Who knew that milk is racist? That is the conclusion of Samantha Diaz, a writer at the Daily 49er, the student newspaper at California State University. Diaz suggests that just about everything about America has racist roots, so the government’s dietary guidelines that people should include a certain amount of milk in their diet must also be racist. Curiously, Diaz does not mention that milk is white. (Does that mean chocolate milk is not racist?)
She suggests that African Americans do not need to consume as much milk as white because they have a lower incidence of osteoporosis.
Diaz bases that conclusion on an article in that prestigious scientific journal, Mother Jones (that is sarcasm, by the way, for anyone who does not get it.)
However, when one turns to an actual scientific journal, the Journal of Nutrition, a different story emerges. To be sure African Americans do have a lower incidence of osteoporosis. However, on the average, they produce far less Vitamin D than is considered healthy. Milk happens to be an excellent source of Vitamin D, though it can also be taken in supplement form.
Besides osteoporosis, Vitamin D mitigates against a host of other chronic diseases, including cardiovascular ailments, cancer, diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease. African Americans can even benefit, contrary to what Diaz states, from better bone health.
Drinking milk can provide a healthy intake of Vitamin D, as well as calcium, which everyone can use, black or white.
Ms. Diaz is purveying junk science to advance a bizarre agenda about racist dairy products. In so doing she is potentially harming people by suggesting that they should not drink milk based on their skin color.
If one were to determine what is more racist, the government advising people to drink milk as part of a healthy diet or a college student offering junk diet advice based on media tropes and not on sound science.
Perhaps the student writer, before writing a rambling article that she thinks is clever but is actually insane should do her research with sources other than movies, internet live feeds and far left-wing magazines.
