Milk is Bad for You, Ladies: Swedish Study
Milk is bad for ladies? But we have been raised to believe that milk is rich in calcium and helps in making strong bones and maintaining bone density, and older women should drink more milk to prevent osteoporosis. So how can it be?
Shocking findings from a research by Uppsala University and Karolinska Institute, Stockholm (2017) revealed that drinking milk might affect the bone health and even shorten the lifespan of women. The difference in the way galactose, a type of sugar in milk, is digested appears to be the reason for more bone fractures and higher mortality among women.
Women Have More Bone Fractures and Higher Mortality
The research studied 106,000 men and women in Sweden and concluded that women who drink at least three glasses of milk and consume fruit and vegetables a maximum of one time per day have risk of dying earlier almost three times higher than for women who drink no more than one glass of milk per day and eat fruit and vegetables at least five times per day. And women who drink three glasses of milk per day and eat fruit and vegetables at least five times per day showed a 60 percent higher risk of earlier death than women who consumed the same amount of fruit and veg but drink little to no milk at all. In addition, contrary to what has been long promoted about the benefits of milk in strengthening bone and reducing the likelihood of bone fractures, this study showed otherwise - there is a higher risk of bone fracture among women who have a high consumption of milk.
How About Men?
Men's risk of early death is only 30 percent higher for men who drink at least three glasses of milk per day than it is for men who rarely or never drink milk. In contrast to women, the amount of fruit and vegetables they consume did not appear to significantly alter the results.
Milk Sugar Seems to be the Reason
The study showed that those who consume a large amount of milk run the risk of an earlier death than those who don't due to increased chronic low-grade inflammation in the body. How galactose (also known as milk sugar), a monosaccharide sugar with the chemical formula C6H12O6, is broken down by the body appears to be the reason for more bone fractures and higher mortality among women. A breakdown product of lactose digestion, galactose can cause harmful oxidative stress in the body.