Skim Milk or Milk Scam?
by
Michael Applebaum, MD, JD, FCLM

So I am sitting at a wedding party many years ago.

The conversation turns from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to sundials.

Bob, my conversation partner, is a smart guy, despite being a lawyer. In fact, he hates lawyering.

He asks me, "Mike have you ever noticed on a sundial that for four, the numerals are IIII, not IV?"

I said I did and he asked me if I knew why? I did not know the answer.

So Bob tells me that there are two leading theories.

The first is that the god Jupiter fell into disfavor and that the first two letters of his name are "IV" (in Roman), so to diss him, four on the sundial was changed to IIII.

The second, he said, was that people were too stupid to figure out that IV came after III, so to make telling time easier, the sundial powers made IIII stand for four.

Some years later, I am talking to my best friend and I ask him what he thinks, disfavor or stupid?

He says, Mike, you can never go wrong betting on people's stupidity.

Well, here is some real stupid for your doomed-to-fail dieting pleasure.

Once more the public is being misled by its experts.

This time it is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Dietetic Association (ADA) and School Nutrition Association (SNA) in cahoots with the milk industry.

"To call attention to the fact that beverage choice is often overlooked in weight management, the nation's milk processors have teamed up with leading health organizations to encourage Americans to think about their drink. The campaign messages are supported by the American Dietetic Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the School Nutrition Association." (From http://www.2424milk.com/drinks_healthexpert.php)

Here is a milk industry ad. It was given to me by a friend. She said it was from "Fitness Magazine" and provided me the cover. The pages are in order. You will probably have to resize the images to make them readable (or go to http://www.2424milk.com/). If you cannot resize them to make them legible, here are links to ad pages one, two, three and four. There are no additional links to the magazine cover.

The AAP, ADA and SNA have joined in this latest ad campaign of the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign and the Milk Processor Education Program which states that by replacing 101 Calories of "carbonated cola" with 102 Calories of "lowfat milk," obese/overweight children will get "on track for a healthier weight."

This is untrue.

Overweight and obesity are caused by caloric imbalance - too many in, too few out.

Substituting one Calorie for another is not the solution. In fact, the campaign recommends that teen girls take in even more Calories as milk than they currently consume as "sweetened beverages."

The pediatricians, dietitians and school nutritionists should know better. That they do not, suggests profound ignorance on their parts and/or the possibility of payola. (Note the plug for pediatricians who are AAP members on page 2 of the ad.)

Again, it is the experts that are killing us and our children with their bad diet advice. 

How stupid are they?

Udderly.

More reasons not to believe the experts when it comes to weight loss and fitness.