Here is another reason to tell kids to down that glass of milk – drinking milk could lower cancer risk if it is drunk consistently over an extended time say researchers of a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
According to the research team led by Associate professor Brain Cox, it is the calcium content in the milk that may be responsible for fighting the disease of bowel cancer.
Daily consumption of milk during childhood is seen to be connected to reduced bowel cancer rates, it was found.
The calcium can accumulate in the system and can help fight to kill cancer cells.
The study has added fuel to the larger controversy surrounding the school milk debate; a policy which countries such as England and New Zealand have discontinued since several decades.
This research supports a New Zealand study that found a similar link between regular milk consumption and lower cancer risk. Though New Zealand has some of the highest rates on cancer in the world, the part of the population that drank school milk daily from 1937 to 1967 were seen to have the lowest rates of bowel cancer.
Dr Judith Bryans, director of the Dairy Council, was quoted as having stressed the importance of school milk because of the nutrients’ content. A glass of milk has the same amount of calcium as a kilogram of spinach.
