Consumption of Milk As a Teen Not Associated With Stronger Bones And May Actually Increase Fracture Risk

The belief that milk is what builds strong bones is ingrained in our society, but has no based on myths promoted by the dairy industry. Calcium is but ONE of the many minerals your body needs for building strong bones. The calcium in milk is not absorbed by the body and effectively causes osteoporosis rather than prevents it. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics, examined the association between teenage milk consumption and risk of hip fracture at older ages in a study of more than 96,000 men and women with a follow-up of more than 22 years and found that drinking more milk as a teenager was not linked to a lower risk of bone fractures as an older adult, and instead appears to increase that risk, according to new research.

The dairy industy has been hard at work the last 50 years convincing people that pasteurized dairy products such as milk or cheese increases bioavailable calcium levels. This is totally false. The pasteurization process only creates calcium carbonate, which has absolutely no way of entering the cells without a chelating agent. So what the body does is pull the calcium from the bones and other tissues in order to buffer the calcium carbonate in the blood. This process actually causes osteoporosis.

There is no doubt that raw milk is a suitable form of calcium. While there is also evidence to suggest the nutritional effectiveness of the calcium provided by raw milk, there is still some debate as to whether this source of calcium is biologically better than other sources, such as calcium salts or certain vegetables.

Pasteurized dairy contains too little magnesium needed at the proper ratio to absorb the calcium. Most would agree that a minimum amount of Cal. to Mag Ratio is 2 to 1 and preferably 1 to 1. So milk, at a Cal/Mag ratio of 10 to 1, has a problem. You may put 1200 mg of dairy calcium in your mouth, but you will be lucky to actually absorb a third of it into your system.

Over 99% of the body's calcium is in the skeleton, where it provides mechanical rigidity. Pasteurized dairy forces a calcium intake lower than normal and the skeleton is used as a reserve to meet needs. Long-term use of skeletal calcium to meet these needs leads to osteoporosis. Dairy is pushed on Americans from birth yet they have one of the highes risk of osteoporosis in the world.

From Prevent Disease