188 THE CHINA STUDYobvious reasons, this is one of the most contentious issues in nutrition
today.
One of the more remarkable reports on this cow's milk effect was
published over a decade ago, in 1992, in the New England Journal of
Medicine.^12 The researchers, from Finland, obtained blood from Type
1 diabetic children, aged four to twelve years. Then they measured the
levels of antibodies that had formed in the blood against an incomplete-
ly digested protein of cow's milk called bovine serum albumin (BSA).
They did the same process with non-diabetic children and compared
the two groups (remember, an antibody is the mirror image, or "mold,"
of a foreign antigen). Children who had antibodies to cow's milk protein
must have previously consumed cow's milk. It also means that undi-
gested protein fragments of the cow's milk proteins had to have entered
the infant's circulation in order to cause the formation of antibodies in
the first place.
The researchers discovered something truly remarkable. Of the 142
diabetic children measured, every Single one had antibody levels higher
than 3.55. Of the seventy-nine normal children measured, every single
one had antibody levels less than 3.55.
There is absolutely no overlap between antibodies of healthy and
diabetic children. All of the diabetic children had levels of cow's milk
antibodies that were higher than those of all of the non-diabetic chil-
dren. This implies two things: children with more antibodies consumed
more cow's milk, and second, increased antibodies may cause Type 1
diabetes.
These results sent shock waves through the research community. It
was the complete separation of antibody responses that made this study
so remarkable. This study,12 and others even earlier,15-17 initiated an ava-
lanche of additional studies over the next several years that continue to
this day. 13. 18. 19
Several studies have since investigated this effect of cow's milk on
BSA antibody levels. All but one showed that cow's milk increases BSA
antibodies in Type 1 diabetic children,18 although the responses were
quite variable in their magnitude.
Over the past decade, scientists have investigated far more than
just the BSA antibodies, and a more complete picture is coming into
view. Very briefly, it goes something like this^13 , 19: infants or very young
children of a certain genetic background,2o,21 who are weaned from the
breast too early22 onto cow's milk and who, perhaps, become infected