Name: Does Milk Make You Phlegmy?
Uploaded: 2021-05-06T03:14:49.000Z
Duration: 3 min 4 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It's a belief almost as old as the product

Back in Egypt in the 12th century, a royal physician

No one seems to know where he got that idea from,

but it's become a common belief worldwide

that gulping down a glass of milk or a grilled cheese

But... there seems to be no scientific evidence to back up that claim.

The idea that milk worsens congestion is one

of the most prevalent and persistent medical beliefs.

And while it might seem like a silly thing

to worry about, if dairy does increase mucus

it would not only make colds more annoying—

it could be harmful to people with respiratory conditions

So far, only a few rigorous experimental scientific

studies have tried to determine if the milk-mucus

effect is real, and none have found support for the idea.

Several studies of asthmatics found that lung functioning—

people who were infected with a common cold virus

didn't cough, sneeze or make any more nose gunk

That doesn't stop people from feeling like

In a double-blind study published in the journal

Appetite in 1993, 169 participants said drinking

a flavored milk drink left a coating in their mouths,

to swallow more and their saliva was thicker.

The thing is, they said the same thing about

a soy placebo drink which did not contain

And neither beverage significantly increased

the severity of mucus-related symptoms like

That could suggest the nocebo effect is at

play—the phenomenon where expecting something

Basically, the awful flipside of the placebo effect.

Or, it could be the fat in milk-like drinks

way without actually changing mucus production.

Globbier fat drops might feel a bit like mucus

making you think there's more mucus when there really isn't.

Though more research could really nail the coffin

evidence that dairy products actually cause

Drink that milky boba tea, snack on that cheese stick,

lactose intolerance or you're vegan or you

just hate cheese...I'm not in charge of your life.

Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow!