Vegan Society Briefing

Milk and Breast Cancer (2 of 7)

Stephen Walsh, November 2001.

What the dairy industry would like you to believe

Dairy industry representatives sprang into action to promote the idea that drinking milk reduces risk of breast cancer:

Anti-cancer link's all white for milk
South Wales Evening Post, 30 August 2001.

FARMERS across South West Wales have welcomed new evidence that women who drink three glasses of milk a day are less likely to develop breast cancer.
Members of the Farmers' Union of Wales say the news is a boost for their White Stuff campaign to give free milk to all Welsh primary school pupils.
The FUW has urged all primary schools in Wales to take advantage of the scheme introduced last February, in which the Assembly and the EC pay the cost of school milk for pupils aged between five and seven. …
The Dairy Council's nutrition manager Anita Wells said: "To discover that life-long milk drinkers have a reduced risk of breast cancer is an exciting step forward."

Milk may stop breast cancer
The New York Post, 5 September 2001.

The new anti-breast cancer slogan could be: Got milk?
A new study reveals that drinking milk in childhood and as an adult can protect women against the disease.
Women who drank more than three glasses of milk per day had half the risk of breast cancer, compared with women not drinking milk.
Researchers in Norway came to their conclusions after studying the health histories of 48,844 women, ages 34 to 39.
Milk's protective effect is attributed to a cancer-fighting substance called conjugated linoleic acid, which is found in milk fat.
Numerous studies have shown that the acid has a positive effect in fighting off breast cancer. The results of the study were published in the September issue of the International Journal of Cancer.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month; Drinking Milk May Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer
Business Wire, 27 September 2001
National Dairy Council/Milk Processors Education Program press release

A new study published in the September 15th issue of the International Journal of Cancer found that women who drink milk on a daily basis are less likely to develop breast cancer than those who drink little or no milk….
CLA or conjugated linoleic acid - which is found in milk fat - has been gaining a lot of attention lately as a potential cancer prevention agent. A recent Finnish study found that women with breast cancer had significantly lower levels of CLA in their diets and blood compared to women without cancer….
The results of the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study are in line with earlier research results showing the protective effect of milk on breast cancer. A study published in the British Journal of Cancer in 1996 showed that the women who consumed the most milk had less than half the risk of breast cancer compared to women consuming the least milk.
"Good health starts with dairy," said Greg Miller, Ph.D., F.A.C.N., executive vice president of nutrition and scientific affairs for the National Dairy Council.

In fact, the evidence for an association between milk and breast cancer is weak and conflicting and does not justify a claim for a protective effect. There are many ways of reducing breast cancer risk while promoting overall health which are properly justified and do not involve any harm to other animals. The rest of this paper justifies these observations in detail.

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