The Milk-Industrial Complex: Why You Don't Need to Drink Milk
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters link it as a concise evidence-based rebuttal to common beliefs about milk's health benefits.
What it is
A short Healthcare Triage episode by Aaron Carroll arguing that milk gets an undeserved pass in efforts to improve diets. It examines claims about calcium and bone strength and concludes you don't need to drink milk.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2014 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec JshWright · 2018-07 · on “Seriously, Juice Is Not Healthy”
And basically no evidence that it's good for you. Here's a great video on the topic from one of the co-authors of this article: [this video]
Recommends therealdrag0 · 2014-11 · on “Milk Might Not Be Doing You Much Good”
Healthcare Triage has a video on milk being not particularly healthy or even beneficial in ways people think: [this video]
Recommends justncase80 · 2016-01 · on “You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition”
A gallon per week by yourself, or for a household? Milk isn't inherently bad but the things you need to know are: A) Consuming it doesn't really affect your calcium levels. B) Its basically just another sugary drink. C) Excessive amounts of it can cause anemia. D) Don't give much of it to small children due to reason C. Here are some more details: [this video]
Recommends pinkmuffinere · 2025-02 · on “Jane Street's Figgie card game”
I don’t think they’re quite as bad as soda, but I do think they’re fairly close. I think this video is what first convinced me (been a long time since I watched, sorry if I’m wrong about small details): [this video]
Cites lkbm · 2015-04 · on “Simple Rules for Healthy Eating”
It's definitely not settled science that you should never eat grains. Yes, some experts say you shouldn't, but if you're rejecting one expert because he disagrees with two others, it's definitely not sufficient to say it's "based on science". As for dairy, while he mentioned using butter without paranoia about fat, he didn't seem to advocate for dairy. Eating dairy might be bad, but "don't eat dairy" is bad (or ineffective) advice because _people won't follow it_. Don't make perfect the enemy of better. (If it makes you feel any better about him, Dr. Carroll regularly rails against "the milk industrial complex"[0][1][2][3].) [0] [LINK] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [this video]