How milk initiates diabetes

This week, we’re featuring a very compelling excerpt from The China Study, an acclaimed book written by Dr Colin Campbell (who grew up on a dairy farm). The New York Times called it “the grand prix of epidemiological research.”

Start of excerpt:
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In the case of type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas cells responsible for producing insulin.

What most people don’t know, though, is that there is strong evidence that this disease is linked to dairy products.

The ability of cow’s milk protein to initiate type 1 diabetes is well documented. The possible initiation of this disease goes like this:

• A baby is not nursed long enough and is fed cow’s milk protein, perhaps in an infant formula
• The milk reaches the small intestine, where it is digested down to its amino acid parts
• For some infants, cow’s milk is not fully digested, and small amino acid chains or fragments of the original protein remain in the intestine
• These incompletely digested protein fragments may be absorbed into the blood
• The immune system recognizes these fragments as foreign invaders and goes about destroying them
• Unfortunately, some of the fragments look exactly the same as the cells of the pancreas that are responsible for making insulin
• The immune system loses its ability to distinguish between the cow’s milk protein fragments and the pancreatic cells, and destroys them both, thereby eliminating the child’s ability to produce insulin
• The infant becomes a type 1 diabetic and remains so for the rest of his or her life [editor's note: find out how some people have reversed type 1 diabetes through diet here.]

This process boils down to a truly remarkable statement: cow’s milk may cause one of the most devastating diseases that can befall a child.

For obvious reasons, this is one of the most contentious issues in nutrition today.

[...]

A study in Chile considered the first two factors, cow’s milk and genes. Genetically susceptible children weaned too early onto cow’s milk-based formula had a risk of type 1 diabetes that was 13.1 times greater than children who did not have these genes and who were breast-fed for at least 3 months (thus minimizing their exposure to cow’s milk).

Another study in the U.S. showed that genetically susceptible children fed cow’s milk as infants had a risk of the disease that was 11.3 times greater than children who did not have these genes and who were breast-fed for at least three months. [...] anything over 3 to 4 times is usually considered very important.

To put this into perspective, smokers have approximately ten times greater risk of getting lung cancer, and people with high blood pressure and cholesterol have a 2.5-3.0 times greater risk of heart disease.

– End of Excerpt

Find another excerpt of the book on The China Study’s website.