Milk In the Schools: Is It Really Safe?

Milk In the Schools: Is It Really Safe?

by Trout Rogers

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in more than 96,000 public schools and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions.

It provides low-cost or free lunches to nearly 27 million children every school day. The program was established in 1946, signed by President Harry Truman.

Since the modern program began, more than 170 billion lunches have been served.

The USDA has established a minimum of 6-8 fluid ounces of milk, as well as 1-3 ounces of cheese for school children — every day.

The Special Milk Program (SMP) provides milk to children in schools and childcare institutions that do not participate in other Federal child nutrition programs.

In 1999, more than 7,100 schools and residential child care institutions participated, along with 1,300 summer camps and 518 nonresidential childcare institutions.

The Department of Agriculture, in the food pyramid, has recommended two servings per day of milk and dairy products.

This is in spite of the fact that it is estimated that 95% of Asian Americans, 65% of African Americans, and 50% of Hispanics are lactose intolerant.

The USDA, FDA, and Department of Agriculture have long insisted that milk is an important part of a healthy diet.

We have even heard it referred to as "the perfect food." In this country, we have entrusted our health to these government organizations, and their decisions have defined the health of generations of Americans.

Information is still surfacing about the effects of drinking milk, and the news is disturbing. Has the government been wrong all this time?

There is mounting evidence that milk can be unhealthy throughout a child's life.

Best Food Possible?

Would you allow your child (or yourself) to drink a 12-ounce glass of milk if you knew that it had one million plus cells in it?

The use of steroids, antibiotics, and many other chemicals in conventional milk production is taking its toll on the dairy cows in America, and their health suffers for it.

The chemicals used to treat those diseased cows are processed by and often end up (in some form or another) in the animal products derived from them.

Also, the disease fighting cells (pus) are much more prevalent in today's dairy cows than ever before.

The biggest problem today is the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which is injected into dairy cows across the nation.

This hormone is implicated in numerous health problems for both cattle and humans.

When a child is growing, it is vital to provide them with the best foods possible. These are the foods that will essentially be the building blocks for their physical and physiological future.

rBGH milk shows a dramatic increase in IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor), a hormone linked to breast and colon cancer, hypertension, premature growth stimulation in infants, gynacomastea in young children, glucose intolerance, and juvenile diabetes.

In June of 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about early sexual maturity and milk hormones.

The study pointed out the many disturbing links between the chemicals that are intended to make other mammals mature quickly and produce more — and the same effect on girls in industrialized countries.

Since every sip of cow's milk contains 59 different bioactive hormones (Journal of Endocrine reviews, 1992), and because it takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese, children are ingesting numerous powerful hormones with almost every meal.

Teenagers too, suffer from a diet including lots of milk. The website, , has an abundance of information, including a paper entitled,
"Got zits?"

It describes the link between acne and hormones in milk today.

When teenagers combine their own raging hormones with dietary saturated animal fat, cholesterol, steroid hormones, and dead white blood cells (somatic cells — all names for pus), they're going to get zits.

Progesterone breaks down into androgens, which have been implicated as a factor in the development of acne.

At a time when 15% to 25% of our youth are overweight, and health problems are occurring at an alarming rate, it makes sense to choose very carefully when providing food for you and your family.

To get involved with our "Safeguard our Schools" campaign, come to our first meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 12th.

We'll meet at the Nob Hill Co-op at 7:00 p.m. to talk about what we can do to keep our school kids healthy.