Milk doesn't cause cancer, but a diet rich in saturated animal fats may tend to increase your chances of getting cancer as will obesity and lack of exercise. Some people can't digest milk, cow's milk, properly, other people can.
Some dairy farmers put nasty antibiotics and growth hormones in their cattle feed which could cause adverse health effects in people.
Actually hardly any farmers use those growth hormones and antibiotics. Any gallon of milk I've ever had specifically stated the cows were never treated with those things. I imagine in other countries and perhaps some small private dairies with a limited distribution that does happen, but it certainly doesn't seem to go on in the mainstream market, judging by the labels.
Granted I work on a dairy farm so I am also biased, but I love milk. It's one of the most refreshing drinks, in my opinion, and I also love to make hot cocoa in the winter and homemade ice cream in the summer. Oh and cereal, too. Honestly, sometimes I think the cows are treated better than the farm workers... They are definitely not suffering like the media portrays. Even during the manual breeding, the cows are given the best grain and they just stand there eating during the whole thing like it's no big deal.
And as far as separation from their calves, they end up in the same pen once the calves are older, and they aren't separated immediately to begin with. On the other hand, we workers can hardly touch the cows because apparently we might hurt them! I've been bawled out more than once. And no one really cares if we work ourselves to death just to keep the place going.
I had to keep working with a scratched cornea once and now I have an ointment I have to put in before bed every night indefinitely because it didn't heal properly, all because I couldn't go to the eye doctor.
So the whole thing about milking being cruel and milk being unhealthy really hits a sore spot for me, because I like milk, my family has always been very healthy (Guess what? We really
haven't had any broken bones. Or cavities for that matter.) and the farm is anything but cruel and I feel like my job is more difficult because the farmers are overcompensating to keep the cows perfectly content.
Oh, to answer your question... Milk is probably one of the most studied foods/drinks out there. If it caused cancer someone would have made that known a long time ago. But the reality is that those who do consume dairy regularly, apart from those who have a legitimate intolerance, are usually as healthy as anyone else. Many, many generations have been drinking cow milk and it has no correlation to the rise or fall of cancer rates across time.
