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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Good Science: Its Role In Setting the Record Straight
How Certain Special Interest Groups can Increase the Publics Skepticism
Various special interest groups with a certain political and ideological agenda are conducting misinformation campaigns distorting scientific information about foods, diet, and health. These groups eschew scientific evidence and instead base their claims on pseudo-science in order to scare the public away from following dietary advice supported by the federal government (9) and leading health organizations (12). Commonly, these groups oversimplify complex issues and exaggerate risks in order to support their position. They resort to sensationalism to attract media and public attention. The Internet provides a platform for these groups and purveyors of nutrition misinformation (15).
Over the past decade, some special interest groups have embarked on an aggressive misinformation campaign to discredit the nutritional and health benefits of dairy foods, especially for young children and adolescents. This opposition to dairy products has an ideological, not a scientific, basis (22). A recent critique of anti-milk claims concluded that "cow's milk and its products are safe, healthful, and exceptionally nutritious foods that play an important role in the American diet" (8).
To support anti-milk claims, results are often cited from a single observational study. One example is findings from an observational study that did not show that increasing calcium or dairy food intake promotes bone health (23). But observational studies show only associations, not cause-and-effect relationships (20). Implying that an association or correlation is causal is a common ploy of "junk" science (24). Anti-milk groups choose to ignore the preponderance of scientific evidence supporting dairy foods' beneficial role in bone health, such as the 64 observational studies and 50 investigator controlled trials referenced in a recent review (25).
Milk and other dairy foods are the major dietary source of calcium, providing 72% of the calcium available in the nation's food supply (26). Also, vitamin D fortified milk is one of the few dietary sources of vitamin D, which is essential for the body's absorption of calcium from foods. Without consuming dairy foods, it is difficult to meet calcium needs (27). Some groups promote non-dairy foods as substitute sources of calcium. But non-dairy calcium-containing foods such as green leafy vegetables, legumes, and cereals generally provide lower amounts of calcium per serving than dairy foods (27). Also, some components in these foods (e.g., oxalate in spinach) may interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium (27).
No individual should make any dietary changes based on a news report about a single scientific finding or claims by special interest groups.
Another example of misinformation campaigns that ignore the science and oversimplify issues involves lactose intolerance. Special interest groups promote the myth that all lactose maldigesters need to avoid dairy products. Yet, scientific research demonstrates that many individuals diagnosed with lactose maldigestion can consume one or two servings of milk/day, especially in divided doses with meals, without developing symptoms (28-30). In fact, consuming lactose-containing foods such as milk improves tolerance to lactose (30). Other calcium-rich dairy foods such as aged cheeses, yogurt with active cultures, and lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk are well tolerated by lactose maldigesters and readily available in stores (31).
By providing nutrition advice that is contrary to government guidelines (9) and recommendations of leading medical and health professional organizations (10,12), anti-milk groups increase the public's confusion about what to eat for good health. Health professionals and reputable nutrition organizations, however, can help consumers distinguish between claims about food that are grounded in science and those that are not. In 1995, the Food and Nutrition Science Alliance (FANSA) (32), a partnership of four professional organizations - The American Dietetic Association, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc., American Society for Nutritional Sciences, and the Institute of Food Technologists - issued the following list of ten signs of junk science:
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