Dr. Klaper’s
Take on Dairy

While this may be effective marketing, it’s not based on scientific fact. Osteoporosis is not a disease of calcium deficiency! Americans consume more calcium than anyone else on planet Earth. Yet, American women suffer more osteoporosis than almost anyone else on the planet. This alone should belie the belief that osteoporosis is a calcium deficiency. If it were a calcium deficiency, you would not see it in developing nations like the U.S. — yet, those are the countries where the condition is most rampant.

​

Recent studies have shown that the more dairy a woman consumes the higher her risk of hip fracture! (9) So, clearly, cow’s milk and the products made from them will not prevent or remedy osteoporosis.

​

So, if osteoporosis is not a calcium deficiency, what is it? Every first year medical student that did not sleep through physiology class learns about Wolff’s Law of Bones, which states that the more you use a bone and stress it against gravity, the stronger it becomes. Lifting objects, walking up hills with a load on your shoulder, carrying any weights stimulates the osteoblast cells in our bones to lay down new bone structure. Just like muscle, the more you use your bones, the stronger they become.

​

In the past, we used our bones a lot, spending most of our hours each day carrying firewood, lifting garden baskets of vegetables, hefting sacks of grain, carrying buckets of water, wielding hoes and shovels, and stacking bales of hay.

​

Those weight-bearing exercises used to repeatedly put stresses on our bones that made them grow stronger in response. Osteoporosis was quite uncommon before the 20th century and today is rarely seen in people who stay physically active, even into advanced years.

​

Yet, welcome to the 21st century where we have abandoned our hearty, physical, bone-building lifestyle for one where we sit — virtually all day.

 

We sit at the breakfast table. We sit in the car to drive to work. We sit in front of a computer at our jobs, and we sit in the cafeteria at lunch. We sit in front of the computer all afternoon, and we sit in the car, bus or train on the way home. Then, we spend our evening sitting in front of our home computer or in the living room watching television. Then, we go to bed and lie down.

 

Mother Nature says, “use it or lose it.” Since we no longer ask our bones to become strong through wholesome daily use, our bones become weak and porous — and they crumble like styrofoam. This is the reality of osteoporosis.

 

It’s our lack of weight-bearing exercise — along with widespread vitamin D deficiency from our always-inside, sun-deficient lives and “calcium thieves” such as high-protein diets, excess salt, sugar, caffeine, and soft drinks containing phosphoric-acid which increase calcium excretion through our kidneys — that has caused our national bone density to decrease so drastically. In other words, rather than a lack calcium in our diets being the underlying cause of the disease, osteoporosis is largely disuse atrophy of the bones!

 

Osteoporosis can be readily reversed by (a) eliminating the above-named “calcium thieves” from one’s diet and (b) purchasing a weighted vest for about $50 (search for “Weighted Vest”) and wearing it while walking, doing housework, or most any activity for 20 – 40 minutes every day. Start with just one or 2 pounds and gradually work your way up to 10 or 12 lbs.

​

With every step, a wave of weight goes down the spine, hips, and leg bones and the bones respond to the weight loads placed upon them. Bone density soon increases in a healthy, natural manner — not by taking drugs! Gradually increasing the weights over time, will ensure the bones continue to strengthen. For those who cannot wear such a vest, elastic resistance bands used regularly to build muscle will also build bone!

 

To further refute the claim that cow’s milk is the best dietary source of calcium (and, as often implied in milk advertisements, virtually the only source), I pose a question: Where do cows get all that calcium to put in their big bones and into their milk? After all, cows do not drink milk!

 

Of course, the calcium comes from green plants the cows eat during the day. Calcium is required by all green plants for cell wall strength and I strongly believe that’s where humans should get their calcium, as well.

 

Ample quantities of dark green leafy vegetables — kale, chard, spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc. — consumed daily, along with calcium-precipitated tofu and calcium-fortified orange juice, if desired, will easily meet the calcium needs for anyone who wants to create strong bones and is willing to do the weight-bearing exercise to actually make their bones stronger.

 

Drinking milk and/or taking calcium pills and living a sedentary lifestyle while hoping your bones get stronger are NOT the answer. In fact, taking high-dose calcium supplements may actually increase the risk of calcification of arteries and ligaments — tissues you don’t want to calcify.

 

In summary, there is nothing in cow’s milk required by humans beings — and many things in it that we are better off not consuming, including saturated fats, bovine growth factors, disease-abetting proteins, not to mention residues of antibiotics, pesticides and cow pus.

 

Most children on planet Earth — including North American children with bona fide allergies to cow’s milk — grow up big and strong without ever consuming significant amounts of cow’s milk products. They simply are not available due to lack of refrigeration, etc. Yet these children who eat wholesome, plant-based diets and get plenty of vigorous, weight-bearing exercise in the sunshine develop strong bones that last them all their lives (assuming they don’t let them atrophy as sedentary North Americans do.)

​

In my medical practice, I can often easily recognize the cheese and dairy-eaters. I see the pudginess in their face and the fat around their necks and waists. It is literally written all over them that they are absorbing into their tissues every day a substance filled with fat, hormones and other growth-promoting factors which foster adipose abdomens, bull necks, and, dare I say it, a bovine configuration.

​

Conversely, it is often remarkable to witness a person’s entire countenance change when they stop consuming dairy products: fatty deposits in their face, neck and trunk begin to melt away, strong jaw lines emerge, and necks show their true anatomy — sometimes muscular, sometimes slender, always welcome. The post dairy-eating human just seems overall healthier, less bloated.

​

So, unless you are a baby calf, this physician believes we are far better off not consuming the products made from the milk of a cow.

​

See my 42-minute video, “Dairy Doubts” to learn more about my concerns regarding human consumption of diary products.

​

To your good health and happiness,

Dr. Michael Klaper