Chinese was born unfit to drink milk？ Is there any basis for this statement？
The artificial meat company has just listed in the United States, and the artificial milk has come. Recently, Mike Shedlock, a columnist of MishTalk, a global economic research website, introduced artificial milk that is more environmentally friendly, healthier and more expensive. This makes many people lament that with artificial milk, the problems existing in milk can finally be solved.
Rumors about milk have never been broken. "Milk causes cancer", "Milk is not suitable for Chinese’s physique" and "Milk will send mankind to the grave" … … Are these terrible stories about milk circulating on the Internet true?
Rumor 1: Hormones in milk can cause cancer.
An article entitled "Milk sends human beings to the grave" was once heated up, causing widespread panic among the masses. According to the article, milk contains the hormone IGF-1. Women who drink too much will suffer from breast cancer and ovarian cancer, while men are prone to prostate cancer.
"The full name of IGF-1 is called insulin-like growth factor No.1, which has a similar effect to insulin, mainly regulating people’s blood sugar and promoting people’s growth and development. Judging from the current experimental or scientific evidence, it does not indicate that it has a carcinogenic effect. " Li Yajun, a professor at the School of Life Sciences of Guizhou Normal University, said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily reporter.
In this regard, some experts have explained that IGF-1 is a protein with important physiological functions, which exists widely in human body. Milk does contain this hormone substance, but the content is very small. Previously, an epidemiological survey showed that IGF-1 seems to have a certain relationship with prostate cancer and other cancers, but so far there is no evidence that IGF-1 is the direct cause of cancer. "Having a certain relationship" does not mean that it will directly induce cancer. In addition, the amount of IGF-1 obtained by drinking milk is insignificant compared with the amount of IGF-1 contained in the human body itself. Moreover, IGF-1 in milk has no biological activity in human body after heating, digestion and absorption, let alone causing cancer.
In 2017, Song Xiaomei and other scholars from the School of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences of Hebei University published a paper pointing out that the main argument of "milk carcinogenesis" comes from some epidemiological research results (especially for prostate cancer), but it often avoids intake, which is misleading to people who generally lack systematic health knowledge. Its argument is mainly the view of the China Health Survey Report compiled by Cornell University, the main purpose of which is to advocate people in Europe and America to change their bad eating habits mainly based on animal foods. However, the intake of dairy products by Chinese residents is far from the highest intake in European and American epidemiological studies (more than 600 grams per day), even lower than the recommended daily intake of 300 grams in the Dietary Guidelines for China Residents (2016).
Proverbs 2: Chinese was born unfit to drink milk.
In life, we often hear the saying that Chinese is mainly vegetarian, and its constitution is peaceful and cool, so it is useless to digest the cold and wet food such as milk. Therefore, more than 60% of Chinese people have diarrhea when drinking milk, which is because milk hurts spleen yang.
In this regard, Li Yajun said that for a long time, the academic community thought that milk was flat and sweet and did not belong to cold food. Many people in Chinese will have diarrhea when drinking milk, not because the milk is cold or the milk hurts spleen yang, but because the milk contains lactose, and these people lack enzymes to decompose lactose, which is reflected in the fact that they will not have diarrhea when drinking yogurt or soothing milk with lactose decomposed.
Adults in China drink less milk, and the body’s ability to decompose lactose will decrease — — Lactases that decompose lactose in the intestine are "unemployed" one after another, which leads to the basic shutdown of the "factory" that produces lactase. The lack of lactase in most people is caused by "using it and discarding it", rather than congenital lack of this gene. The vast majority of Chinese do not have congenital lactase deficiency, that is to say, Chinese is not born unfit to drink milk, just because he usually drinks too little. For non-congenital lactose deficiency, the ability to digest lactose can be restored through gradual adaptation.
Rumor 3: Drinking milk leads to various skin diseases.
Some people, especially infants, are prone to eczema after drinking milk, so there is a saying on the Internet: Never drink milk, which will lead to skin diseases such as eczema.
"This is a chronic allergic problem of food. Some people will be allergic and acne when drinking milk, but it cannot be proved that this food is inedible, because there are always a few allergic people. In fact, many people in life have different allergens, such as eggs, beef, seafood and even all kinds of fruits. We can’t say that everyone should not eat these things just because a few people are allergic. This is typical and a bit ridiculous. " Fan Zhihong, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, College of Food Science, China Agricultural University, said.
Li Yajun also said that this statement is not accurate. It is not milk itself that causes allergies, but some people may be allergic to protein contained in milk, so drinking milk will cause skin diseases, but this does not mean that there is something wrong with milk. Just like many people are allergic to pollen and seafood, there are various allergens. As individuals, it is good to avoid contact as much as possible in life. But it doesn’t mean that what is bad for this person is not good for others to eat.
Proverbs 4 Casein can increase the prevalence of many diseases.
An article entitled "The Great Harm of Milk! The online article "Milk, Meat, Fish and Eggs", which is suggested to be completely fasted, has far-reaching influence and makes many people have doubts about eating milk. The article points out that the research by Professor Campbell of Cornell University in the United States shows that protein in milk, especially casein, is a very strong cancer promoter, and it can increase the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, kidney calculi and hypertension. Li Piao, editor of the rumor mill of the shell network and an agronomy major, once said that Professor Campbell’s research on the carcinogenesis of casein in milk "is not the mainstream view in academic circles, and there is no stronger evidence to prove that milk can increase the risk of cancer". According to reports, Campbell’s experiment was to induce cancerous cells in rats by high dose of aflatoxin (a strong carcinogen), but it could not be directly concluded that casein had the same effect on healthy people. Moreover, Campbell also made it clear in an interview with the media that his research does not mean that dairy products can cause cancer.
Fan Zhihong said that this statement is purely a rumor, because existing studies have proved that casein in milk not only does not increase the risk of the above diseases, but is beneficial to the prevention of hypertension and stroke. A study of 64,191 women in China found that the intake of calcium, magnesium and dairy products was negatively correlated with the risk of diabetes. The nutritional epidemiological study of Institute of Nutrition of Chinese Academy of Sciences also found that the intake of dairy products was negatively correlated with waist circumference, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin content, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index (BMI) and blood sugar.
In Li Yajun’s view, not only milk, but also human milk contains casein. Casein in dairy products is a kind of high-quality protein, which contains eight kinds of amino acids needed by human body, especially the combination of casein and calcium, which is beneficial to promote the absorption of calcium by human body. Reporter Fu Lili