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More on Milk By MARK BITTMAN Mark Bittman on food and all things related. TAGS: DAIRY, DIETS, MILK Not surprisingly, experiences like mine with dairy, outlined in my column of two weeks ago, are more common than unusual, at least according to the roughly 1,300 comments and e-mails we received since then. In them, people outlined their experiences with dairy and health problems as varied as heartburn, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, eczema, acne, hives, asthma ("When I gave up dairy, my asthma went away completely"), gall bladder issues, body aches, ear infections, colic, "seasonal allergies," rhinitis, chronic sinus infections and more. (One writer mentioned an absence of canker sores after cutting dairy; I realized I hadn't had a canker sore - which I've gotten an average of once a month my whole life - in four months. Something else to think about.) Although lactose intolerance and its generalized digestive tract problems are well documented, and milk allergies are thought to affect perhaps 1 percent of the American population, the links between milk (or dairy) and such a broad range of ailments has not been well studied, at least by the medical establishment. RELATED Mark Bittman: Got Milk? You Don't Need It Yet if you speak with people who've had these kinds of reactive problems, it would appear that the medical establishment is among the last places you'd want to turn for advice. Nearly everyone who complained of heartburn, for example, later resolved by eliminating dairy, had a story of a doctor (usually a gastroenterologist) prescribing a proton pump inhibitor, or P.P.I., a drug (among the most prescribed in the United States) that blocks the production of acid in the stomach. But - like statins - P.P.I.s don't address underlying problems, nor are they "cures." They address only the symptom, not its cause, and they are only effective while the user takes them. Thus in the last few days I'

Thanks to the 562 people who have signed the petition to FARM to ban H$U$ from the (so-called) "animal rights" conference. Please read the thoughtful comments. As expected, Paul Shapiro and the well-financed corporate butchers of H$U$ delivered a slick and sleazy presentation that bemoaned animal eating, a position not normally offered elsewhere, bemoaned pig confinement, while having a mass murderer of pigs employed as a director, and while conducting experiments on wild horses with drugs made from pig eggs, and bemoaning battery cages for chickens while promoting the egg industry's agenda for battery cages for chickens. Down with H$U$, the meat industry's self-appointed voice for "animal rights"!!! TAKE BACK THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FROM THE BUTCHERS OF H$U$!!! No one elected Wayne Pacelle and H$U$ to be a voice for animals or animal rights activists!!! Hey Hey Ho Ho, H$U$ has got to go!!! http://www.change.org/petitions/farm-farm-animal-rights-movement-ar-2012-ban-hsus-from-the-2012-animal-rights-conference