From: "G.Grimble" <G.Grimble@max.roehampton.ac.uk>

Organization: roehampton institute london

Reply-To: G.Grimble@max.roehampton.ac.uk

Dear Jerry,

Shame on you for the bit about milk addictions. Sure, casein

produces the peptide casomorphin on hydrolysis and it has interesting properties

in vitro but the level is so low that it's hard to see how that is

the basis for 'milk addiction'. Surely overarching aspects of

satiety control are more important. Is the tryptophan content not

also responsible for mood changes following food (ie. protein) ingestion? Does

soy milk give the same increment in plasma tryptophan? If it does,

why are you bleating on about cow's milk being the BIG CULPRIT?

The quote from Alan Gaby MD is fairly typical of a particular type of

nutrition journalism. If you don't spot the juxtaposition of 'nursing

young' and' food staples like ...alcohol, coffee and chocolate' then

the concept can be swallowed as a whole. If you did notice it and

re-jigged it in your mind then you might feel uncomfortable about the concept that 'food staples like coffee, alcohol and chocolate are nature's attempt to insure

that the young will be motivated to nurse!? Unfortunately what gives

the game away is the vacuous statement at the end about new questions

being raised. In science proper, this translates as "there are some

other nebulous things I wanted to say but can't quite remember what they are".

Most pharmacologists would laugh like drains if they read this type

of stuff because the amounts of these natural opioid substances is (i)

low and (ii) they are not very active.

Finally, don't be rude to others about their ability to perform a

literature search.

George GrimblePhD

Reader in Clinical Nutrition

Addictive Behaviour Centre

Roehampton Institute London