On May 24, 2006, The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation will be launching White Lies, a campaign to raise awareness of the health risks of consuming dairy products. Why You Don't Need Dairy, an event to mark the beginning of the campaign, will feature Heather Mills McCartney as a speaker who will call for milk to be dropped from the nation's diet. At the same time, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, PCRM, a nonprofit health organization comprised of physicians and nutritionists, will be asking consumers to eliminate dairy from their diet for three weeks to see if they notice an improvement in health.

In three short weeks, PCRM is confident those who take the dairy-free challenge will notice immediate benefit in better digestion, easier breathing, better sleep, a lessening of headaches and for sufferers of acne or dermatitis -- clear skin. Health benefits that are not immediately noticeable but of significant value is a reduction in the risk of prostate and ovarian cancer. Research had proven the link between dairy and these two cancers. Because dairy products such as cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt all contain high levels of fat, it is reasonable to assume there might be a dairy link to other cancers as well.

The Nutrition Resource Centre of the Ontario Public Health Association, has published Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium, available as a PDF document online, with food suggestions that offer plenty of calcium.

The China Study, called the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" by The New York Times, is a compelling book that challenges much of the information we have been taught, and live by, when it comes to nutrition, good health and cancer prevention. The book is the culmination of 40 years in biomedical research by the author, T. Colin Campbell, PhD.

"We must know why misinformation dominates our society and why we are grossly mistaken in how we investigate diet and disease, how we promote health and how we treat disease. The real science has been buried beneath a clutter of irrelevant or even harmful information - junk science, fad diets and food industry propaganda."

According to Dr. Campbell, much of the common information we have been taught is wrong. The truth is, synthetic chemicals in the environment and in food are the main cause of cancer; inherited genes are the most important factors in your vulnerability to the ten leading causes of death; vitamins and supplements will give you long-term protection against disease; and controlling your intake of protein, carbs, fat, cholesterol and omega -3 will maintain long-term health.

Dr. Campbell is project director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project. The project, known as the China Study, is a 20-year study of nutrition and health. Because there is too much information in The China Study to discuss in a single blog post, on April 18th, I am going to start a weekly review of Dr. Campbell's book. This will give everyone, who is interested in joining the discussion, time to obtain a copy from the library, or purchase a copy of the book. Please indicate your interest as a comment following this, and I will contact you with details. For now, we will call this the TCB book club.

Dr. Campbell will join Heather Mills McCartney as featured speakers for The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation White Lies campaign launch.

In London, on May 24, 2006, The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation will be launching White Lies, a campaign to raise awareness of the health risks of consuming dairy products. Why You Don't Need Dairy, an event to mark the beginning of the campaign, will feature Heather Mills McCartney, wife of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, as a speaker who will call for milk to be dropped from the nation's diet.

Other speakers include Professor Jane Plant CBE, a geochemist, who fought breast cancer three times and went into remission after giving up dairy products. Plant is the author of the best selling books ‘Your Life in Your Hands - Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Breast Cancer’ and ‘Prostate Cancer.’

On March 1, the foundation called for a total ban on all imports of milk that contain raised levels of a growth hormone linked to cancer. Tests confirmed that milk from the US is being imported into the EU, dosed with the synthetic growth hormone, rBST, recombinant bovine somatotrophin. According to The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, one of the effects of this hormone in milk is to increase its levels of the naturally-occurring growth hormone IGF-1 as much as fivefold.  IGF-1 has been strongly linked to certain cancers.

In a related post, drinking milk can lead to ovarian cancer, we shared news on a Harvard School of Public Health report which indicated a 19 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer for some women who drink milk. Included in the post is the Nutrition Resource Centre of the Ontario Public Health Association, Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium, available as a PDF document online, with non-dairy food suggestions that offer plenty of calcium.

In 1956, Paul McCartney lost his mother, Mary, to breast cancer. His first wife, Linda McCartney, died on April 17, 1998 from breast cancer.