I was perusing Youtube this morning when I came across a video by a Youtuber with the user name Freelee the Banana Girl. In it, she mentions several statements about dairy consumption including that dairy product consumption causes autism and cancer. As a person with Asperger's syndrome and lactose intolerance, I decided to learn where this woman got her information (she cited no sources in her video) and expand my knowledge on this.
First off, a perusal of Google Scholar (a site which I recommend if you are looking at scientific studies) shows no articles even correlating dairy to autism, let alone causation. I did, however, find one article which suggests that there is a protein in camel's milk which could be used to treat symptoms associated with autism. I also discovered another paper which suggests that there is no connection whatsoever between autism and dairy consumption.
Having found no academic source that could be this user's source, I decided to do a general Google search. What I found really bothered me. It appears to have come from PETA, a group not particularly well known for getting their information from reputable sources. In it, they mention definitive information and, like the user in question, fail to cite their sources.
Dr. Steven Novella, a reputable neurologist and skeptic, put it far better than I could and broke it down so that even the most scientifically illiterate person could easily understand it. If you don't like the jargon heavy or dryness of academic papers, I highly recommend reading his article on this debacle.
In conclusion, don't believe everything you read or hear about on the internet. Reputable sources are your friends, and it really doesn't take much. My research for this blog post took me about an hour and a half, and I learned quite a bit about an area that I quite frankly know little about (that is, neurology and the dietary influences of neurological health). Also, remember that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the more extraordinary the claim is, the more evidence it requires to prove it.
Sources:
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/602834/
http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Abstract/2011/12000/Is_Cow_s_Milk_Harmful_to_a_Child_s_Health_.6.aspx
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/peta-embraces-autism-pseudoscience/
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