Dairy cuts mortality by 25% and strokes by 60%

BBC Health: Dairy for children 'extends life'

Quotes:

Some 4,374 UK children from a 1930s study were traced 65 years later by researchers in Bristol and Queensland.
...
Despite dairy containing artery furring fat and cholesterol, high consumption did not raise the heart disease risk.
...
The study looked at family diets and found higher intakes of both calcium and dairy, predominantly from milk, cut mortality by a quarter.
...
A higher daily intake of calcium, of at least 400mg as found in just over half a pint of milk, cut the chance of dying from stroke by as much as 60%.
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Joanne Murphy of The Stroke Association said: [...] "In the meantime, we advise parents to opt for a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat and salt for the overall health of their children."

Vitamin K2 halves the risk of all-cause mortality and aortic calcification!

... with the relative risk reduction factors in the highest vitamin K2 tertile of 0.42 and 0.48, respectively.

Dietary Intake of Menaquinone Is Associated with a Reduced Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: The Rotterdam Study

(after Richards' blog - thanks!)

Does vegan diet weaken bones?

A recently published pre-anounced study report postulated that vegans have somewhat (marginally) lower bone density than non-vegans.

I just noticed Dr. McDougall's response to it that totally cracked me up! Basically he is saying that a paper by the same author that he previously quoted, has shown no difference in bone density among vegan nuns vs non-vegans (which Dr.McDougall calls "favorable"!!!) therefore it has to be right whereas the present pre-announced paper by the same author now does show some differences unfavorable to the vegans, therefore the author must have been corrupted by some Malaysian dairy corporation. I am not making that up, you can read his response yourself here.

If a plant based nutrition is supposed to be good for the bones, according to Dr.McDougall, how come that his own staff lecturer should wear a weighted vest or backpack to maintain his bone mass?

A digression: that study states as a side note that 5% of the Western population are vegetarian, which makes me wonder how come that there is no mention of vegetarians among centenarians here or mention only a tiny 0.35% fraction in that study - perhaps they don't live very long?

--- updated 23/09/2009 ---
Another interesting study (thanks JC):
"Effect of vegetarian diets on bone mineral density: a Bayesian meta-analysis"