Still Drinking Milk? You Won't After Reading This…
Have you been drinking a frothy glass of cow's milk each morning since long before you can even quite remember? You're not alone of course, and you've probably enjoyed every glass your mom placed before you as a child, especially when it was accompanied by cookies or some other treat.
Milk can seem quite appealing as you douse your cereal in the innocent enough looking liquid.
However, beneath that pearly exterior flow some dark truths that you might want to learn more about before your next breakfast.
Let's start with the pro-milk arguments. "Milk Does A Body Good" is an advertising campaign we are all familiar with. But aside from the self-promotion of the milk industry, there are still many doctors and health professionals who support milk consumption as a compact bundle of nutrients that can offset an otherwise incomplete daily diet. Many claim that milk's calcium and Vitamin D levels provide the body with cancer and osteoporosis fighting nutrition. Milk provides additional electrolytes besides calcium like sodium, potassium and magnesium which maintain vital bodily functions. The protein helps build muscle and there are studies showing that milk can help reduce appetite and help lessen stress levels. These are all very valid arguments but the question is... "at what cost?"
Over the past decades, the case against dairy milk has been mounting from several fronts, and the evidence becomes more difficult to deny for the most ardent milk lovers. Between the predominant animal activist organization PETA, vocal vegans in general and a growing number of scientists; most notably the Harvard scientific community. Additionally, some groups are joining in on the charge against cow’s milk for less direct reasons, such as the addition of sugar to the processing, potentially adding to the already problematic issues of obesity, diabetes and inflammatory-based pain. With that, the American Academy of Pediatrics has joined the crusade.
Consider the following reasons that these various groups offer as to why you should nix dairy milk from your breakfast rotation. You might find yourself feeling more inclined to reach for a plant-based milk the next time you need to drench a bowl of your favorite cereal.
You Might Not Love All the Contents of Your Glass of Milk
Besides all the virtuous nutrients we’ve always acknowledged in an average glass of milk, such as vitamin D and calcium, milk contains some other ingredients you won’t find on the label. Calcium leaching acidic animal protein, bovine growth hormone, pus cells, antibiotics and feces are just a few unnamed items in addition to cholesterol, sugar and fat.
Excessive Protein Does Not Do a Body Good
Cow’s milk contains three times as much protein as human’s milk. According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, this protein overload can create metabolic disturbances. Our pH levels become acidified, causing calcium to leap into action to neutralize this unhealthy environment for our system. By drawing calcium away from the bones where it is most needed, this chain of events leads to bone deterioration, further leading to the greater risk for bone fractures.
Bovine Growth Hormone Injections and All That Comes With Them
Cows simply cannot keep up with human milk consumption, so dairy farmers inject their cows with this hormone to increase production. They are also routinely given hormones to help fatten them up, so the dairy industry intentionally compromises the benefits of drinking milk on top of the natural reasons it is already questionable.
The Inhumane Conditions for the Cows
Vegans and other animal rights activists have been vocal on this matter, and the point regarding injection of hormones and steroids all on its own would make this point, but cows often suffer inhumane conditions that most humans would find appalling if they knew.
Dairy cows are artificially inseminated every year to keep them pregnant and to assure they provide a maximum supply of milk. Calves are removed from the mother within days, the females then raised to become dairy cows themselves and the males raised for beef. Though awareness is rising, numerous male calves are slaughtered for the veal industry. This is true regardless of whether the cows are “organic” or not.
There Are Far Too Many Viable Plant-Based Alternatives to Keep Using Cow’s Milk
Even if you don’t like soy, you can choose from almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, and the list goes on and on. Seeds, nuts and grains are increasingly pressed into milk to use in recipes and cereal bowls around the world.
Selected Sources
http://www.trueactivist.com/harvard-scientists-urge-you-to-stop-drinking-milk/
http://www.thedailymeal.com/why-you-should-stop-drinking-milk-right-now/013014
And since the Japanese nuclear event, I'm eyeing fish w/ suspicion.
My no-milk resolve disintegrated after 7 mos. because, 20 lbs. underweight, I needed the calories. Still need them, but don't know what to eat! Soy is bad; almonds are unsustainable (these are produced in drought-ridden California & it takes one gal. water to produce a single almond!).
With everything stricken from the shopping list, what's an underweight gal to do? And on top of it all, now you're saying my nightly vino rojo is out, unless I memorize labels?
What the hell kind of world have we made?
Let's go down the line:
1. calcium leaching acidic animal protein, is more of reason to drink milk instead of eating red meat, which is far higher in animal protein (remember that DNA is a protein chain and that the A stands for acid and DNA are made up of amino ACIDs). Calcium, while you call it an electrolyte, is really a metal. Look on your periodic table, where it sits is directly in the metal region.
2. feces: every food item that we consume has FDA maximums of what is allowed on our food stuffs. Thus, lettuce and other produce, all meats, juices, etc.; nearly everything have insect parts, feces and other organic compounds that the FDA sets maximums, proving zero would never work. In other words, you're sensationalizing, These "unwanteds" are on/in all food items. You can't control all insects nor rodents.
3. "Excessive protein" Wow, where did that come from? Most concerns are about not getting enough. Consider: 1 glass of milk = 8 grams of protein. 3 oz. fish or chicken = 24 grams of protein, or equivalent to 3 glasses of milk. 7 oz. beef steak. 34 grams of protein or equivalent to 4 glasses of milk.
Further: "The idea that protein, particularly animal protein, is problematic for bones is a myth, says bone researcher Jane Kerstetter, PhD, RD, professor of nutrition at the University of Connecticut. 'Protein does not dissolve bone. Just the opposite.'" This renders the sentence: "By drawing calcium away from the bones where it is most needed, this chain of events leads to bone deterioration, further leading to the greater risk for bone fractures." completely incorrect.
4. Growth hormone injections: read: http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2012/06/19/growth-hormones-in-milk-mythfact/
5. Inhumane condition for the cows: the last two dairies that I visited, the cows are more or less free range.
6. Harvard scientific community: Did you actually read their report? Go ahead, I'll wait, here. Now that you're back, did you see that they are recommending whole milk and avoid low-fat dairy? They're saying whole milk is beneficial. What were you reading the Havard anti-milk false info,PETA documentation?
7. Sugar. Um, it is on the label and it is in the form of lactose. 100% naturally occurring. I don't find it added anywhere. Please provide non-dairy, non-PETA links that support that sugar is added to whole milk production.
8. Plant based alternatives: Soy milk, please look at the ingredients. I mean really, most contain added sugar, some even boast "cane sugar", and added salt. Other ingredients sound like my old chemistry set. Almond milk, for a quart of almond milk,you get the same nutritional equivalent in one handful of whole almonds. The rest is water. Also consider that most of these alternatives contain carrageenan which is extracted from seaweed, with potassium hydroxide (caustic pothash). Also consider that most of these contain water soy milk=filtered water, soy; almond milk (filtered water, almonds). All these contain "natural flavors" which can be MSG, Aspartame, bugs. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036308_natural_flavors_MSG_aspartame.html#)
8.
Almond milk is grown with intense pesticides, organic is riddled with organic fecal pulp.
Hemp is contaminated with government test chemicals, especially the organic kind.
Witches milk is what Rob Greenstain produces. Gross, bro.
I drink purslane milk and you are a fool if you don't. I eat a cow a week. Delish.
Other milks I consume:
Milk duds.
Milk fraîche
Milk of magnesia
Milk of Human kindness
&Whatever the milkmaid brings.
Cow milk is fine, get off the easy fireball topics and do some research before publishing this tripe. Which is also delicious.
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