Post by Iäinen Olema on Sept 15, 2007 21:56:38 GMT 2
A mass of scientific evidence linking milk to heart disease, type-1 diabetes, autism, schizophrenia and other illnesses has been assembled by a Lincoln University professor in a move that will send shockwaves through the dairy industry.
What the 'milk devil' could do
Professor Keith Woodford also claims that the dairy industry hid bungled science and that the Food Safety Authority did not publish negative comments in a report it commissioned on milk safety.
He believes "serious misjudgments" have been made and said yesterday: "I wouldn't use the word scandal, but I can understand how others might see it that way."
Much of the science presented by the professor of farm management and agribusiness has been known for several years but has been countered by dairy industry research and by a review for the Food Safety Authority.
However, in a book to be published tomorrow, he argues against the science on which the industry relies, and says that the accidental contamination of a Dairy Research Institute trial of rats' diets in 2002 was not made public.
He claims this was known long before the paper was published in an international journal, but there was no disclosure.
"This is totally unacceptable scientific behaviour."
The Food Safety Authority said in 2004 that its review, done by Professor Boyd Swinburn, found milk was "safe" to drink.
But Professor Swinburn did not say milk was safe.
In a "lay summary" not published by the authority, Professor Swinburn says that fears of milk's disease risk should be taken seriously and that people may wish to reduce or remove milk from their diet as a precaution.
The authority later added the lay summary to its website, but Professor Woodford also believes this is "totally unacceptable".
In uncovering the scientific evidence from more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, he has reached the view that "some people have acted in a way, either purposefully or accidentally, that obscures the truth".
The Dairy Research Institute is now part of Fonterra.
A spokeswoman said yesterday that it was more appropriate for an independent party such as the Food Safety Authority to comment.
Authority policy director Carole Inkster said it had declared milk safe because Professor Swinburn did not find it unsafe.
"We were concerned people would stop drinking milk and wanted to say, 'Drinking milk is a good plan'."
She said the lay summary was not asked for by the authority, and it published it later when questions were asked because it did not want to hide anything.
Health fears about milk stem from the link between a tiny protein fragment in milk - what Professor Woodford calls a "milk devil" - and many illnesses.
The devil is present in A1 milk, but not in A2, produced by about half of New Zealand's cows.
The dairy industry mixes both types together so that all milk, apart from a small amount produced by the A2 Corporation and sold mainly in Auckland, contains the milk devil.
Professor Woodford says the industry could simply remove any risk by breeding only A2 cows.
It would take about 10 years before the national herd was completely A2.
However, this would prove embarrassing for Fonterra because it had argued forcibly on the world stage that the anti-A1 science was wrong.
He says he has tried hard to persuade Fonterra to look again at the issue. "But they were blinded to the possibility that their organisation's stance was flawed."
( www.stuff.co.nz/4199822a10.html )
-----------------------------------------
The "milk devil" identified by Lincoln University professor Keith Woodford is beta-casomomorphin7, a derivative of A1 beta-casein, a gene found in cows' milk.
Where his findings become controversial is that not all of New Zealand's cows carry the A1 gene.
About half are A2, which does not have the "devil".
The dairy industry does not distinguish between the two and mixes all milk together.
Professor Woodford says he has urged the industry to change the national herd to A2, a move that he estimates would take 10 years to complete, but has been ignored.
He claims the industry has, instead, run a strategy of denigrating the science linking A1 to health risks, and the science the industry has produced has typically been in non-medical conference papers or in non-refereed poster papers at industry conferences "well away from the scrutiny of other medical scientists".
His book Devil in the Milk, published tomorrow, carries endorsements from Professor Sir John Scott, professor emeritus of medicine at Auckland University, and Professor Garth Cooper, Auckland University's professor of biochemistry and clinical biochemistry.
His summaries of the conditions affected by the milk devil are:
# Type 1 diabetes.
His hypothesis is that the devil in A1 is similar to a pancreatic molecule in the cells where insulin is produced, and that the body attacks the islet cells in the pancreas by mistake.
This theory is supported by the fact that type-1 diabetics have much higher levels of antibodies to A1 beta-casein than non-diabetics.
In Finland it has been found that genetically susceptible children who drink more than half a litre of milk a day are five times more likely to get diabetes than those who drink less.
# Heart disease. High-user A1 countries also have a high rate of heart disease.
"The correlations are so strong that it is extremely unlikely that they could be due to chance."
# Other auto-immune conditions. Newborn babies all have "leaky guts" that allow the milk devil's large molecule to enter the bloodstream.
"So it is not just a case of making sure that babies are breast-fed rather than formula-fed. It is also a case - as a risk management procedure - of making sure there is no supplementation using formula milk containing A1 beta-casein."
# Conditions that involve leaky guts include ulcers, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Many sufferers cannot drink milk.
In other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and Rett syndrome, the link with A1 beta-casein is not proven.
Scientists have also found that the milk devil causes apnoea, a breathing dysfunction, in adult rats and newborn rabbits that is comparable to sudden infant death syndrome.
# Autism and schizophrenia. Scientists have identified that autism sufferers typically excrete the milk devil in their urine, but normal children do not.
This could come only from A1 milk. When milk is removed from their diets, most show a steady improvement and reduction in the symptoms of autism.
Trials on rats show that the milk devil crosses the blood-brain barrier and becomes attached to areas altered by schizophrenia.
# Milk intolerance. It has been found that the milk devil causes increased secretion of mucin, the sticky proteins in mucus "totally consistent with the symptoms that people have been reporting for generations".
Many people claim that milk causes them problems with mucus in their throat and nasal passages.
Other problems are bloating, stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Reports are coming in consistently that people who could not tolerate ordinary milk can successfully digest A2 milk.
Professor Woodford says A1 milk can be used safely in butter, whey powders and probably in cheese, though more research is needed.
However, he says research is urgently needed to find out if the milk devil is released in digestion of yoghurt made from A1 milk.
He says the dairy industry should not regard A2 milk as a threat but as a "tremendous opportunity, albeit with short-term difficulties".
The A2 Corporation has been producing A2 milk for four years, mostly for sale in Auckland.
Professor Woodford says he has never owned shares in the company.
Members of his family once had a small holding, but no longer do so.
( www.stuff.co.nz/4199815a20475.html )
-----------------------
What the 'milk devil' could do
Professor Keith Woodford also claims that the dairy industry hid bungled science and that the Food Safety Authority did not publish negative comments in a report it commissioned on milk safety.
He believes "serious misjudgments" have been made and said yesterday: "I wouldn't use the word scandal, but I can understand how others might see it that way."
Much of the science presented by the professor of farm management and agribusiness has been known for several years but has been countered by dairy industry research and by a review for the Food Safety Authority.
However, in a book to be published tomorrow, he argues against the science on which the industry relies, and says that the accidental contamination of a Dairy Research Institute trial of rats' diets in 2002 was not made public.
He claims this was known long before the paper was published in an international journal, but there was no disclosure.
"This is totally unacceptable scientific behaviour."
The Food Safety Authority said in 2004 that its review, done by Professor Boyd Swinburn, found milk was "safe" to drink.
But Professor Swinburn did not say milk was safe.
In a "lay summary" not published by the authority, Professor Swinburn says that fears of milk's disease risk should be taken seriously and that people may wish to reduce or remove milk from their diet as a precaution.
The authority later added the lay summary to its website, but Professor Woodford also believes this is "totally unacceptable".
In uncovering the scientific evidence from more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, he has reached the view that "some people have acted in a way, either purposefully or accidentally, that obscures the truth".
The Dairy Research Institute is now part of Fonterra.
A spokeswoman said yesterday that it was more appropriate for an independent party such as the Food Safety Authority to comment.
Authority policy director Carole Inkster said it had declared milk safe because Professor Swinburn did not find it unsafe.
"We were concerned people would stop drinking milk and wanted to say, 'Drinking milk is a good plan'."
She said the lay summary was not asked for by the authority, and it published it later when questions were asked because it did not want to hide anything.
Health fears about milk stem from the link between a tiny protein fragment in milk - what Professor Woodford calls a "milk devil" - and many illnesses.
The devil is present in A1 milk, but not in A2, produced by about half of New Zealand's cows.
The dairy industry mixes both types together so that all milk, apart from a small amount produced by the A2 Corporation and sold mainly in Auckland, contains the milk devil.
Professor Woodford says the industry could simply remove any risk by breeding only A2 cows.
It would take about 10 years before the national herd was completely A2.
However, this would prove embarrassing for Fonterra because it had argued forcibly on the world stage that the anti-A1 science was wrong.
He says he has tried hard to persuade Fonterra to look again at the issue. "But they were blinded to the possibility that their organisation's stance was flawed."
( www.stuff.co.nz/4199822a10.html )
-----------------------------------------
The "milk devil" identified by Lincoln University professor Keith Woodford is beta-casomomorphin7, a derivative of A1 beta-casein, a gene found in cows' milk.
Where his findings become controversial is that not all of New Zealand's cows carry the A1 gene.
About half are A2, which does not have the "devil".
The dairy industry does not distinguish between the two and mixes all milk together.
Professor Woodford says he has urged the industry to change the national herd to A2, a move that he estimates would take 10 years to complete, but has been ignored.
He claims the industry has, instead, run a strategy of denigrating the science linking A1 to health risks, and the science the industry has produced has typically been in non-medical conference papers or in non-refereed poster papers at industry conferences "well away from the scrutiny of other medical scientists".
His book Devil in the Milk, published tomorrow, carries endorsements from Professor Sir John Scott, professor emeritus of medicine at Auckland University, and Professor Garth Cooper, Auckland University's professor of biochemistry and clinical biochemistry.
His summaries of the conditions affected by the milk devil are:
# Type 1 diabetes.
His hypothesis is that the devil in A1 is similar to a pancreatic molecule in the cells where insulin is produced, and that the body attacks the islet cells in the pancreas by mistake.
This theory is supported by the fact that type-1 diabetics have much higher levels of antibodies to A1 beta-casein than non-diabetics.
In Finland it has been found that genetically susceptible children who drink more than half a litre of milk a day are five times more likely to get diabetes than those who drink less.
# Heart disease. High-user A1 countries also have a high rate of heart disease.
"The correlations are so strong that it is extremely unlikely that they could be due to chance."
# Other auto-immune conditions. Newborn babies all have "leaky guts" that allow the milk devil's large molecule to enter the bloodstream.
"So it is not just a case of making sure that babies are breast-fed rather than formula-fed. It is also a case - as a risk management procedure - of making sure there is no supplementation using formula milk containing A1 beta-casein."
# Conditions that involve leaky guts include ulcers, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Many sufferers cannot drink milk.
In other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and Rett syndrome, the link with A1 beta-casein is not proven.
Scientists have also found that the milk devil causes apnoea, a breathing dysfunction, in adult rats and newborn rabbits that is comparable to sudden infant death syndrome.
# Autism and schizophrenia. Scientists have identified that autism sufferers typically excrete the milk devil in their urine, but normal children do not.
This could come only from A1 milk. When milk is removed from their diets, most show a steady improvement and reduction in the symptoms of autism.
Trials on rats show that the milk devil crosses the blood-brain barrier and becomes attached to areas altered by schizophrenia.
# Milk intolerance. It has been found that the milk devil causes increased secretion of mucin, the sticky proteins in mucus "totally consistent with the symptoms that people have been reporting for generations".
Many people claim that milk causes them problems with mucus in their throat and nasal passages.
Other problems are bloating, stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Reports are coming in consistently that people who could not tolerate ordinary milk can successfully digest A2 milk.
Professor Woodford says A1 milk can be used safely in butter, whey powders and probably in cheese, though more research is needed.
However, he says research is urgently needed to find out if the milk devil is released in digestion of yoghurt made from A1 milk.
He says the dairy industry should not regard A2 milk as a threat but as a "tremendous opportunity, albeit with short-term difficulties".
The A2 Corporation has been producing A2 milk for four years, mostly for sale in Auckland.
Professor Woodford says he has never owned shares in the company.
Members of his family once had a small holding, but no longer do so.
( www.stuff.co.nz/4199815a20475.html )
-----------------------