Milking the Data

Here’s one for the milk industry to, well, milk: Drinking the white stuff could slash the odds that you’ll die of heart disease or stroke.

Scientists at the U.K.,s Reading and Cardiff universities say drinking a third of a pint of milk (about six ounces) a day will cut your risk by as much as a fifth. What’s the evidence? The scientists collated and compared results from 324 studies from around the world about milk consumption.

"Our review made it possible to assess whether increased milk consumption provides a survival advantage or not," Professor Ian Givens of Reading University said in a statement. "When the numbers of deaths from coronary heart disease, stroke and colo-rectal cancer were taken into account, there is strong evidence of an overall reduction in the risk of dying."

The news is particularly relevant in the U.K., where consumption of milk has fallen by about a third in the past 25 years. The country's schools used to dole out free milk to kids, but stopped in the 1970s.

Givens added that there is "convincing overall evidence that milk consumption is associated with an increase in survival in Western communities."

So go ahead — have a cow, man.

Photo by FiveRings, courtesy Commons Wikimedia.