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In the latest (posthumous) edition of Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care, the famous pediatrician attacks meat and milk arguing that, "children can get plenty of protein and iron from vegetables, beans and other plant foods that avoid the fat and cholesterol that are in animal products." Meanwhile a newly formed group called the AntiDairy Coalition made its debut in June decrying "the health and nutritional risks of consuming dairy products."
What’s going on here? I tend to agree with one of Spock’s friends, pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, who described Spock’s recommendations as "absolutely insane." Much the same applies to the AntiDairy Coalition.
Lets tackle Spock first. According to Spock’s co-author, Steven J. Parker (who also believes Spock’s dietary advice is too extreme), the famous pediatrician believed his conversion to vegetarianism helped extend his life. But Spock didn’t become a vegetarian until he was 87 years old. Clearly his meat and dairy eating did not interfere with his longevity in any meaningful way.
Second, as Brazelton told the New York Times, "Meat is an excellent source of the iron and protein children need, and to take away milk from children, I think that’s really dangerous. Milk is needed for calcium and vitamin D."
As junk science debunker Steve Milloy noted, after becoming a vegetarian Spock lost 50 pounds (a phenomenon which most vegetarians claim to be a beneficial result from a vegetarian diet), but for children the most important dietary need is ensuring steady weight gain.
Besides, ever try to get a toddler to eat kale?
As for the AntiDairy Coalition, this group merely repeated the same old unsubstantiated conjectures about milk that have become articles of faith among animal rights activists.
For example, take the AntiDairy Coalition’s claims about milk’s ability to cause allergies. According to the Coalition, since milk is full of protein and proteins can trigger allergies, the large increase in asthma over the last 20 years or so must be caused by protein in milk. Can someone say post hoc?
Similarly the Coalition notes that women in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden both a) consume lots of milk and b) have high rates of breast cancer. Milk consumption, therefore, must cause breast cancer. Again, this is classic post hoc reasoning that is unsupported by any evidence. Readers should want and expect the ADC to present serious epidemiological studies documenting these effect.
Certainly a diet excessively high in dairy products may be harmful and some people do suffer from lactose intolerance. In its attempts at scare mongering, however, the ADC vastly exaggerates the problem -- moderate milk and dairy consumption can be part of a healthy lifestyle.