When I went to that website, I saw a full-page advert for “The How Not to Die
Cookbook”… I dismissed the ad and started poking around…
It looks like a typical American “health” website. At the risk of over-generalizing, websites of this kind tend to be single-issue, agenda-pushing vehicles for somebody who wants to get rich from TV appearances and book publishing. The man behind that website, Michael Greger, seems to be an ardent promoter of veganism.
I’m neither a critic nor a promoter of veganism, but I have no patience for the kind of sales pitch that tries to win me over by bombarding me with one message, drowning out any other, with the aim of preventing me from making comparisons and arriving at a balanced opinion.
I’d much rather read a book on the subject of milk and dairy products in general if it was written by Gary Taubes. But he’s not written that book, yet; I hope he will do so one day. Taubes is not without his critics, but his writing seems much more balanced and presents references to enough source material that you can check up on the research (if you have time for that).
As for milk being responsible for early onset of puberty, I don’t believe it’s the sole or even main cause.
When I lived in the US, I heard a few friends and acquaintances claim that hormones in milk (left over from hormone treatments given to dairy cows) were causing girls to become pubescent at an unnaturally early age and were responsible for so many American teenage girls and very young women having bigger breasts than was the case twenty or thirty years ago. I seem to remember reading something similar about Brazilian girls, and it being attributed to eating papaya seeds.
I’m not convinced, anyway. Onset of puberty is retarded by malnutrition, and for centuries a large part of the population of Europe suffered episodes of malnutrition when crops failed. Food rationing in the UK continued in a limited form until July 1954.
With the increase in consumption of food in general, and in fat- and calory-rich foods in particular (meat, cheese, eggs and milk), it is normal for the onset of puberty to happen at a younger age.
With the change in fashion, maybe women’s breasts are simply more visible than they were twenty or thirty years ago. There is certainly more breast augmentation surgery today than back then, and I’ve read reports of girls of sixteen being offered it for a birthday present by their parents.
I seem to have drifted off topic… What was the question, again?
