Gimme a break....
The other day I got a mailer from the local grocery store about a new product. It is called "Active Lifestyle Fat Free Milk". Here's the description:
"It's the heart-healthy new fat free milk that's fortified to help reduce cholesterol levels when you drink two servings a day with meals. Active Lifestyle Fat Free Milk has plant sterols like those found in small quanitites within many fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and other plants. Active Lifestyle Fat Free milk gives you an easy way to help lower your cholesterol, deliciously!"
In the flyer is a picture of the milk, yogurt and smoothies which also has plant sterols in it.
There is something so wrong with drinking milk to get the goodness in a plant food. Why would anyone want to do that when they can enjoy a variety of delicious and wonderful juicy fruits, delicate veggies and greens and rich nuts and seeds?
Notice how the last sentence says "...help lower your cholesterol delciously" it doesn't say naturally. If cows eat vegetation one would think that the sterols are getting in the milk already but obviously it doesn't.
The truth is that regular milk consumption contributes to a myriad of health problems. Especially drinking processed, homogenized milk with hormones and added vitamins and....surprise!....there already IS cholesterol in milk and all dairy products, even fat-free dairy.
I guess the dairy industry is desparately trying to get their revenues up, hence the suggested 2 serving dose per day. Also there is no disclaimer anywhere about how this product is not meant to cure any disease. If you notice on all products claiming a health benefit this has always been the case, the FDA demands this statement, however the dairy industry seems to get away with making health claims without disclaimers. Hmmmm, I wonder why?
The dairy industry was recently challenged and ordered to stop advertising milk as a weight loss tool, http://www.pcrm.org/news/release070511.html so now it looks like they are up something new.
More milk deception:
http://www.pcrm.org/news/release070628.html
The #1 way to get all the benefits of plants foods is by eating them, not parts of them injected into others foods.
3 comments:
Milk is one of the most over rated items in the history of food and nutrition. Many cultures treat milk as a panacea for all health problems! I remember driking milk thrice a day (a big glass each time) during my childhood and teens..Especially the last glass just before bed time !!!! All thanks to recommendation from my parents and others...Thanks, but no thanks anymore !
Unfortunately, many of us are still stuck on the idea that milk is the ultimate good food. Those claims being made could be perfectly legal. You'd be amazed at what kinds of claims food companies can legally make. If you don't know what they really mean you can be mislead into buying a product that doesn't really do what it seems to say it does.
bucaneer I still have fond memories of my mother putting chocolate chips (bits we called them) in the bottom of the glass of white stuff, so that I'd get a prize when I finished it all!
writer, I am not really amazed at those claims as I have seen many a superfood claiming some outrageous things, but I do whole-heartedly agree with you there!
Consumers do need to be in the know about products making claims.
Unfortunately there are still a few individuals out there who would buy this milk alongside their breakfast bacon, eggs and butter for their toast with the thought that drinking this concoction might just nix out all the cholesterol they just consumed.
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