Mass Stupidity

Based upon a press release paid for by the dairy industry, and posted on the PR Newswire in 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that all exclusively breast-fed infants should receive vitamin D supplements to prevent rickets. 

Rickets? Who gets rickets in the United States? What absurdity. Ok...one kid got rickets in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999. Atlanta-the city of sunshine. Think about how absurd this is. That's what this panic is based upon. Vitamin D is the Sunshine Vitamin. One has to live in a closet to get Rickets in Atlanta. 

This is more than stupid. This is dangerous advice, and I urge all mothers to get second and third opinions before exposing infants to this dumb dairy-sponsored danger. Too much Vitamin D is dangerous. An excess of Vitamin D can kill an infant. 

The dairy industry is dying, and they'll do anything to bail out farmers, even compromise the health and safety of kids. Waaaaay over the line. Many newspapers are breaking this well-greased story today. The Houston Chronicle writes: 

"Children and adolescents who don't drink that much fortified milk, who don't get regular sunlight exposure or who don't already take multiple vitamins with at least 
200 international units of vitamin D." 

On March 29, 2001, as a result of the original press release, I wrote: 

New Report Reveals A Resurgence Of Rickets In The U.S. 

The bottom of the press release reveals: 

"The National Dairy Council was founded in 1915 and conducts nutrition education and nutrition research programs through national, state and regional Dairy Council organizations on behalf of America's dairy farmers. The MilkPEP program was developed under the guidance of the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, an organization funded by U.S. milk processors." 

Those are the sponsors of this new rickets story, and this is their bogus claim: 

"The childhood ailment rickets - in which vitamin D and calcium deficiency leads to soft bones and poor growth - is making a surprise comeback...because young toddlers are not consuming adequate amounts of milk - the primary dietary source of calcium and vitamin D." 

The press release referred to a report that was filed by Norman Carvalho, MD, a pediatrician at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. 

How soon we forget! Children are taught in first grade that Vitamin D is the "sunshine vitamin." Vitamin D is a steroid hormone and is synthesized in one's body after skin is exposed to sunlight. Once the body has made enough, it will produce no more. Too much Vitamin D can be toxic and lead to bone loss. 

Here is how the Centers for Disease Control responded to the dairy industry's phony study: 

Shanna Nesby-O'Dell DVM,MPH Epidemiology Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer wrote: 

"Currently in the U.S., there is no national surveillance for nutritional rickets due to vitamin D deficiency. Therefore, data are not available on the current prevalence of vitamin D-deficient rickets among U.S. children. However, studies indicated that between January of 1997 and June of 1999 there were six Georgia children hospitalized with rickets. That represents 5 kids per million with rickets." 

Some resurgence! 

LYING WITH STATISTICS 

There are 416,474 people living in the city of Atlanta. That's where Dr. Carvalho did his research. 

If one-quarter of those residents are children between the ages of 
1 and 10, then one-half of one kid would have rickets. (Heads or tails, it's anybody's guess!) 

The real numbers were not reported by the news media, just the headlines. Who sponsors these news stories anyway? 

BLAMING IT ON SOY 

Not only do the dairy people take an opportunity to plug their Vitamin D-3 milk, they also blame rickets on soy consumption. Such fear tactics work. So do economic inducements. Stations happily run such stories. They are no more than paid ads. The press release claims: 

"Soy and rice beverages may look like cow's milk, but these products may not contain the amount of calcium and vitamin D that's needed for proper growth and development." 

They dairy industry claims: 

"The rise of rickets in the U.S. is a major concern. We're trying to educate parents and alert pediatricians to the problem. If toddlers are not drinking enough milk, it is highly unlikely that they will receive enough calcium and vitamin D in their diets." 

Vitamin D comes from the sun. Humans synthesize Vitamin D in their skin. Atlanta is a pretty sunny place. Unless kids are kept chained in the closet, they will manufacture all the Vitamin D-3 that is necessary for their bodies. 

One child in Atlanta with rickets. That represents the new rickets epidemic. 

Next thing you know, they'll be promoting milk for its estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and melatonin. 

Here's one for the kiddies in 3rd grade: Drink milk and you may be chosen for the Sport's Illustrated swimsuit issue...before you are ten years of age! 

THE FACTS ON VITAMIN D 

"Exposure to sunlight provides most humans with their vitamin D requirement." 
(Journal of Nutrition 1996;126,4 Suppl) 

"Adults need 10-15 minutes of sunlight, two or three times a week to ensure proper Vitamin D levels." 
(Journal of Pediatrics, 1985; 107, 3) 

"Consuming as little as 45 micrograms of Vitamin D-3 in young children has resulted in signs of overdose." 
(Pediatrics, 1963; 31) 

"Testing of 42 milk samples found only 12% within the expected range of Vitamin D content. Testing of 10 samples of infant formula revealed seven with more that twice the Vitamin D content reported on the label, one of which had more than four times the label amount. Vitamin D is toxic in overdose." 
(New England Journal of Medicine, 1992, 326) 

"Vitamin D increases aluminum absorption, and high aluminum levels in the body may cause an Alzheimer's-like disease." 
(Canadian Medical Association Journal 1992 147, 9) 

"Eighteen breast milk and 17 formula-fed infants, ages 2 to 5 months, were studied. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (Vitamin D) level was significantly lower in breast milk than formula-fed infants but bone mineral content was not different. This demonstrates adequate mineral absorption occurs from a predominantly vitamin D-free transport mechanism." 
(Journal of Pediatrics, 1998 Apr, 132:4) 

"To investigate whether greater intakes of calcium, vitamin D, or milk products may protect against ischemic heart disease mortality, data from a prospective cohort study of 34,486 postmenopausal Iowa women were analyzed...results suggest that a higher intake of calcium, but not of vitamin D or milk products, is associated with reduced ischemic heart disease mortality in postmenopausal women." 
(Am J Epidemiol, 1999 Jan, 149:2) 

"It has since been discovered that the Vitamin D necessary to absorb the calcium moving down the intestine must already have been in the bloodstream for a while; what is present with that calcium (in milk) is useless at that stage. Vitamin D is part of the mechanism to break bone down so that it can then stretch and grow. Thus an overdose of D can eventually lead to osteoporosis." 
(Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition, by George Eisman, M.A., M.Sc., R.D.) 

The power of the paid media. Wonder why I work so hard, and get so little sleep? If I don't do it, who will? Before 5:AM, I found these related stories, ready to brainwash readers in today's newspapers: 

Houston Chronicle: 

<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/1855236> 

Cincinnati Enquirer: 

<http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RICKETS_GUIDELINES? SITE=OHCIN&SE CTION=HOME> 

New York Newsday 

<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-rickets- guidelines,0,25 
3459.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines> 

Aberdeen News 

<http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/nation/5575284.htm> 

Las Vegas Sun: 

<http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2003/apr/06/04060471 
9.html 

Coming soon to a newspaper near you? More dairy lies. 

Robert Cohen http://www.notmilk.com

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