Is drinking milk bad for osteoporosis?

[Y3she]

I've just heard Heather Mills on TV make this statement! I am shocked to say the least. I always have a large bowl of cereal in the evening and go to bed on hot milk as I believed this was one way of getting calcium in me????

[Met00]

There's a really good discussion about dairy consumption here: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl.... It's a long read, but not too difficult to understand. It mentions one of the shortfalls of the Swedish study, where the idea came from that dairy is detrimental to bone health. I think there's also a bit of a campaign from vegans to make us question the value of dairy; while I understand their concern about animal welfare, I don't agree that milk is unsuitable for adults!

[Y3she in reply to Met00]

Thank you so much. I have read it and it's very interesting. Thanks for taking the time. I shall carry on drinking milk and have yogurts, cheese, nuts etc. I also do a lot of exercise so I am trying, but then Heather Mills stunned me by saying milk is not good for osteoporosis.... infact it's bad! Ahhhhh 🙈

[Fruitandnutcase]

I have heard that too, in fact I have read it somewhere too. My Pilates teacher used to say ‘milk is for baby cows, it’s D3 we need for bones ladies’, which suited me fine as I’ve never loved milk

There are lots of ways to get your calcium fix. I really like the ROS calcium rich food chooser (they do a D3 list too)

theros.org.uk/information-a...

I tend to get my calcium from a variety of foods on there and also on here healthline.com/nutrition/15...

[Y3she in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Oh gosh .... I'm a real milk drinker. I always assumed my bones would be brilliant because of this, but I have been diagnosed with osteopenia. Very disappointed! Thanks for info. I will have a read.

[MWZ3]

There are a lot of unqualified people making biased statements about diet. If you like milk and you tolerate it, just have it! Calcium is also one of the electrolytes so on my list and not only for my bones. How you get your calcium is up to you personally. You are also best advised to get calcium from your food. Oranges have calcium in them. Tinned salmon with bones is as well. Google all the foods that contain calcium.

[Y3she in reply to MWZ3]

Thank you for your reply. I have to say I'm very disappointed with the thought that milk isn't all what it's cracked up to be. I was always brought up on milk with my mum saying you'll have strong bones! Now I am -1.6 and -1.7 and classed with osteopenia grrrr. Do I carry on being a milk drinker?

[MWZ3 in reply to Y3she]

It’s only up to you not anyone else. You obviously enjoy the milk like many other people. Don’t get put off by comments that contradict your views. Those aren’t terrible scores anyway. Look at your blood tests. Are you having vitamin K2 to keep the calcium in your bones?

[Y3she in reply to MWZ3]

I don't have K2 to be honest. Maybe I look into that! I do have cheese, yogurt etc as well as the milk. I do do alot of exercise and also walk a dog twice a day. I just put in to the Internet 'Is milk good for bones?' And it comes up with all kinds of info .... and definitely confirmation that it is.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Y3she]

If you enjoy it then carry on being a milk drinker but look at other sources of dietary calcium as well. If you look at that ROS list you’ll find there are all sorts of lovely sources of calcium.

I think milk’s ‘powers’ probably owe a lot to Drinka pinta milka day" an advertising slogan used by the British Milk Marketing Board and Dairy Council. It was coined by Bertrand Whitehead in 1958 as part of a campaign to counter the drop in milk sales following price increases after the 1956 withdrawal of government subsidies to milk producers.

I was completely put off milk as a child by the milk we got at school. In winter it was frozen solid because crates of it used to be delivered to the school gate and left outside until the caretaker brought it inside. In summer it was warm (and to me, disgusting) for the same reason. Plus it lay around the classroom until it was ‘milk time’.

[CDreamer in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

OMG - We were almost force fed the stuff, my grandmother even bough ‘milk bread’ which was disgusting! Unpasteurised milk straight from the cow was delicious and nothing like the milk in the classroom but now very difficult to find unpasteurised milk these days, probably with good reason. My father was incredibly angry to learn someone had given me unpasteurised milk but I still remember the taste even now.

Times change and thank goodness for that! I stopped drinking milk and gluten in about 1970 something and regained my health. I had none for about 10 years and then very gradually reintroduced very tiny amounts into my diet so can now tolerate occasional amounts but tend to take only fermented milk = kefir and dairy products - eg; cheese, yogurt etc but again only small amounts.

We are all different and have very different tolerances to different food stuffs. Unfortunately I don’t rate the ROS calcium index and have never worried about how much calcium I consume because unless it can be retained in the bones there is not much point! Good bone nutrition is a lot more than Calcium and D3.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to CDreamer]

Oh good bone nutrition is much more than calcium and vitamin D3 and the problem with osteoporosis is that by the time you find out you have it for a lot of people it’s too late to do much about it. You are pretty much closing the stable door after the horse has gone. I’d say the foundations in nutrition and exercise need to be formed much earlier in life.

Those days of practically being force fed milk were something else weren’t they! I wonder if people hadn’t been told that all you needed for strong bones and teeth and so much on the power of milk to keep their bones healthy would they have looked to eating more bone friendly foods?

I can remember camping on a farm and collecting milk warm straight from the cow. I had gone off milk by then so I didn’t drink it but - it has long been known that raw milk is capable of transmitting tuberculosis, brucellosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and Q-fever to humans, which is probably why your father was so upset about someone giving it to you. It is interesting how there has been a complete turn round and nowadays some people like to be able to buy raw unpasteurised milk to drink.

I liked the ROS thing because it shows such a cross section of foods that contain calcium. What I think it is interesting about their list is that it shows a lot of foods that I imagine people might not think of as being calcium rich such as almonds, Brazil nuts, dried figs, watercress. Besides there is a mass of information about diet if you Google.

Unfortunately I got carried away with all the things I loved - quiche, the odd pizza to name but two and found I piled on weight. So I’d say keep an eye on your weight if you go overboard on ‘the list’.

I no longer eat everything on there - I mean processed sausages and Cornish pasties? Not for me and I’m not even sure about using them as a source of calcium as there are probably much healthier things to eat.

[CDreamer in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Quote: I mean processed sausages and Cornish pasties? That is exactly what put me off!

I started changing my diet back in the 1970’s because I developed Ulcerative Colitis - I think in the long term it did me a favour as I beat it with changing what I ate because I was so determined not to end up with a colostomy which my then doctor was insisting I needed. I never needed treatment once I did that. My gut is now my litmus test for what suits and what doesn’t suit me.

We are all so different and need to learn what is good for us as individuals.

[LM100]

Heather Mills is not a scientist/medic

[Teriparatide2024]

I heard that years ago from a doctor with special interest in nutrition. It’s taken years to reach the public though. I switched to almond milk and coconut milk instead. The latter is higher in sugar.

[Bertiepuss]

Just to add personal experience and not saying what is right and wrong regarding milk and nutrition although I would argue the animal welfare aspect.

Me - not had dairy (I'm vegan) for about 15 years since age 30. My Mum - loads of dairy everyday forever.

Me - osteopenia at age 45. My Mum - osteoporosis age 62 steadily getting worse now at age 76.

Both our diets despite being very different have resulted in lower bone density. There are lots of factors to consider alongside as well as calcium - it's not all about dairy - enough calcium from other sources counts too, but all the other things to increase and preserve bone density are vitally important.

[Cheeseand]

who is Heather Mills

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Cheeseand]

Paul McCartney’s ex en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath...

[Cheeseand in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Ah yes. That is not someone I would take any notice of

[DeannaAlphi]

Hi there. From what I've understood for years is that the milk is not the problem. It's the pasturisation process which chemically changes it, so that the body is unable to absorb its nutrients easily. Same with all nutrients. If our body cannot absorb and utilise nutrients, it's the same as not having them in the first place.

The process of fermentation helps our body utilise nutrients. Cheese, yoghurt and kefir are fermented, so I get my calcium from those dairy products plus other foods. Many people do not realise that intolerance to milk does not mean all dairy foods have to be avoided.

I think studies were done by looking at diets of different countries where osteoporosis was almost absent and those where it is widespread. Japan for instance had almost no osteoporosis. Japan did not eat dairy although fermented foods like natto which is fermented soybeans and is rich in vitamin K2 were eaten often.

I found it interesting to look at different comparison studies which were done. Sometimes though, it is easy to isolate one study and draw false conclusions by not looking at the wider picture.

[CDreamer in reply to DeannaAlphi]

Well said.

[Southerngirl2787]

The nutritional truth is cow's milk is for baby cows to make them grow fat and fast...high in sugar, but if raw and whole milk, never skim, it has some usefulness. We should not be the only mammal that consumes another's milk. But in our modern world, there are other better sources of dietary calcium. Many allergist have told me over the years that several ailments will be resolved when you stop cow's milk, soft dairy as they called it. Asthma, for one, my mother removed it from my diet as a child...cheese is fermented, therefore safer and a better form for nutrients. My youngest child was weaned at about 18 months, went to water, she refused cow's milk, and her Pedi said not to give it to her, she had asthma as well. Oldest daughter's dermatologist told her to stop the dairy for her acne, that worked well.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Southerngirl2787]

That’s pretty much what I had heard. It wouldn’t stop me having milk on cereal every now and again but I wouldn’t count on it for my bone building calcium, I would prefer to get my calcium from other sources.

[ChristineK]

You might like to look at the IOF Calcium Calculator, to help with your daily calcium intake. My endocrinologist recommended it to me and I found it very useful. I will not stop drinking milk as I enjoy it and it's great source of calcium. I also take vitamin K2 MK7 and D3.

[Catseyes235]

maybe because she’s vegan and has a vegan company???? If you must have milk at least have organic so the cows don’t get routine anti.biotics, suffer from mastitis, broken hips etc and the calves have a slightly longer life. Otherwise health wise don’t worry but oat milk is better for the planet!!

And lentils have calcium as do other foods,!