

What do you say about this, Michael:

Mother’s milk provides a higher proportion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially the development of the brain. Yet, the American Heart Association is now recommending a low-cholesterol, lowfat diet for children! Commercial formulas are low in saturated fats and soy formulas are devoid of cholesterol. A recent study linked lowfat diets with failure to thrive in children.

The Skinny on Fats - WAPF

Somehow I can’t imagine myself rocking my baby to sleep with a broccoli floret instead of a bottle of milk.