Does Milk Really Make Mucus Worse?

There's a millennia-old idea that milk causes mucus production, and therefore that you should avoid milk if you're sick. Learn whether there's any truth to this snotty tale in today's episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff. From how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren vogelbam here. Medical myths are stubborn. Going back to
ancient China, texts associated the consumption of milk with a
thickening of phlegm, and twelfth century Jewish physician Moses Maimonds
wrote in his Treatise on Asthma that milk could cause
quote a stuffing in the head that exacerbated symptoms of asthma.

(00:26):
Eight hundred years later, Dr Spock, a twentieth century American
pediatrician who wrote a popular book about baby care, directed
parents to limit dairy while babies were sick, especially with
upper respiratory infections. For new only a thousand years, medical
professionals have been telling us to lay off the dairy
or face the mucus consequences. But is it true. A

(00:46):
review of the literature published in September eighteen in the
journal Archives of Disease in Childhood concludes that there is
virtually no connection between dairy products and upper respiratory mucus,
and that the myth might actually be preventing children with
conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis, or even the common cold
from getting enough nutrients like calcium. According to the review,

(01:07):
studies dating back to have indicated that there's no link
between milk and phlegm, but the myth is pervasive. A
two thousand three study in the journal Appetite asked three
hundred and forty five random Australian shoppers whether they thought
milk causes mucus. Of the hundred and eleven shoppers who
drank whole milk, almost half of them were of the
opinion that it did, but only of the one reduced

(01:31):
fat milk drinkers said that they believed milk caused mucus.
The difference in perception might have something to do with
how milk feels in the mouth. It is, after all,
just droplets of fat suspended in water, the current researchers
wrote in their review. This could well affect the sensory
perception of milk mixed with saliva, both in terms of
its thickness coating the mouth and the after feel when

(01:52):
small amounts of emulsion remain in the mouth after swallowing.
This may explain why so many people think that more
mucus is produced, when in fact it's the aggregates of
milk emulsion that they are aware of lingering in the
mouth after swallowing, so it's really just a feeling, not
a fact. And Furthermore, the researchers suggest that since milk
is a good source of calories and minerals like calcium,

(02:14):
the long standing cultural belief that milk is bad for
children with respiratory problems could mean kids aren't getting the
nutrients they need. This could lead children growing up with
weaker bones and shorter stature. Today's episode was written by
Jescelin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on
this and lots of other myth busting topics, visit our

(02:35):
home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.