Don’t cry over spilled milk

I’ve come across some research this past week about calcium and its relationship with our bone health.

Apparently, I was not wrong to assert that “we all know how important it is to drink our milk to allow for strong bones,” but I was dead wrong to assume we all know what we are talking about.

I came across a video on Facebook this week:

At first, I couldn’t believe it myself. Since I was in elementary school, I can remember my doctors, teachers, family and the television telling me how important milk was for the calcium in it.

Enter a caption

But drinking cow’s milk is not essential to human bone health.

Okay, I will give you a second to let that sink in.

Now, I didn’t just take the word of the Vox video. I don’t believe everything I see on the internet. I looked up scientific studies to either support or deny the claim in bold. The most recent study I found was from last year, and it concluded that there is no correlation between the consumption of milk and the risk of bone fracture. (You can read it in full here.)

This isn’t to say milk doesn’t contribute to health in any way at all. Claims that milk is detrimental to bone health are unfounded. There are benefits.

“…it is a good source of high biological value proteins with polyvalent roles in immune function, as well as nutrient transport and absorption and important vitamins and essential minerals.” -Paula C. Pereira

But it isn’t as important as the government and big dairy has made it out to be. So, if you aren’t a fan of milk, it’s alright. There are better ways to get your calcium and other ways to get the same benefits from other foods.