Cancer in general:
The presence of the hormone IGF-1, an insulin-like growth factor, has been found to promote the growth of cancer cells. The hormone occurs naturally in humans, but the increasingly high levels in milk from cows injected with rBGH (that’s the one that can give men tits), due to the dairy industry’s healthy appetite for profit, profit, and more profit, is resulting in unnaturally and unhealthily high amounts of IGF-1 in the average western diet. Pasteurisation of milk, the industry’s answer to everything from disease-causing bacteria to pus contamination, is not only ineffectual in getting rid of IGF-1, but in fact increases the concentration of it in rBGH-riddled milk. Studies published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and the British Medical Journal found that consuming three additional servings of nonfat or 1 percent milk for 12 weeks was associated with a 10 percent increase in IGF-1 levels. The American Cancer Society recommends that plant foods should comprise most of a healthy diet, and that intake of high-fat foods, particularly animal derivatives, should be limited.

Breast Cancer:
Three of the main contributors to cancer growth – hormones, fat and animal protein – are found in high quantities in milk. Like osteoporosis, breast cancer rates are at their highest in countries where diets consist largely of animal products. The rate of cancer deaths among Chinese women (China is more or less a non-milk drinking country) between 35 and 64 is less than 9 per 100,000 whereas in America the rate is five times that at 44 per 100,000. In previously dairy-free countries, such as Japan, rates of breast cancer and osteoporosis have gone up as dairy consumption increased, and the average age of puberty has dropped startlingly from around 16 years of age to 12. Countries like Japan provide excellent case studies for doctors interested in examining the effects of milk on populations. The typical animal-exploitative diet of the western world renders its devotees eight times more likely to develop cancer than their Asian counterparts.
Multiple studies, reports, surveys of cancer victims, and research projects all show either that meat and dairy consumption significantly increases susceptibility to breast cancer, or that the exclusion of these from the diet results in a decreased risk of cancer. Animal fat is strongly implicated as causal, but there has been no link found between cancer and vegetable fat.

Prostate Cancer:
11 separate human population studies have tied dairy consumption to prostate cancer. The Physicians' Health Study of 20,885 doctors showed that men who consumed at least 2 and a half servings of dairy foods daily were about 30 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer than men who averaged less than half a serving per day. The Health Professionals Follow-Up Study found that men who consumed high amounts of dairy products had a 70 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.
A study of 41 countries published in Alternative Medicine Review found that as milk consumption rose, so did prostate cancer mortality rates. British researchers have found that men who eat a vegan diet have lower levels of a particular protein linked with prostate cancer. They found that levels of IGF-1 were 9 percent lower in vegans than in nonvegans.

Heart Disease:
Cow's milk and other dairy products have for decades been widely recognised as a cause of heart disease and clogged arteries; this is evidenced by the fact that the more progressive heart clinics treat patients by putting them on a vegan diet. A considerable drop in the heart disease mortality rate of men studied followed the use of vegetable oils instead of dairy fats in the diet. The downsizing of meat and dairy consumption reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease and a diet based on similar thinking is strongly advocated for the combat of certain forms of cancer, as mentioned already.
The comparison in several studies of heart disease death rates with food intake found that the highest correlation was with milk. Researchers on numerous studies concluded that heart disease mortality rises as consumption of milk protein rises. There is strong evidence that points to milk as the principle dietary culprit in hardened, narrowed arteries, and that the problem-causing component of milk is the protein, not the fat, but that’s not to say that the fat doesn’t wreak enough havoc of its own: both cholesterol and saturated (dairy and animal) fat in the diet may increase blood cholesterol levels and the formation of blockages in the arteries. It has been demonstrated that artery blockages can be reversed with a low-fat vegan diet instead of costly and invasive surgeries. Soya milk contains no cholesterol, and soya products can in fact reduce blood cholesterol levels.

Osteoporosis:
Milk is flogged to the credulous consumer as vital if you don’t want to suffer calcium deficiency and osteoporosis. If milk is such an effective defence against osteoporosis, then why are the countries with the highest dairy consumption levels in the world (America, Norway and Sweden) also the countries with the highest incidence of the disease? The problem with dairy products is that, while they do contain high amounts of calcium, they also contain high amounts of protein, which leaches calcium from the body. This means that to quite a large extent the protein cancels out the calcium's effectiveness. Population studies, and the Harvard Nurses’ Study (of over 75 000 nurses, which showed nearly twice as many bone breaks in women who drink three glasses of milk a day as compared to women who drink little to no milk), supply evidence that milk consumption can actually cause osteoporosis. Countries where dairy products are not traditionally included in the diet, such as China and Japan, have next to no incidence of osteoporosis (a lot of the existing cases are probably due to people suffering from anorexia).
The calcium in kale, broccoli, and collard greens is easily and efficiently absorbed by the body, and lots of other plant sources of calcium are available, including tofu, tempeh, soymilk, dried figs, and even some kinds of fortified orange juice. Calcium-set tofu and calcium-fortified soya milk are also rich in isoflavones (found only in soy foods) which may help to strengthen bones.

Obesity:
Dairy products are completely devoid of fibre or complex carbohydrates, and are rendered doubly unhealthy by their very high fat content: cheddar cheese is a staggeringly high 65% fat; full milk, ice-cream and yoghurt are roughly 50% fat, and low-fat milk should be re-labelled “relatively, well, eh, somewhat, er, that is to say, kinda, comparatively low-fat milk…sort of,” coming in at a bouncing 20% fat. Well 20% isn’t that much really, you might be thinking: if you were to get a glass of water, pour out one-fifth, and top it up with congealed grease scraped off the frying-pan, would you consider that a low-fat beverage? Even if your body can take the abuse of having fat poured into on a daily basis, the cholesterol present in dairy products will finish you off in the end (20mg in only 8oz of milk [a medium-sized glass]).
I haven’t got any figures for Irish dairy consumption, but with the globalisation-slash-Americanisation of pretty much everything, I wouldn’t say there’s a huge difference between Irish and American eating habits, especially since Irish people are getting fatter than ever. The average American shoves almost 600 pounds of dairy produce into his/her face a year; much, much more than recommended even by the widely used, none-too-healthy food pyramid. Small wonder then, that 59% of American men and 49% of American women are overweight. Anyone who’s watched a few episodes of Jerry Springer will have seen numerous examples of that species unique to the U.S.: the Great White Whale. Even the greediest American would have trouble amassing such gargantuan folds of flab about themselves on a vegan diet. The problem with animal foods is that they provide large amounts of calories but don’t fill you up, so even if you’re not eating enough to fully satisfy hunger, it’s more than likely that your calorie intake is well in excess of the recommended 2000-2500 kcals per day. According to the book ‘Vegan – The New Ethics Of Eating’ (which can be downloaded for free at www.vegan.com), 300 000 Americans eat themselves into an early grave each year. This makes over-eating second only to smoking as an avoidable cause of death, which comes by way of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, general ill-health and stress on the physiological system.
The number of overweight children is also on the up-and-up; it’s more than doubled in the last 30 years, due to the fact that meat and dairy consumption is higher than ever before. Fat is needed in a healthy diet, but not animal fat. The fats we need, (‘essential fats’) are abundant in vegetable oils, but only sparingly provided by dairy and meat, which are high in the saturated fats that clog arteries and land people in the coronary care unit.

Acne:
Doctors have also begun to suspect that the sugar, fat, hormones and animal protein in milk can exacerbate acne problems, or even cause them. An American study of a number of teenagers found that the less milk their diets contained, the more the condition of skin improved. The doctor in charge of the research believes that the butterfat and lactose (milk sugar) in dairy products aggravate acne, and that the high levels of hormones present in milk may break down into androgen, which motivates sebum production: sebum is the goopy crap that clogs up pores and causes big yellow pustules to crop up on your face. They may be great fun to pop but don’t doing your pulling chances a lot of good.
And just in case the hormones and lactose are falling down on the job of making non-vegan teenage life a misery, milk can contain huge amounts of iodine which sometimes irritates pores, causing even more spots.

Child Health
When the decent, law-abiding, milk-drinking citizen’s acne-plagued, insecure adolescence finally grinds to a merciful close, it shouldn’t be too long before they decide to settle down in a nice semi-d house and have a couple of sweet little kids (2.4 to be exact) – onto whom they’ll pass their detrimental dietary habits. These lucky youngsters will spend their childhood continuously participating in a unique lottery draw: the prizes include anaemia, a colourful array of allergies, diabetes, and, if they choose to continue with their fat-filled diet, obesity and heart disease further down the road.

Mucous:
For a lot of children, and adults allergic to dairy foods, milk increases mucous production and can cause sinus problems, recurring sore throats and coughs, bronchitis, asthma, runny noses, and ear infections. It has also been linked to iron deficiency (anaemia) in babies and children. The reason milk causes excess mucous is that it contains proteins foreign to the human body. The immune system reacts by producing more and more mucous to try to combat the intruder. A man with over 40 years experience studying the effects of dairy on humans, Dr. William Ellis, has found that the mucous overflow brought on by milk can form a hard coating on the inside of the intestines, making it harder for nutrients in food to get through, which in turn will cause many more health problems.

Short summary for lazy bastards/ADD sufferers:
Drink milk if you want to put yourself at risk of stroke, iron deficiency, allergies, cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, and ovaries, asthma, heart disease, the common cold, acne, childhood illnesses such as runny noses, constipation, colic, and ear infections, and the immensely enjoyable digestive problems of gas, cramps and diarrhoea. Basically, everything that can’t be blamed on capitalism, can be blamed on milk. Which can probably be blamed on capitalism.