喝牛奶？你并不需要它

Drinking milk is as American as Mom and

apple pie. Until not long ago， Americans were encouraged not only by the 1)lobbying group called the American Dairy Association but by parents， doctors and teachers to drink four 8-ounce glasses of milk， “nature’s perfect food，” every day. That’s two pounds! We don’t consume two pounds a day of anything else; even our per capita soda consumption is“only” a pound a day.

Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is a mere three cups daily—still 1? pounds by weight—for every man， woman and child over age 9. This in a country where as many as 50 million people are 2)lactose intolerant， including 90 percent of all Asian-Americans and 75 percent of all African-Americans， Mexican-Americans and Jews. The myplate.gov site helpfully suggests that those people drink lactose-free beverages. (To its credit， it now counts soy milk as “dairy.”)

There’s no mention of water， which is truly nature’s perfect beverage; the site simply encourages us to switch to low-fat milk. But， says Neal Barnard， president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine， “Sugar—in the form of lactose—contributes about 55 percent of 3)skim milk’s calories， giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda.”

牛奶對(duì)于美國(guó)人來說就像媽媽對(duì)蘋果派的情結(jié)。直到不久前，名為美國(guó)乳制品業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)的游說團(tuán)體，還有家長(zhǎng)、醫(yī)生和老師，都鼓勵(lì)美國(guó)人每天喝上四杯“大自然的完美食物”——牛奶。一杯八盎司，足足兩磅！別的東西我們不會(huì)如此每天吃上個(gè)兩磅，就連美國(guó)人的日均消耗汽水量也“只有”一磅而已。

如今，農(nóng)業(yè)部對(duì)成年人及九歲以上的兒童乳制品攝入量的建議僅僅是一天三杯——還是有1.5磅重。這是在一個(gè)有多達(dá)將近五千萬(wàn)人患有乳糖不耐受癥的國(guó)家，其中包括90%的亞裔美國(guó)人和75%的非洲裔、墨西哥裔和猶太人。“myplate.gov”網(wǎng)站建議這類人群飲用無(wú)乳糖飲料。（歸功于此，豆?jié){現(xiàn)在也被劃入“乳制品”一類。）

沒人提及到水，這才是大自然饋贈(zèng)于我們的完美飲品。上面的網(wǎng)站只單單鼓勵(lì)人們?nèi)ズ鹊椭Ｄ獭Ｈ欢绹?guó)責(zé)任醫(yī)療醫(yī)師委員會(huì)的主席尼爾·巴納德稱，“脫脂牛奶所含熱量有55%是乳糖形式的糖分，那就是說，同等份量的脫脂牛奶跟汽水比較起來，所含的卡路里是一樣的。”

沒錯(cuò)，乳制品富含營(yíng)養(yǎng)，對(duì)于愛吃的人來說每天一至二份乳制品應(yīng)該是十分健康的。（值得留意的是，相對(duì)于液體牛奶，酸奶或乳酪形式的乳制品要好消化得多。）然而除了乳糖不耐受癥，還有一種牛奶過敏病癥——在美國(guó)，牛奶在最常見食物過敏原排行中位列第二，僅次于花生，據(jù)估計(jì)有130萬(wàn)名兒童受到這一癥狀的影響——那很可能造成致命的威脅。

還有其他一些不易分門別類的病癥，我就有其中一種。……