“If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?”
W. Somerset Maugham

We are the only mammals on the entire planet who drink milk after the infancy period. In fact, we like milk so much that we keep stealing it from other species. Evidence shows that breastfeeding is healthy in early childhood indeed, but after the age of two there is no apparent reason for us to keep drinking milk.

Many people believe that we need milk for the calcium and bone strength. Both the European and the American Dietary Guidelines still recommend that we drink up to three glasses of milk a day. What the guidelines don't say however is that those three glasses contain more than 240 calories and more than 36 grams of sugar. Guidelines and recommendations are not the same as science so let’s look at what the research says about drinking milk. 

A meta-analysis published a few years ago in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition was looking at how calcium intake may be associated with the risk of hip fractures. The research included seven prospective cohort studies that enroled more than 170,000 women with almost 3,000 hip fractures and five prospective cohort studies that recruited more than 68,000 men with over 200 hip fractures. The researchers found no association between total calcium intake and the risk of hip fracture in both men and women. 

Scientists also studied five clinical trials seeking the prove that increasing calcium intake can prevent fractures. More than 5,600 women and 1,000 men took part in these studies with a randomly received calcium supplementation or placebo. This time, researchers were looking at all kinds of fractures and concluded that calcium intake had no significant impact on fracture prevention. 

Over the last few years, four randomised controlled clinical trials were looking at the potential link between calcium supplementation and specifically hip fractures. The results were really surprising. It turned out that calcium supplementation actually increased the risk of hip fracture, and for that reason self-prescribed calcium supplements are not recommended. 

In 2011, a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research combined all available prospective studies looking for an association between milk intake and the risk of hip fracture. 

Researchers found six studies on more than a 195,000 women who sustained more than 3,500 hip fractures, and there was no association between milk intake and the risk of fracture. In the same meta-analysis, based on more than 75,000 men with 195 hip fractures, the data again could not establish a statistically significant relationship between milk intake and the risk of hip fracture.

A more recent prospective study published in JAMA Pediatrics enroled nearly 96,000 people in the long-standing Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals follow-up study. Researchers asked the participant to rate their milk consumption as teenagers and then followed them to see if they experienced hip fractures over the next 25 years. It turned out that men who drank more milk as teens had a 9% higher risk of having a hip fracture later on in life than those who drank milk occasionally.

Drinking milk doesn’t have proven health benefits. In fact, drinking too much milk can be harmful particularly to children. Researchers at Duke University Health System found that excessive milk consumption is damaging to the gut microbiota and it may prevent iron from being absorbed from diet causing anaemia. Additionally, some children may even experience intestinal bleeding when they drink too much cow’s milk. 

Contrary to popular belief, milk doesn’t reduce the risk of bone fracture. It can actually increase the risk by up to 10%. Interestingly, some African and Asian countries with the lowest dairy consumption have the lowest rates of osteoporosis. Calcium isn't as bone protective as we thought. Studies on calcium supplementation have shown no benefits in reducing the risk of fracture. 

Milk is an important part of a small child’s diet and just like most things is good for us when consumed in moderation. It’s a great addition to a bowl of oats, a cup of tea or coffee. As adults, however, we need to treat milk as any other beverage that is rich in calories and holds no special place in our positive health toolbox.