In response to FTC pressure, milk makers say they will stop advertising that drinking milk leads to weight loss.
The National Dairy Council’s new campaign will instead, “emphasize the role of dairy in weight maintenance.”
The FTC directive followed a petition filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an activist group operating as a PETA storefront.
Emboldened by this apparent victory, PCRM goes on to cast doubt on the claim that milk builds strong bones, saying, “Evidence shows it does nothing of the kind.”
We’re pretty darn sure that how much calcium you consume up to a certain age is a key factor in your life-long bone density. More calcium, denser bones, less chance for osteoporosis. All available evidence shows that milk still has a bunch of calcium in it. — BEN POPKEN
U.S. Government Calls for End to Dairy Weight Loss Ads [Washington Post] (Thanks to SpiderJerusalem!)
(Photo: R’eyes)
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By weight loss, do they mean fat loss? Or do they really think we all want to be stick thin models?
I don’t dare touch the stuff. Yuck.
@silverlining: Oh, trust me, I know omnivores have the same problem — I knew a guy in college who gave himself scurvy one winter because he wouldn’t eat anything but pizza rolls, Easy Mac, and Hamburger Helper — but he was one guy out of all the college guys with horrible eating habits that I knew (the rest mostly suffered from gas). With veganism it’s very easy to deprive yourself of necessary proteins and fats.
To be fair, I think the modern omnivore is less likely to experience malnutrition because it’s easy to find premade vitamin-enriched products that will take all the effort out of it, whereas vegans often have to make their own way.
Actually, I’m vegan.
Its a lot easier nowadays to get everything you need, nutrient-wise.
I’m perfectly healthy. I’m not deficient in anything, I feel fine. I drink fortified soymilk, eat plenty of fruits, vegs, good fats, and grains.
Its true that some vegans don’t get what they need; some bodies can’t handle it. I have a friend who was vegan for a few years, and she couldn’t get enough B12. So now she eats cheese, chicken, and tuna. And turkey.
And it really doesn’t take that long to prepare a meal when you’re vegan to ensure nutrients. Rice, beans, and a vegetable gives you everything you need for dinner, etc.
And, its true that most omnivores I know are very unhealthy due to their excessive consumption of fat, from…meat, cheese, and other non-vegan food.
Oreos are vegan. Delish. I dip them in soymilk and the world spins fine.
Ha! I knew it.
Although calcium is neccecary in weight maintenence, I always had a problem with those milk ads saying that imply that milk itself helps you lose weight. And although you need to consume enough calcium to maintain strong bones, exercise is what you need for bone density.
None the less, milk still has plenty of calcium (although it’s definately not the only food that does).
And PETA’s anti-milk campaign veers into a few strange scary claims that are definately false.
@Falconfire: No fat that comes from animal products are “good fats.” Good fats include olive oil, avocado oil, tree nuts, etc. Dairy is NOT a good fat.
Cow milk is for baby calfs, which gain hundreds of pounds in a matter of months. In the US, we are inexplicably attached to drinking the nursing milk of another species, which is just weird to me.
I’ve been eating way more healthy since my partner was in the hospital for nine weeks with congestive heart failure. Animal fats are practically absent. But now I fart like a heifer. After three months, it’s still going on…. beano can only do so much.
Anyway, stop with the “meant for” stuff unless you’re seriously one of those “intelligent design” people, in which case I don’t know what you’re doing on a consumer affairs site anyway, since you’re probably not allowed to be on the naughty interweb.