It was troubling to a friend in the WHO that ads these days portray milk as an indispensable part of the diet of children. Celebrities with high credibility like Maricel Laxa (NIDO) and Vilma Santos (Bear Brand) and even Leah Salonga have been endorsing milk as if it were, well, motherhood and babies. And unfortunately, some people do think it is. Even the FNRI and some Senators have milk feeding programs which only help milk companies advertise their products and hook people to dairy.
For one thing, this is bad news for the economy. T
he National Economic and Development Authority categorically states that formula milk is imported at the rate of $57 million a year or P3.1 billion annually. This is packaged and in turn sold to the public at P21.5 billion in sales revenue, according to estimates by the WHO. Milk companies therefore have an estimated gross profit of P18 billion a year.
Milk has never been a big part of the traditional Filipino diet. Michael Pollan says that if we really want to eat right, we should just go back to our local cuisine for the most part (my read: with the occasional Italian or Mexican food thrown in). Those cultures that tend to get blown by this or that nutritional wind are those that are not anchored by a long-standing, mom and lola-evoking menu from home kitchens. And what milk is there in these comfort foods come not from hormone-injected, GMO-pumped cows but from the tree of life -- the coconut.
Two glasses of Bear Brand a day as the advice of an esteemed Governor? Think again.
Cow's milk is an inefficient food source. Cows, like humans, expend the majority of their food intake simply leading their lives. It takes a great deal of grain and other foodstuffs cycled through cows to produce a small amount of milk. And not only is milk a waste of energy and water, the production of milk is also a disastrous source of water pollution. A dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day -- equal to that of two dozen people but with no toilets, sewers, or treatment plants.
The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it can cause anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease, America's number one cause of death.
And dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Population studies, backed up by a groundbreaking Harvard study of more than 75,000 nurses, suggest that drinking milk can actually cause osteoporosis.
Harvard School of Public Health, on the Consumption of Dairy Products (2005):
“The recommendation to drink three glasses of low-fat milk or eat three servings of other dairy products per day to prevent osteoporosis is another step in the wrong direction. … Three glasses of low-fat milk add more than 300 calories a day. This is a real issue for the millions of Americans who are trying to control their weight. What's more, millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and even small amounts of milk or dairy products give them stomachaches, gas, or other problems. This recommendation ignores the lack of evidence for a link between consumption of dairy products and prevention of osteoporosis. It also ignores the possible increases in risk of ovarian cancer and prostate cancer associated with dairy products.” (from www.milksucks.com)
Ms. Manuela Maramba, the first nutritionist in the Philippines and recipient of the Golden Heart Award in Malacañang in 2006, rejected the proposal of post-World War II UNICEF to import milk into the country as part of its program of nutrition to rehabilitate its war-ravaged society. Instead, she encouraged the consumption of indigenous foods that are good or an even better source of nutrients, especially calcium, than imported milk.
She said that Filipino cooking methods efficiently extract calcium from bones and vegetables, with the use of sour or acidic ingredients such as vinegar, tamarind, calamansi, kamias, and santol and deliver to the Filipino palate through adobo, sinampalukang manok, paksiw, sinigang and others.
This revolutionary approach of Maramba to Public Health Nutrition instantly received recognition from the WHO and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which jointly sent her to develop National Nutrition Diets using indigenous food sources in Burma, India and Sumatra.
So with that honored tradition, what is the FNRi doing promoting milk? If it is to correct deficiencies in poor children, why not promote papaya or linga instead of promoting an imported and expensive product? http://www.fnri.dost.gov.ph/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=645
Lastly, milk production today is not the same as in the old days. With the amount of estrogen used to make cows produce more milk, you begin to stop wondering why our girls are menstruating earlier and earlier. Where else will all that estrogen go, after all?
Now I have to say I still do buy cheese but plan to take lessons from The Farm at San Benito to find out how they make that delicious Farm Cheese and parmesan like stuff on their ceasar salad, after which I can really say goodbye to dairy cheese.
Thankfully, though, I just heard from Arugaan's Inez Fernandez that the Ad Board has included the Milk Code, EO 51, in their rules and procedures. I hope it includes their plug-ins and ad frames for station ID and show plugs. This would probably not reduce ads for milk for toddlers and grown-ups, but at least it will protect babies.
side note: Have been bothered for a while now about this famous actress who endorses McDonalds, especially with her "masarap paglihian" ad and now promoting instant noodles as a healthy food because it has no preservatives (geez, our bamboo blinds have no preservatives but I'm not about to eat it). But a friend of mine pointed out the mistake in that ad campaign, which, unfortunately does not seem to be penetrating the brains of consumers: would you take health food advise from someone who is obese?
