PETA Is Spreading Rumors That Milk Causes Autism, And They’re Being Assholes About It
PETA, a terrorist organization to all meat eaters out there, has begun spread false rumors about milk causing autism in babies.
PETA, a terrorist organization to all meat eaters out there, has begun spread false rumors about milk causing autism in babies. They’ve started to push out a campaign that parodies the now-famous “Got Milk?” advertisements that we’ve all grown to love. PETA’s version reads, “Got Autism?” and there’s a picture of a “frowning” bowl of cereal – the cheerios are arranged to make a frowny face in the milk. Very clever! PETA also cites an article published in 2002 by a group of Norwegian scientists.
The autism article described 20 children with well-characterized autism, 10 of whom went on a gluten- and casein (the protein in cow’s milk)-free diet and 10 of whom went about their business as usual. At the end of a year, the two groups were retested and the group on the restricted diet appeared to have improved, as evidenced by demonstrating fewer traits of autism, more than the kids on no particular diet. Other aspects of their autism, including language skills, were unchanged.
This study was one of many by the same research group that presents a thoughtful, not-nutty, biologically plausible way to link sensitivity to some ingested foods with a wide variety of symptoms. Lots of kids have food allergies; even more kids have parents who think they have food allergies…
…The topic of diet, specifically as it relates to gluten, casein, and autism, was the subject of a study released in the Journal of Child Neurology this April. After a thorough review, the authors recommended trying the dietary intervention only in children who exhibited other, more standard evidence of food sensitivity and allergy.
So PETA is preying people’s ignorance — they’re betting that you won’t read that article and thoughtlessly believe their propaganda for brevity’s sake. There is no definitive proof that milk causes autism, and that’s basically what the crux of this argument. They’re presenting pseudo-science as fact and that’s what’s wrong with their marketing campaign. 
h/t The Daily Beast
