Milk and Hormones

Along with my research on hormones and meat, is the study about dairy products from cows injected with hormones. The leading concern of our day is the artificially injected milk in cows known as rBGH or rBST. The other concern is the high levels of estrogen found in cows milk. 

The USDA approved rBST as a safe hormone for human consumption twenty years ago. Milk from cows injected with rBST has been shown to carry large amounts of IGF-1-a naturally occurring growth hormone. IFG-1 has been shown to increase the risk of breast and colon cancer. Besides producing 20% more milk, many farmers noticed changes in the health of their cows after using the rBST drug. Because the cows were using so much energy and personal nutrients to produce and unnatural amount of milk, they became more lean and susceptible to various illnesses. Often the cows became infected with mastitis which ruined their milk supply until it healed. Canada and the European Union both banned the use of milk producing hormones in cows, yet the USDA still claims that it is harmless. 


The other concern is the amount of naturally occurring estrogen found in cows milk. In a study published by Harvard, stating that when a cow is in the late stages of pregnancy her milk contains 33% more estrogen than any other time in her life. On small farms or in third world countries, a cow is not milked 365 days a year-not in the later stages of pregnancy. The hormones in that milk are much lower. According to the same Harvard article, countries like Japan that had little to no dairy consumption, but increased it over time had no prostate cancer-after introducing dairy, the cancer rate steadily increased. Research shows that the commercialized production of cows milk is the likely cause because of the high levels of naturally occurring estrogen in the fat of the milk from pregnant cows. Several studies have shown that after children who were accustomed to drinking milk from a cow that was not milked during pregnancy and were given commercial U.S. milk had an immediate increase in their hormone levels. An increase in hormone levels leads to reproductive problems and cancer. The good news is that the high levels of hormones are mostly contained in the milk-fat, so if a person chooses to drink skim milk, it is practically hormone free. 



Aside from drinking organic milk or purchasing milk from a local small farm, a consumer can choose to drink commercial milk that has the label "no rBST" or "no BGH." That milk was taken from cows that have not been injected with the milk increasing hormones. It can often be purchased at the same price or for pennies more at an local supermarket.