Study suggests milk at school prevents bowel cancer

Readers who remember the days of compulsory milk at school were probably getting an unforeseen benefit.

Scientists at the University  of Otago have found that regular consumption of  school milk significantly reduced the risk of  bowel cancer in adulthood. The national study,  published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that the risk of bowel cancer was 30 per cent  lower in people who drank school milk daily during the period 1937-1967. Researchers believe this is due to the calcium in the milk.