Ginger writes:I have seen many children with calcium and Vitamin D
deficiencies and even rickets who do not drink enough (or any) milk, or
cheese, yogurt, or ice cream.

Ginger, I'm really glad to have you on the list, so I can pick your brain!
You say that you see many children with calcium and Vitamin D deficiencies
and rickets.  Can you tell us what population this is?  Are we talking a
general mix of ethnicities and socio-economic statuses, or specific groups?
Are you in the far northern US?  Or do you work in an area where a lot of
children never get outside much?  At what age do you see these problems?
Are we talking toddlers or older kids?  And are most of them of European
ancestry, who are able to digest lactose as older children, or are many of
them of Native American, African and Asian ancestry and therefore can't make
much use of dairy products after middle childhood?

What do you recommend to parents when you see kids with problems?  If the
parents were vegans, what would you recommend?  If the parents say that
cow's milk products make their kids sick, what would you recommend?

You also write: "The American Dietetic Association includes dairy products
in the food guide pyramid for a reason"

I try not to be *too* cynical about these issues, but I suspect the reason
the ADA includes dairy products is mostly because the ADA gets millions of
dollars of support from the dairy industry associations.  Certainly it was
the dairy industry that lobbied for all school children to be *required* to
take milk on their lunch trays in the cafeteria, even if they toss the milk
directly into the garbage can as they exit the line, because they are
lactose intolerant.  Certainly it was the dairy industry that lobbied the
FDA to limit the use of the word *milk* itself to mean only what comes out
of cow's udders, so that soy 'milk' and cashew 'milk' etc. could not be
advertised as milk.  Thank heavens the FDA turned them down.  I don't think
anyone here thinks that soy milk is nutritionally equivalent to cows' milk
-- it can used to make breakfast cereal wet, and it does have plenty of
protein.

As someone who LOVES cow's milk based dairy products, but nonetheless thinks
they are not healthy for humans, I really think we need to work on finding
cheap, easily available alternatives.  Many many older children and adults
in the US cannot digest lactose, and high-protein diets can rob the body of
calcium.  Thus, it makes more sense to me to find alternative sources for
calcium that are lower in protein than dairy products, and to get vitamin D
from exposure to sunlight.

I'd appreciate more input from you on these important issues.

Kathy Dettwyler
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