A diet of milk could bring twins
Eating dairy seems to up the chance of having multiple births.
Eating milk and other dairy products could increase a woman's chance of having twins, a US doctor is proposing, based on a study of vegan women.
Read the story here.
Comments
My first thought when I saw the headline, before I read the article, was to wonder if the hormones in dairy foods were, at least in part, responsible for increased incidence of twins. Having learned about some of the other factors (aside from "genetics"), e.g., older age, heavier weights, folic acid), I still think the addition of growth hormones to the feed of dairy cows is of primary importance in this phenomenon.
Posted by: Maggie Paquet | May 22, 2006 06:07 PM
I have heard stories of cow hormones affecting human metabolism before, for example Danby 2005 "Acne and milk, the diet myth and beyond". However, I have my doubts that the hormones can actually reach the bloodstream intact and indeed remain active in the bloodstream. Surely, dairy treatment and subsequent digestion would at least inactivate the hormone? Failing that the protein is still too large to be absorbed directly through the intestinal wall.
Having said that, I am intrigued by the 5 fold increase of twins in vegetarians vs vegans and clearly there is some sort of mechanism and this requires more research, although I do not believe it will be as dramatic as exogenous hormones.
Posted by: Stephen Edwards | May 24, 2006 08:34 AM
While it isn't clear that the hormones themselves get absorbed, they do cause cows to secrete IGF-1 which is not destroyed during human digestion and is absorbed through the intestinal wall, and interferes with hormones.
Posted by: M. di Mare | November 14, 2007 06:26 PM