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The New Zealand Health Ministry has made some headway towards improving the health of New Zealand's school children by negotiating with Coca Cola to remove all soft drinks from school canteens. This is a great achievement for health, but there is a catch!
The high fructose/glucose soft drinks are likely to be replaced by diet soft drinks using artificial sweeteners and low fat milks!
Sue Kedgley (New Zealand Greens) has raised concerns about children being exposed to artificial sweeteners and their unknown effects.
Our concern is particularly with the decision to exclude full-fat dairy products from schools canteens, depriving children of the important nutrients and benefits quite unique to dairy fats.
Here is our submission to Hon Pete Hodgson (Minister for Health), sent 26 March 2007:
Submission To Ministry of Health Concerning Full Fat Dairy in schools
Supporting or Dissenting Comments
2nd February 2007
My research on milk and health has focused on long-term cohort studies set up in a number of countries many years ago, when low-fat milk was seldom used and was unavailable in most areas, including Caerphilly in South Wales, the site of our own cohort study. The disease outcomes we studied in relation to milk consumption were heart disease, stroke and the so-called 'metabolic syndrome', which is highly correlated with the later development of diabetes.
We found a negative relationship of each of these clinical outcomes with milk consumption - that is, the subjects who consumed the most milk had the lowest incidence of heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndrome.
We also noted that in virtually all the studies the subjects who consumed the most milk had a body weight (or BMI) that was lower than that of the subjects who consumed little or no milk.
I believe that milk is a natural and highly valuable food and its consumption should be encouraged - especially by children and adolescents. Furthermore, the available evidence certainly does not justify any claim that fat-reduced milk is more 'healthy' and I therefore believe that there is no reason to deny full-fat milk to children, or to discourage its consumption.
I can supply references to research published in peer-reviewed medical journals to support each of the above statements.
Peter C Elwood DSc, MD, FRCP, FFPHM
Honorary Professor, College of Medicine, Cardiff
University, UK
Thank you for your email
I advocate that entire families can use 'lite blue' milk - if a child is
over the age of two years
Sincerely
Nikki Hart - Dietitian - 13-02-2007
I am also fascinated by this. Full cream milk should be the only option. It contains all the necessary nutrients for young children including calcium the most important mineral for growing children.This new TRANSPARENT watery milk is rubbish. I didn't see many fat children when I was at school. However we had plenty of exercise, no TV and no computer games, just good old outdoor living. What would the ministry know about this apart from setting up another committee of bureaucrats to tell us what to do!
Cheers Warren Flaunty
Councillor Warren Flaunty, WDHB Board Member 21-02-2007
The NZ Ministry of Health is set to introduce new laws on foods to be sold in
schools - namely, Coke will be out and "low fat" milk will be in.
GoodFat.net.nz are campaigning to allow the sale of full fat milk in schools, and would be glad of any supporting comments you could make.
Who knows, Australia may just follow suit and our obesity problem could grow, not reduce. If you have any question about low fat milk, just ask an old time farmer how they fatten their pigs in time for slaughter. They’ll tell you, feed them skim milk.
Joanne Hay, Editor "Nourished" magazine (Australia), 23-02-2007
Given that the minimum age concerned is presumably 5 years, I would settle for reduced fat ["light blue"] milk for schools. Unfortunately for a variety of social reasons, the amount of exercise which most children get these days is very much less. Just as an example, when I was a primary school child is Scotland I travelled by bus [the school was much too far to walk]. But even then I had to walk about half a km to the bus stop at one end and probably a little more at the other end, the bus route didn't actually go past the school. When I moved home and went to secondary school, I normally went by bicycle, which would be about 8km each way. When the weather was too bad I went by tram but I still had that walk at each end. Also as a teenager I
went cycling for perhaps 40-50km most weekend days and also did a lot of walking just for getting outdoors. Today it is deemed [in most cases alas correctly] too dangerous to cycle; walking must be supervised and often is not practicable; and cycling or walking in leisure time today is unusual, kids like to be sedentary instead.
That can be changed but the obesity is with us now. Hence the moves to ban caloric soft drinks and reduce milkfat consumption. Not to mention I hope pies and cream buns. But the latter are deeply ingrained in our population's expectations. I know this from when occasionally I go to a local shop to buy a filled roll. Most of the truck drivers and similar people stopping by for their lunch are not buying filled rolls, they are buying pies, sausage rolls, high-calorie cake items and so forth. It is going to take a lot of time and more coercion to change all that.
As an aside, I am not convinced there is any ill effect from noncaloric sweeteners, except that they still encourage the consumption of what is at best expensive water. Better get rid of them altogether, perhaps diluted fruit juice and milk are the answers.
Regards John Birkbeck
John Birkbeck - Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Massey University
Low fat milk does not support the absorption and assimilation of fat-soluble vitamins D and A, which are necessary for healthy bones. Without these co-factors, the calcium in the milk may go primarily into soft tissues (for example, leading to arthritis or heart disease) rather than the bones (leading to improper development of the bones and later osteoporosis).
In conjunction with this, low fat milk is usually put through a process of homogenisation (as well as other denaturing practices). This process breaks down the molecules of the milk, allowing the enzyme xanthine oxidase to pass through the intestinal walls directly into the bloodstream. When this enzyme enters the heart and arteries, it tears small holes in the membranes. To repair the damage, the body deposits cholesterol on the scars (like a plaster on a wound). When fats eaten are of poor quality, this cholesterol is of an oxidised nature and leads to the formation of soft plaques in the arteries. To compound matters, the lack of fat soluble vitamins D and A in low fat milk (as mentioned above) means that the calcium content is likely to be deposited in the soft tissues such as the arteries. This leads to calcification of the soft plaques and subsequently arteriosclerosis.
The process of homogenisation is also strongly linked to the development of allergies. This is due to the breaking down of milk molecules into tiny particles so that they pass through the gut wall undigested. The introduction of these undigested substances in the blood stream is regarded by the body as foreign, and the body mounts an immune reaction in response. This leads to allergic responses whenever the body ingests dairy food.
As allergies, heart disease, arthritis and poor bone development relevant health issues that face many New Zealanders, I believe that homogenised low fat milk should not be used to replace soft drinks in schools. As many children in New Zealand already have allergies to dairy, even having whole, non-homogenised milk may not be appropriate for some children. If this is the case, whole goats milk may be tolerated or alternatively vitasoy's ricemilk with chickpea protein may be more suitable. Having milk prepared by boiling it briefly and serving warm with a pinch of ginger helps it to be more digestible, as it breaks down the protein chains and makes them easier to assimilate. This is also the Ayurvedic approach to enhancing the digestion of milk.
Kelly Newman - ND, Dip Ayur Med.
NB - With regard to the danger of homogenisation we note that the link is disputed, we recommend readers consider this article: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/homogenization.html
Dear Rosemary
Last week, I received your letter about fats. I am interested in your crusade against fat-reduced milk, although I don't understand where you're coming from. We have ample evidence that calcium in fat-reduced milk is as well absorbed as the calcium from full cream milk. The vitamin A is missing, but is easily made by everyone over the age of two from beta-carotene in fruits and vegetables. Australian milk has little vitamin D whether it is full cream or fat-reduced.
On the subject of asthma, there is quite a bit of evidence that the current dietary imbalance between omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be related to asthma (although not all studies support this). I can find no published papers on this topic from the University of Auckland – only their internet statement about mice and the idea that margarine may be related to increased incidence of asthma. If you know of any published studies from this group of researchers, I would be happy to see it. The margarine story is usually put the other way round – ie the omega 6 polyunsaturated fats are the problem, not the 'lack' of saturated fat. Saturated fatty acids are rather amply supplied in the modern diet.
While looking up stuff on asthma and fat intake, I did find a study from Taiwan showing a positive association between saturated fats and asthma (you can check the reference Huang SL, Pan WH. Dietary fats and asthma in teenagers: analyses if the first Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT). Clin Exp Allergy. 2001 Dec, 31(12):1875-80.
Dairy fat and weight gain is difficult since there is good evidence than many people consume sweetened beverages in preference to milk and those consuming less milk also have other aspects of their diet that are less desirable (ie they eat junk foods, less fruit and vegetables etc).
I am aware of Michael Zemel's studies claiming no correlation between dairy intake and weight gain. However, Zemel's work has been heavily criticized and other researchers do not show the same results. For example, the Harvard group's study (Calcium and dairy intakes in relation to long-term weight gain in US men. Rajpathak Sn et al, Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Mar;83(3):559-66) reported that “The men with the largest increase in total dairy intake gained slightly more weight than did the men who decreased intake the most (3.14 compared with 2.57 kg; P for trend = 0.001). This association was primarily due to an increase in high-fat dairy intake. Low-fat dairy intake was not significantly associated with weight change. CONCLUSION: Our data do not support the hypothesis that an increase in calcium intake or dairy consumption is associated with lower long-term weight gain in men.”
There is also an interesting Australian study which actually measured the metabolic rate in 14 males after they had consumed a monounsaturated fat (olive oil) or saturated fat (from cream). Metabolic rate increased for 5 hours after the olive oil and the olive fat was particularly effective in causing greater expenditure of heat (kilojoules) in men with a larger waist. This study gives a fairly powerful indication that particular fats exert different effects on metabolism and is more telling than observational studies that may not always be able to distinguish which of many features is responsible for the observed effects.
The Swedish study you mentioned is interesting, especially as its findings applied only to women eating cheese, or for whole and sour milk only for those who were of normal weight. It seems likely to me that eating cheese aids satiety.
I looked up your website and while I agreed with some things (for example, problems with the rancidity of oils), I found other claims at odds with published studies from highly qualified researchers.
Yours sincerely
Rosemary Stanton -Nutritionist OAM
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2 Comments
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Comment By: Gordon Rouse |
2:05PM 14/6/2007 |
If you haven't got enough of it from me, try typing "full fat dairy" into google and see how all the top results refer to articles that show the benefits of full fat milk over low fat milk.
http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q=full+fat+dairy&btnG=Google+Search&meta= |
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Comment By: Brenda Courtney |
11:37PM 9/7/2007 |
| Thanks Gordon. I found that helpful. |
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Current Poll Results
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The milk I consume most is: |
Naturalea 4% unhomogenised (
12 %)
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Farmhouse (4%) unhomogenised (
6 %)
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Standard (3.3%) homogenised (
8 %)
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Low Fat Milk Homogenised (
26 %)
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Real Farm Milk - non pasteurised (
48 %)
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