More than a decade ago, when the Indian government was putting green and red dots on vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, the milk industry, and hundreds of literate people, insisted that milk was vegetarian (even though it comes from an animal) and milk products should be listed with a green dot. We caved in.

Even people with a plant-based diet will often admit that cheese is their weakness. Cheese is a high-calorie product loaded with fat, sodium, and cholesterol. Typical cheeses are 70 percent fat. And the type of fat they contain is mainly saturated (“bad”) fat, which increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Cheese is the number-one source of saturated fat in the Western diet. About one-third of adults, and 12.5 million children and adolescents, are obese in the US. Indians, with a largely vegetarian diet and a penchant for healthy meals at home, should not have had to face such problems, but they have also joined the ranks of obese nations. And obesity is a major cause of death through heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. In all three of these diseases, they rank near the top.

One-fourth of an average, 12-inch, cheese pizza contains nearly 13 grams of fat, including 6 grams of saturated fat and 27 milligrams of cholesterol. An ounce of cheese contains 9 grams of fat, including 6 grams of saturated fat.

Rational addiction

Now, many years later, I learn why people like milk products. Not because it is necessary for you, or because Krishna drank it (which he didn’t) but because it is an opiate and you can get addicted to it. In 1981, Eli Hazum, and his colleagues at Wellcome Research Laboratories, reported traces of the chemical morphine, an addictive opiate, in milk. When milk digests, it produces mild opiates called casomorphins, a protein fragment derived from Casein, a milk protein. The distinguishing characteristic of casomorphins is that they have an opioid effect. Opioids are among the world’s oldest known drugs well known for their ability to produce a feeling of well-being, calm, intense feelings of pleasure, followed by a drowsy feeling. So you can actually get addicted to milk products.

Concentrated milk products, like cheese, ice cream, and milk chocolate contain concentrated quantities of these addictive narcotics so the pleasure effect is greater. (Incidentally, Casein is sometimes even added to certain dairy-free and vegan cheeses.) That is why, for instance, many people take a glass of milk at night, and why it is given to bridegrooms on the wedding night in India!

Why would mammals evolve to have opioids in their milk? Dr Neal Bernard, founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explains, “It appears that the opiates from mother’s milk produce a calming effect on the infant and, in fact, may be responsible for a good measure of the mother-infant bond. Psychological bonds always have a physical underpinning. Like it or not, mother’s milk has a drug-like effect on the baby’s brain that ensures that the baby will bond with the mother so that she can continue to nurse and baby receives all the nutrients. Like heroin or codeine, casomorphins have slow intestinal movements and a antidiarrheal effect. The opiate effect may be why adults often find that cheese can be constipating, just as opiate painkillers are.”

The European Food Safety Agency,  in response to a number of studies and public health concern, did a scientific literature review in 2009 to assess  how addicting casomorphins are, and whether or not enough of the casomorphins cross the intestinal wall and get into the blood stream and ultimately cross the blood-brain barrier, etc. And if casomorphins play a role in autism etc. They are still studying the matter.

Harmful effects

However, this much we know: different people react differently to opioid drugs and different amounts affect people differently. Further, it is generally accepted that binging on drugs on a daily basis is bad for us, even in sufficiently small quantities. Florida scientist, Dr Robert Cade, has identified casomorphin as the probable cause of attention deficit disorder. Dr Cade found Beta-casomorphin-7 in high concentrations in the blood and urine of patients with either schizophrenia or autism. Studies by Dr Karl Riechelt, in Norway, indicate a very strong association between autistic behaviour, celiac disease, schizophrenia and ingestion of dairy.

One research paper, from the University of Illinois, states, “Casomorphins possess opioid activity. The term, opioid, refers to morphine-like effects which include signs of sedation, tolerance, sleep induction, and depression.”

A recent case report entitled “Cow’s Milk-Induced Infant Apnea With Increased Serum Content Of Bovine Beta Casomorphin 5”, published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition reaveals a case of a breast-fed infant with recurrent apnea episodes—when a baby stops breathing—which have always been preceded by his mother’s consumption of fresh cow’s milk.” Lab tests revealed a high level of casomorphin in the child’s blood, leading researchers to speculate that it was the “opioid activity that may have a depressive effect on the respiratory center in the central nervous system and induce a phenomenon called milk apnea.”

“The aim of the present report,” the paper concludes, “is to draw researchers’ attention to the possibility of occurrence of a systemic reaction with an apnea seizure on the infant’s exposure to the proteins in cow’s milk. We are convinced that such a clinical situation occurs rarely; however, it is accompanied by a real threat to the infant’s life that can be avoided when applying a simple and not costly dietetic intervention…a dairy-free diet”. As many as 1 in 10 infants, with recurrent apneic episodes, cannot be saved and die of sudden infant death syndrome (also known as crib death). One in every two thousand babies dies this way. The researchers conclude: “Penetration of beta-casomorphins into the infant’s immature central nervous system may inhibit the respiratory center in the brainstem leading to abnormal ventilatory responses, hypercapnia [too much carbon dioxide], hypoxia [not enough oxygen], apnea, and death.”

Casomorphins are also accused of participating in the cause of other conditions, including type I diabetes, postpartum psychosis, circulatory disorders, food allergies, and autism.

 “In fact, gluten and dairy do act as drugs for many people” says immunologist and researcher Aristo Vojdani, PhD, MSc, MT, the CEO of Immunosciences Lab, Inc. in Beverly Hills, California. “Just as with the heroin or pain-pill addict, going off gluten or casein immediately can produce withdrawal symptoms”. Withdrawal symptoms include anger and depression.

By the way, as Casein breaks down in the stomach, it also releases histamines. Histamine is a substance that plays a major role in many allergic reactions, dilating blood vessels and making their walls abnormally permeable. Histamines are released when foreign allergens are present (cold medicines, for instance, have antihistamines), which is also why 70 percent of the world’s population is allergic to dairy products.

Nature’s way is to make nursing pleasurable. That same mechanism is what also makes weaning so difficult. So many adults have never been weaned from the addictive effects of milk. Are you a drug addict?

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