Dairy Products Linked to Cancer?

“Cows’ milk is good for calves – but not for us.”

That’s the urgent message Dr. Jane Plant is trying to get out in an  interview with The Telegraph. Dr. Plant has been fighting breast cancer for decades. In 1993, her cancer returned for the fifth time, and she was devastated when doctors gave her only months to live. A geochemist who had worked in China, Plant knew that Chinese women rarely got breast cancer. According to The Telegraph, the disease historically affected only one in 100,000 Chinese women. By contrast, one in eight American women can expect to develop breast cancer.

When Plant looked at the differences between diets, she found that Chinese women didn’t consume dairy. Plant immediately switched to plant based, dairy free diet and for 18 years, she was cancer free. When her cancer returned for a sixth time in 2011, she attributes the recurrence to the fact that she had “lapsed” in her strict dairy free diet. When she completely cut out dairy again, her cancer went back into remission.

Dr. Plant has made it her life’s work to share her experiences with others, and spread the word about the importance of diet in cancer prevention. She has written two books: Your Life in Your Hands and Beat Cancer, which discuss the connection between dairy consumption and cancer.  She is passionate about her findings because she doesn’t want others to go through what she did.

Scientists now understand that certain proteins called growth factors and hormones switch on cancer cells. This means that cancer-causing genes may become active under the right conditions. In milk, the high levels of growth factors are of particular concern. “Cow’s milk [organic or otherwise] has been shown to contain 35 different hormones and 11 growth factors,” Plant told The Telegraph. Research has strongly linked one of the growth factors, IGF-1, to the development of several cancers. Vegans have lower levels of IGF than meat eaters and vegetarians.

While cow’s milk is the perfect food for a growing calf, it may be harming your health and increasing your risk of cancer.

Learn more about the benefits of a plant based diet here