Con

Judith R. Turnlund, PhD, Chemist at the Human Nutrition Research Center of the United States Department of Agriculture, wrote in a 1990 article titled "Milk's Effect on the Bioavailability of Iron from Cereal-Based Diets in Young Women by Use of In Vitro and In Vivo Methods," published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:

“This study was designed to compare the effect of milk…on the bioavailability of iron in young women, a population group at risk for iron deficiency because of menstrual-blood losses…

Iron absorption averaged 8.97% with milk and 8.04% without milk… [m]ore iron was absorbed from the diets with milk than from the diets without milk for seven of the eight subjects. Only subject 23 absorbed more iron from the diet without milk. However, the difference between the two treatments was not significant…

In summary, the results of this study suggest that the addition of milk to cereal-based diets does not affect iron absorption sufficiently to improve iron nutriture, as in vitro [outside an organism] tests suggest it might. Neither does the addition of milk to cereal-based diets inhibit iron absorption.”

1990