Milk makes Yglesias sick

Popular weblogger Matthew Yglesias links to a new campaign of litigation by the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, a health policy and animal rights advocacy group:

Justin may mock, but the reality is that these people are on to something, though perhaps not a viable legal claim. Given that lactose intolerance actually seems to affect most of the world's population (a minority of white folks, but most non-whites and non-whites outnumber whites pretty badly) there actually is something a bit odd about the tone and omnipresence of pro-milk propaganda. Now, personally, I think milk is just about the grossest substance on the planet but I love my cheese despite some very mild intolerance.

Of course, many reasonable people including most economists are suspicious of litigation as a road to sound policy. A sensible position would be for the federal government just to stop pushing increased dairy consumption through weight loss claims, stop supporting efforts to belittle the seriousness of lactose intolerance, or at the very least to stop its federally supported advertisements promoting cheese, butter, and other high-fat dairy products whose increased consumption is not endorsed by the government's own Dietary Guidelines.