A recent study of more than 350,000 people found vegans who drank plant-based milk were at a higher risk of depression than people who drank cow-based milk.
Last month, Chinese researchers published their findings in the Frontiers of Nutrition journal based on 357,568 individuals. Data was collected from the U.K. Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database based in the United Kingdom. After controlling for age, health, and income, the study concluded drinkers of non-dairy milks faced a 14 percent increased risk of developing depression. People who drink semi-skimmed milk, on the other hand, were 12 percent less likely to suffer depression, and 10 percent less likely to report anxiety. Full cream milk consumption was associated with a 16 percent drop in anxiety risk.
“Milk is a rich source of nutrients such as lactose, lipids, protein, and minerals, which are essential for maintaining human health,” the authors wrote, highlighting the importance of calcium and the production of serotonin in particular. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter critical for mood regulation and is targeted by many medications prescribed for mental disorders. “Milk is a good source of calcium that is easily assimilated by the body,” the authors explained.
The results were released in early December as Washington braces for major reforms to the American food system proposed by Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr., who has pledged to crack down on federal regulations against raw milk. While the authors of December’s study did not say whether raw milk was included in their analysis, they did not say whether raw milk was excluded from the self-reported data. The United Kingdom was the world’s second largest producer of raw milk in 2019, and consumers are free to purchase raw milk for drinking in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
A November YouGov survey of more than 1,000 adults interviewed online found that while most Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of Kennedy’s planned reforms for the food and pharmaceutical industries, participants remained most skeptical of lifting federal restrictions on raw milk. Just 36 percent of those surveyed said they either “somewhat support” or “strongly support” the proposal.
Lawmakers will also likely soon be debating whether to allow school lunch programs to include whole milk on the menu after Democrats killed legislation to do so in December 2023. Then-Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee, cited the incumbent dietary guidelines endorsing limits on saturated fats as her reason to block the “Whole Milk For Healthy Kids Act” which passed the Republican-controlled House 330 to 99.
“Dairy is a very important part of a balanced meal, but one thing is clear,” Stabenow said, “and that is that school meal standards, currently based on dietary science, should continue to be based on dietary guidelines, not based on which individual food products that we support.”
While the latest generation of dietary guidelines maintain caps on saturated fats, Kennedy has also been critical of the industry-induced stigma associated with saturated fat and will likely add the guidelines to his platter of reforms if confirmed in the new administration. A recent paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found the science to support the incumbent dietary guidelines for 2020 to 2025 could not be reproduced.
