Milk Is The Opium of The People

Karl Marx famously described religion as “the opium of the people.” It’s a fanciful idea but it turns out he could have quite accurately said that milk is the opium of the people!

You know that familiar drowsy feeling after a great meal which includes puddings and sauces, maybe hot milk drinks, such as chocolate or coffee? It’s you getting doped on morphine-like substances present in the milk or appearing soon after digestion commences!

I first wrote of it about forty years ago in my 1985 book The Food Allergy Plan. I used to joke it was a poor deal to be the first lecturer after lunch at a conference, because half the audience would be asleep!

It is such a common experience there has to be something behind it; something scientific maybe…

Well, there is. Recent research has shown that “normal” cow’s milk contains opioids; that is, morphine-like substances, most notably a protein which morphs into a peptide called beta-casomorphine-7 (caso- from casein, one of the principal proteins found in milk).

Is this really how you want your child to be lulled to sleep, by having him or her doped on opium-like substances? Probably not!

In which case you should feed the child either on breast milk (best by far) or sheep or goat’s milk; camel or buffalo, if that works for you locally. Definitely not typical cow’s milk, which leads to beta-casomorphine-7.

Wait, let me back up. For decades I have been writing about the evils of cow’s milk. I’ve stood fast against the raw milk lobby. (Cow’s) milk is not good for humans, period.

For one thing, milk does not truly “provide calcium” as dieticians and the milk marketing lobby claim; in fact for decades I and my colleagues felt it blocked calcium absorption. The evidence? In China, where traditionally milk did not form part of the diet, osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) was a virtually unknown condition. Whereas in the USA, the nation with the highest consumption of milk per capita, osteoporosis was rampant. As I wrote in my eBook on osteoporosis, more women died of fracture of the femur (due to bone thinning) than died of breast cancer!

Add to that that milk allergy leads to baby glue ear, asthma, migraines, eczema and several severe neurological impairments, I think milk is definitely something to avoid.

It led me to boast once on TV that if I could ban just one substance on earth, it would be cow’s milk. Thereby I would cure hundreds of millions of luckless people with all kinds of diseases, from eczema to colitis, migraine to asthma, arthritis to depression. They were allergic to it, without knowing, and doctors were too foolish or ignorant to even explore food reactions (bandit foods, as I call them these days!)

Beyond Just Casein

Then around 10 years ago there was a new development in the story. Claims began to be made there was good and bad cow’s milk: some had a casein typed as A1, not good; other milk, not usually available, had A2 casein. 

A2 casein, it appeared, was relatively harmless. That’s the one present in human milk, goats, sheep, donkeys, yaks, camels, buffalo, and others.  But cow’s is, typically, a mixture of A1 and A2 caseins. Is that a problem?

Well, yes, it seems. The A1 variant is metabolized to an aggressive inflammatory peptide called beta casomorphine-7. BCM-7 can also be created during the fermentation of milk or through the process by which cheese is made; and just to be thorough, those same processes can also destroy BCM-7.¹

BCM-7 not only has morphine-like properties but it can wreak havoc on the body, especially the gut, resulting in abdominal swelling and pain, alterations in stool consistency, a reduction in intestinal bacterial mass, an increase in mucin production, and a general inflammatory response. It has also been implicated in an increased risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular issues, neurological diseases (such as autism, and schizophrenia), and immune events.²

This is not something you want and fully vindicates my stubborn position on milk, which I have stuck to for over 50 years!

[OK, to be clear: a dab of milk in your espresso to “cut” it (Spanish: cortado) is unlikely to cause harm. I’m warning about drinking it by the glassful, daily coffee lattes and forcing it down kids’ throats because “It’s good for your bones.”]

It is now possible to buy A2-only milk, with an initiative starting in New Zealand, from cattle bred to have only the A2 variant. It may be the answer you are looking for, if milk really is your obsession! Just remember that milk beyond infancy is not natural but a peculiarly human quirk!

By BlackCab – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33940628

The science may not convince everyone but if it works for you, why make the switch? I have a saying (belief system): if it works for you, then it works… as far as you are concerned. Who cares about the it-couldn’t-have-worked-it’s-theoretically-wrong lobby? * I often wonder what some of these pseudo-science idiots would suggest, in the face of a patient triumph. Would they say “Hey you can’t do that! Even if you feel better, the science proves it’s all nonsense. You need to go back to being ill, right now!” 

I think in the majority of cases that’s kind of what they want because they feel VERY uncomfortable when someone does what they say is unscientific and gets a full recovery. They won’t change their thinking, of course. So you better get rid of your cure—it couldn’t possibly have worked anyway! Haha!

It Does Not Stop There.

For years I’ve been writing that casein is NOT the only allergen in milk. There are phospholipids too (milk fat). Milk fat allergies are most commonly associated with cow’s milk, but you may even be allergic to certain other forms of milk, such as soy. Milk fat allergy is more frequent in newborns and children, but it can occur at any age.

And of course there is lactose intolerance. This is not strictly an allergy but a problem digesting milk caused by the lack of an enzyme called lactase. In a normal person lactase breaks down the milk sugar lactose. Instead it accumulates and causes bowel disturbance; most typically abdominal pain and diarrhea. 

Lactose intolerance affects around 80 percent of African-Americans, and it is also highly frequent among Asians and Native Americans. It is worth noting that lactose intolerance worsens with age and is extremely frequent among the elderly, something which may trouble Boomers!

The best advice is always: avoid milk. For those who can’t bring themselves to do that, it is possible to take lactase with food. In fact LACTAID® is a proprietary mix of milk and lactase.

In any case do not force kids to drink milk because it’s “good for them.” It isn’t!

Signing off,

*There’s an old medical gag: “It works well in practice but does it stand up in theory?”

References:

1. European Food Safety Authority (3 February 2009). “Review of the potential health impact of ?-casomorphins and related peptides”. EFSA Journal. 7 (2): 231r. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2009.231r
2. Bolat E, Eker F, Y?lmaz S, Karav S, Oz E, Brennan C, Proestos C, Zeng M, Oz F. BCM-7: Opioid-like Peptide with Potential Role in Disease Mechanisms. Molecules. 2024; 29(9):2161. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29092161