There has been a lot of speculation on whether or not milk is healthy to consume. This study might put an end to the discussion as it associates the consumption of milk with a higher risk of breast cancer.
Researchers at Loma Linda University Health associated drinking milk with breast cancer in women. Apparently, even small amounts of milk can increase the risk of breast cancer. Drinking milk can increase the risk by up to 80%, depending on how much milk is consumed during the day.
Consuming even small amounts of milk like 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup per day increases the risk of breast cancer by 30%. If you drink about two cups a day, the percentage jumps up to 50%, while if you drink two to three cups of dairy milk per day, you are looking at 70 to 80%.
The research took into account dietary intakes of nearly 60,000 women and followed their dairy consumption habits and health for almost eight years.
By the end of the research, there were more than 1,000 cases of breast cancer. When they analyzed the results, they concluded that higher consumption of dairy was linked with a higher chance of breast cancer. They also found that both non-fat and full-fat milk had an impact on the risk of cancer.
Thankfully, plant-based kinds of milk have not shown an increase in breast cancer within the test group so that they might be the best replacement for traditional dairy. Cheese and dairy-products, like yogurt also didn’t have the same association. With the improvement of technology, plant-based variants of milk have gotten closer to the actual taste of the milk so you don’t have to sacrifice much in order to stay healthy.
Scientists suspect that the reason for the link between milk and health problems might be the sex hormone that is present in dairy milk because cows are lactating.
