As many of you may have noticed from our previous posts, we at the DC are vegan, supported by the Vegan society. Our choice to be a vegan café came about to promote health and as a compassionate choice not to support cruelty.

In this post we talk about the correlation between dairy and dementia…

Since we were children we have been told that milk (usually cow’s milk) is very healthy for us. We’ve all heard that it contains bags of of calcium and how it promises to make our bones stronger but is all of this information really accurate?

Here’s an advert from 1985, which, fast forward more than thirty years to today, may seem laughable:

1985 – Commercial – Milk’s got more! – America‘s favourite health kick

In light of this, the biggest question today seems to be: Are the danger/dairy warnings really accurate and to what extend is it true that dairy is or even isn’t essential for us?  

Milk comes in many forms as we know this may be cow, goat, buffalo, sheep, camel, donkey, horse, reindeer or even yak’s milk. Plant based milk options include: Soya, almond, rice, hazelnut and cashew milk.

In 1951, Harvard University nutritionist Mark Hegsted wanted to find out if we really do need to drink milk (as recommended from our government) and the dietary guidelines. He came to the conclusion that we don’t need as much calcium as we first thought, which is often the reason people drink animal milk. Other Studies such as National Institutes of Health from 2001, suggest that Hegsted was right when he claimed adults need very little calcium, according to this study “women who get most of their protein from animal sources have three times the rate of bone loss and hip fractures of women who get most of their protein from vegetable sources.”

We can get calcium from Soya milk which contains 120mg per 100ml, in comparison to cows milk which contains 129mg per 100ml. The difference is not big at all, 9mg difference per 100ml to be exact! This shows us once again that we can find a healthy alternative to animal milk, despite all of the effort from the government to convince us how necessary drinking cow’s milk is.

Dangers of Dairy:

Apparently adults that drink and eat vast amounts of dairy are exposed to health issues much more so than people who don’t eat dairy.

“Willett and other researchers suspected that the problems they observed could stem from a range of bad factors in dairy, including high amounts of hormones, the sugar lactose, and even an excess of what has been milk’s biggest selling point: calcium.”

Walter Willett, leads the nutrition department at Harvard. Milk contain pesticides, cow’s milk may also be linked to the development of Parkinson’s disease. Pesticides may also cause a brain damage according to Dr. Mercola 

Willet has also found in his research that people who drink too much milk are more likely to develop cancer than people who don’t drink it at all. Willet suggests that “even people on low-dairy diets take no more than 500 milligrams a day in calcium supplements.”

You may ask yourself how can we get more calcium without drinking milk or eating cheese and yogurt? The answer is simple, as mentioned above: Soya milk also contains calcium.

Just to help, here’s a list of all of the foods that contain calcium from the Vegan Society:

According to recent copies of the Daily Mail, the UK is consuming less dairy products than it ever has and as such, the dairy industry is facing crisis, good news for cows and perhaps less good news for dairy farmers.

We wrote about the animal suffering of cow’s in the dairy industry in our post: The Power of Plants

Food for thought:

Many believe that a plant based diet is a healthier option all round. The World Health Organisation recently declared meat as a carcinogen (cancer causing) but food can affect not only our bodies but our memories too.

Studies show that certain foods are responsible for memory loss and increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia ‘Danger zone’ foods include: Cheese (from dairy), white rice, white flour, processed cheese, sausages, proceeded meat and more.

Toxins:

Consuming too many complex carbohydrates, processed foods and sugar increases the production on toxins in our body, those toxins can lead to inflammation which eventually leads to impaired cognitive function.

Here is a list of foods that can increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease:

• Processed cheeses, including American cheese, mozzarella sticks. These foods build up proteins in the body that have been associated with Alzheimer’s.
• Processed meats, such as bacon, smoked turkey from the deli counter and ham. Smoked meats like these containnitrosamines, which cause the liver to produce fats that are toxic to the brain.
• Beer, Most beers contain nitrites, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s.
• White foods, including pasta, cakes, white sugar, white rice and white bread. Consuming these causes a spike in insulin production and sends toxins to the brain.
• Microwave popcorncontains diacetyl, a chemical that may increase amyloid plaques in the brain. Research has linked a build-up of amyloid plaques to Alzheimer’s disease.

The Dairy Industry in ‘no uncertain terms’ by Erin Janus:

(Warning explicit language in this video)

For all of the cow’s milk (or other animal milk) that humans drink, the animal’s young cannot. The young are therefore separated at 1 or 2 days old from the mother.

In the case of cows, the male calves will be killed for meat shortly after and the female calves are relocated to live alone as pictured, until they too are old enough to join the cycle of the dairy industry themselves. 

“The Vegan diet is the secret to my longevity”

–    Dr. Ellsworth Wareham Who is 101-years-old today says.

–    He has been vegan for more than 50 years. Dr. Wareham is a heart surgeon, and he     says that he is living a very healthy life ever since he became vegan.

–    “You can talk to people about exercising relaxation, good mental attitude and they will accept that. But you talk to them about what they are eating and people are very sensitive about that. If an individual is willing to listen, I will try to explain to them on a scientific basis of how I think it’s better for them.” he adds.

Dr. Ellsworth Wareham – 101 year old vegan

The founder of the Vegan Society himself, Mr. Donald Watson lived until the age of 95. He became vegetarian at the age of fourteen and later on in 1940, after learning about the cruelty surrounding milk production, he became vegan.

If the bottom line is: that we as human beings don’t have the necessity to consume animal milk, especially not as adults and that we can easily replace dairy with plant based alternatives such as soya, almond, coconut milk etc and still obtain the vitamins and minerals (calcium) that we need*, then maybe it’s a decision left for our conscience to make rather than our bodies or taste buds.

“Why then, would we promote and fund suffering in others without a justifiable need*? -Especially now, when it’s never been easier to show the milk of our human kindness.” Says Emily-Jane Stapley, DC Founder

Photo By country-life.tumblr.com