Tilting At Sacred Cows

AS IF PARENTS DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY about, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is trying to make them feel guilty about giving milk to their children. At a press conference in Boston, a group of well-known physicians, including, of all people, Dr. Benjamin Spock, questioned the nutritional value of cow's milk and warned that it could actually prove harmful to some youngsters. "There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life," said Dr. Frank Oski, director of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University. "It was designed for calves, it was not designed for humans, and we should all stop drinking it today, this afternoon."

Can it be all that bad? To be sure, dairy products are not the only source of such vital nutrients as calcium and phosphorus. A cup of milk provides 300 mg of calcium, compared with 250 mg for a cup of cooked kale. And O.K., some children are allergic to milk and therefore must get their calcium and other minerals from other foods. But for most children over the age of one, cow's milk is a perfectly adequate source of several important nutrients.

"These recommendations by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are very irresponsible," says Dr. Ronald Kleinman, chair of the Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy agrees that breast milk or iron-fortified infant formula is best for the first 12 months of life. "But we don't say that babies are going to be harmed by cow's milk or that there is a danger to them," Kleinman notes. "Dairy products are not perfect foods, but they are concentrated with many of the forms of nutrients that children need to grow well."