Desk Report: For hundreds of years, at least as far back as the 12th century, it has been thought that milk produces more mucus in our bodies – and as a result should be avoided when you have a cold or other respiratory illness. Now one children’s health expert is saying it’s a myth.
Not only that, but he argues avoiding giving children milk in a mistaken belief that it’s going to cause a build up of phlegm is denying kids an important source of nutrition.
According to Ian Balfour-Lynn from Royal Brompton Hospital in the UK, there’s no evidence linking milk with mucus – and in newly published research he’s been through numerous studies as far back as 1948 to check.
“While certainly the texture of milk can make some people feel their mucus and saliva is thicker and harder to swallow, there is no evidence and indeed evidence to the contrary that milk leads to excessive mucus secretion,” writes Balfour-Lynn.”The milk-mucus myth needs to be rebutted firmly by healthcare workers.”
The idea that milk produces phlegm – and, by the way, that chicken soup gets rid of it – seems to have been promoted early on by spiritual leader and court physician Moses Maimonides, who died in 1204.
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