The Vitamin D/Milk Controversy

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. Ingesting too much Vitamin D can be toxic and actually lead to bone loss. 

In 1985, the Journal of Pediatrics (Volume 107, 3) reported: 

"Adults need 10-15 minutes of sunlight, two or three times a week to ensure proper Vitamin D levels." 

The Journal of Nutrition revealed the best source of Vitamin D (1996;126,4 Suppl): 

"Exposure to sunlight provides most humans with their Vitamin D requirement." Is too much Vitamin D dangerous? Forty years ago, the journal Pediatrics revealed (Volume 31): 

"Consuming as little as 45 micrograms of Vitamin D-3 in young children has resulted in signs of overdose." 
(One quart of milk contains 400 IU, or 10 micrograms) 

Does USDA test milk to keep dairy manufacturers honest? Milk products have been found to contain dangerous levels of Vitamin D. In 1992, the New England Journal of Medicine 
(Volume 326) reported this shocking news: 

"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." What other dangers does Vitamin D pose for adult milk drinkers? In 1992, the Canadian Medical Association Journal 
(Volume 147, 9) reported: 

"Vitamin D increases aluminum absorption, and high aluminum levels in the body may cause an Alzheimer's-like disease." 

That's food for thought! Dairy industry ad men use scare tactics to terrify American consumers with disinformation. Fact is, the Vitamin D that is added to milk plays little or no role in bone metabolism in the human body. In April of 1998, the Journal of Pediatrics (Volume 132,4) revealed: 

"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." Nutritionist George Eisman wrote in his book, Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition: 

"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." 

Robert Cohen

http://www.notmilk.com

Copyright Issues?