I've warned you before how substances used in the making of the processed foods you eat affect your health for the negative. You can blame a diet rich in processed dairy products containing synthetic growth hormones for the rise in fraternal twins among more than a 1,000 American women, according to a new study.

In fact, milk drinkers increased their likelihood of having twins, versus vegans who ate no animal products, by a factor of five to three sets of twins per 100 live births in 2003. Not surprisingly, the number of twins has risen sharply over the past three decades, and in some places, by as much as 50 percent.

The likely culprit is insulinlike growth hormone (IGF), a protein found in the livers of animals along with cow's milk and other animal products (that sensitizes ovaries, increasing the number of eggs a woman produces), stimulated by recombinant bovine somatotropin, a synthetic hormone.

Interestingly, this surge in twin births came a year before a promise by Monsanto to reduce sales of its bioengineered cow hormone Posilac by half.

New York Times May 30, 2006 Registration Required

BBC News May 20, 2006