Milk and increase in height - myth?

The reasons why it's excluded from this diet
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spring
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Milk and increase in height - myth?

Post by spring »

I live and work in Korea. I work for a public elementary school. The children are given a carton of milk a day with their lunch, and so are the teachers actually.

I've heard from many people that because more people in Korea are drinking milk they are getting taller. It's true people are getting taller as the younger generation are much taller than say people in their 50s.

Now there are a lot of misconceptions thrown about by lay people but this one I hear a lot of, and not just from Korean people but also from others.

I doubt there is a correlation myself unless there are growth hormones in milk or something similar which may increase height, but if that is the case, then this is not really natural nor a good way to increase height.

I think people make a false cause and effect connection. They know dairy products are consumed a lot in the west and westerners are taller than East Asians so they assume that drinking milk makes one taller.

However according to Wai's diet, your protein needs are actually not as great as most people think. You can get all your daily protein from fruit and animal foods in this diet and the quantity of animal foods is not very much compared to the amount people eat on a SAD diet.

And with typical Korean meals, even without the consumption of dairy, there is plenty of protein - in the form of rice, meat, fish etc. - more than the daily requirement needs.

I am just annoyed by people stating as if they know for a fact that milk consumption is the cause of the increased height of Koreans.

I think the increased height may be due to better nutrition overall and less physical stresses on children as they grow up and so they can grow to their full potential height. There is hardly any starvation in this country like there used to be some decades ago. And also less disease that affect children and reduce growth. And it's also due to complex evolutionary factors as well maybe - people are possibly choosing taller mates or taller people are mating more than shorter people.

I suspect that the belief in this milk-growth connection drives the government to have a policy of supplying all the schools with milk for every kid. It's not only in Korea of course - I remember drinking milk as a kid in my public school in Australia - but milk is not really a natural part of the diet of the Koreans. Also there is a high incidence of lactose intolerance in Asians and the increased milk drinking is bound to cause discomfort in many children who do not absorb milk proteins very well.

And of course there is a heap of unhealthy substances in milk as well such as opioids.

But do to this ignorance about milk in the government and the general population, milk is being foisted on these kids and starting them on a bad path of drinking milk out of habit or because they think it's good for them, and resulting in all likelihood in a host of pathology.

The diet is not that great here - for lunch, it's spicy meat or fish, miso soup, rice, pickled veggies but they really don't need to make it worse with the addition of milk.

I am just really angry that the Korean people look to the west for guidance in everything and tend to believe everything western is superior and this extends to the dairy consumption of westerners.

I don't bother to correct people's misconceptions about milk; there is just too much of that ignorance around here for me to bother. Also the culture here is such that even if you made a convincing and authoritative-sounding argument, they would feel uncomfortable because they've been told these things by their parents and other people they look up to and it seems kind of disrespectful to contradict the wisdom of so many of these people. You are shattering too many of their misconceptions and it's too overwhelming for them to adjust to.

A lot of things here are believed not because they've been proven by science but because they're old wives tales. Such things like eating egg yolks improves one's singing voice or that you can die from sleeping in a room where the fan is turned all night or eating cat improves the flexibility of one's joints.

They probably don't think the "drinking milk is good for you" myth falls into this category of superstitions however.

Anyway, I am just really annoyed by the amount of hogwash that's thrown about here that relates to health matters. It's irritating that people act as if they know everything and these are people who've never done a moment's research in their lives and are just passing on what they've heard from other people.

It's like this Korean teacher I work with who kept telling me to put a scarf around my throat or somehow keep my throat warm because doing that will help one overcome a sore throat or a cough or a cold - I had a cold at that time and was speaking with a hoarse voice.

This kind of thing makes me secretly annoyed.

And I would be a rich person if I was given a dollar for every time someone told me that the change in the weather - from hot to cold or vice versa - causes one to catch a cold.

I don't want to sound like an elitist but my threshold of tolerance for people making idiotic statements about health issues is very low these days. Especially when I hear it said to me by 20 people: people in this culture are very homogenous in many ways including the way they think and so this tends to magnify things. I am probably being unfair to the Korean people because this milk and growth belief is probably as prevalent in the west and it's just that increased height of the population is not such a big issue in the west as it is in Korea.

Could I be wrong though? Does milk-drinking cause generational increases in height?
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RRM
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Re: Milk and increase in height - myth?

Post by RRM »

spring wrote:I've heard from many people that because more people in Korea are drinking milk they are getting taller. It's true people are getting taller as the younger generation are much taller than say people in their 50s.
Thats true in every country where the standard of living has increased dramatically.
I doubt there is a correlation myself unless there are growth hormones in milk or something similar which may increase height,
Actually, there is a great variety of growth hormones and growth factors present in milk...
check this out:
http://www.youngerthanyourage.com/13/cancer2.htm
They are contained in the mother'smilk to stimulate growth of the suckling.
I think the increased height may be due to better nutrition overall and less physical stresses on children as they grow up and so they can grow to their full potential height.
Yes, i think so too.
Archeological findings have shown us that already 1.6 million years ago there were people with an average height of approximately 1.80 meters.
There is hardly any starvation in this country like there used to be some decades ago. And also less disease that affect children and reduce growth.
Exactly
I am just really angry that the Korean people look to the west for guidance in everything and tend to believe everything western is superior and this extends to the dairy consumption of westerners.
Indeed. As if our health is so good here in the west.
Could I be wrong though? Does milk-drinking cause generational increases in height?
My money is on the better living conditions, particularly as there are people in africa that are on the average very tall, and who do not drink milk. And because of archeological findings.
sunpower9
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Re: Milk and increase in height - myth?

Post by sunpower9 »

whats with dairy products in munch food ? if we can get all our calcium requirements from fruit and some animal food why dairy ? what makes us tall ? is it calcium ? is it the amino acids ? what is it ? how do we all grow tall ? whats the science behind tallness ? my uncles are well around 6 feet ! they had a lot of fruits and a lot of dairy growing up ? so which one is it ;)
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Oscar
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Re: Milk and increase in height - myth?

Post by Oscar »

You need lots of energy, and possibly growth factors in milk (products) are helping too, so I'd say both. ;)
overkees
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Re: Milk and increase in height - myth?

Post by overkees »

Drinking mother's milk till puberty ends will do the trick ^L^
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