The FDA has been officially petitioned to place cancer and health warnings on cheese products by a large group of renown doctors. Studies have linked dairy consumption with a higher risk of breast cancer, and now the Physicians Committee is taking a stand.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Physicians Committee wasted no time in getting their message out from the start:
“We want women to be aware that dairy cheese could put them at risk of dying from breast cancer.”
They submitted the petition on Oct. 3, 2019 and are currently awaiting review by the FDA (the full petition can be found at the end of this article).[1] The Physicians Committee is a non-profit group dedicated to promoting dietary and lifestyle recommendations that are founded on science. The organization's website states that their committee is backed by the expertise of more than 12,000 physicians and 175,000 members across the United States and around the world.
THE DAIRY DEBATE
Dairy milk is the ideal food choice for a growing calf. It is loaded with the minerals, macronutrients and hormones that are designed to transform a 80-90 lb newborn calf into a stunning 500 lb calf by the time it is ready to be weaned. According to On Pasture, this rapid growth of about two pounds per day happens in only six and a half months.[2] The problem for human nutrition is that one of the milk hormones found in trace amounts is estrogen, and when milk is concentrated into cheese, the estrogen is also more concentrated. Even though these are trace amounts, they appear to be biologically active in humans, increasing breast cancer mortality.
A 2017 study funded by the National Cancer Institute that compared the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer and found that those who consumed the most American, cheddar, and cream cheeses had a 53 percent increased risk for breast cancer.[3]
The Life After Breast Cancer Epidemiology study found that, among women previously diagnosed with breast cancer, those consuming one or more servings of high-fat dairy products (e.g., cheese, ice cream, whole milk) daily had a 49 percent higher breast cancer mortality, compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily.[4]
According to the Centers for Disease Control, breast cancer is among the most common causes of death in women.[5] In 2016, the latest year for which incidence data are available, 245,299 new cases of female breast cancer were reported, and 41,487 women died of breast cancer in the United States.
HINDSIGHT IS 20/20: TOBACCO LABELLING
One huge advantage the Physicians Committee has is the benefit of hindsight. The tobacco industry was largely unregulated until health concerns and scientific data began emerging that showed negative health correlations with tobacco use. However, the first attempts at labeling tobacco were a flop.
Legislation started to pass as the early 1960s to require fine print labeling of each cigarette package with statements like “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health”, but these statements were reported by the FTC to have little effect on public spending habits. As a result, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act of 1984 (Public Law 98–474), which required four specific health warnings on all cigarette packages and advertisements:
• SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.
• SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.
• SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, and Low Birth Weight.
• SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.
It was these statements that made a shift in how consumers viewed tobacco. Interestingly enough, this is the same approach that the Physicians Committee is now taking.
Rather than general statements about cheese consumption and human health, they are shifting the FDA’s focus to breast cancer mortality first with other scientifically-backed labelling likely to follow if this first petition is successful.
[1] For more information and to read the full petition that has been filed by the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, click here: https://p.widencdn.net/9unq1q/2019-10-03-Physicians-Committee-for-Responsible-Medicine-FDA-Petition-Breast-Cancer-and-Cheese-FINAL
[2] https://onpasture.com/2017/07/10/can-i-wean-90-day-old-calves-that-weigh-300-pounds/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5998914/