Did you know that in Medieval England parents would tie rabbits' feet around their babies’ necks to ward off illness? Doctors would also spit on wounds because saliva was believed to have healing properties.
Indeed, history is replete with unfounded health beliefs, and to everyone’s detriment, the milk myth is among the most tenacious.
Milk is much more than just a drink; it’s a cultural phenomenon that can be traced back thousands of years. And still today, the milk myth resonates loud and clear: in 2001, the average American child consumed 104 quarts of cow’s milk.
Milk depletes the calcium from your bones
The milk myth has spread around the world based on the flawed belief that this protein and calcium-rich drink is essential to support good overall health and bone health in particular at any age. It is easy to understand that the confusion about milk's imaginary benefits stems from the fact that it contains calcium – around 300 mg per cup.
But many scientific studies have shown an assortment of detrimental health effects directly linked to milk consumption. And the most surprising link is that not only do we barely absorb the calcium in cow’s milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. What an irony this is!
Here’s how it happens. Like all animal protein, milk acidifies the body pH which in turn triggers a biological correction. You see, calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer and the biggest storage of calcium in the body is – you guessed it… in the bones. So the very same calcium that our bones need to stay strong is utilized to neutralize the acidifying effect of milk. Once calcium is pulled out of the bones, it leaves the body via the urine, so that the surprising net result after this is an actual calcium deficit.
Knowing this, you’ll understand why statistics show that countries with the lowest consumption of dairy products also have the lowest fracture incidence in their population (there’s more on this later).
But the sad truth is that most mainstream health practitioners ignore these proven facts. I know it firsthand because when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, my doctor recommended that I drink lots of milk in addition to taking Fosamax.
Fortunately, I did neither, because I knew that…
Cow’s milk is custom-designed for calves
Thanks to our creative ingenuity and perhaps related to our ancient survival needs, we adopted the dubious habit of drinking another species’ milk. Nobody can dispute that cow’s milk is an excellent food source for calves. Weighing around 100 pounds at birth, a calf typically gains approximately eight times its weight by the time it is weaned. But unlike humans, once calves are weaned, they never drink milk again. And the same applies to every mammalian species on this planet.
Also, each mammalian species has its own “designer” milk, and cow’s milk is no exception. For example, cow’s milk contains on average three times the amount of protein than human milk which creates metabolic disturbances in humans that have detrimental bone health consequences.
It's important to bear in mind that mother’s milk is excellent nourishment for human babies, but its composition is very different from cow’s milk.
Scientific studies show that milk increases fracture risk
Many scientific studies contradict the conventional wisdom that milk and dairy consumption help reduce osteoporotic fractures. Surprisingly, studies demonstrating that milk and dairy products actually fail to protect bones from fractures outnumber studies that prove otherwise. Even drinking milk from a young age does not protect against future fracture risk but actually increases it. Shattering the “savings account” calcium theory, Cumming and Klineberg report their study findings as follows:
“Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture in old age. (“Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly”. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 139, No. 5, 1994).1
And the 12 year long Harvard Nurses' Health Study found that those who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk. This is a broad study based on 77,761 women aged 34 through 59 years of age.
In the authors’ own words:
“These data do not support the hypothesis that higher consumption of milk or other food sources of calcium by adult women protects against hip or forearm fractures.” (Source: Feskanich D, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. American Journal of Public Health. 1997).2
Shocking statistics ignored by mainstream medicine
In the Osteoporosis Reversal Program one of the topics I discuss is the complete disregard of scientific evidence that discredits milk and dairy products as the best source of calcium.
One exception is Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., who states that:
“The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent.”
Surprised? You shouldn’t be, because as I mentioned earlier in this article…
Milk is an acidifying animal protein
Like any other animal derived protein-rich food, milk has a positive potential renal acid load (PRAL) which triggers a protective biological reaction to neutralize all the damaging acidic protein before it reaches the kidneys.
The body is designed for survival, so it sacrifices bone density to protect the kidneys and urinary tract because the latter are essential to survival. And the most readily available source of acid neutralizer is in the bones. So even though milk contains calcium, it ends up sapping your bones of that crucial mineral. But that’s not all because…
Today’s milk is a processed food
Until the end of the 19th century in Europe and the beginning of the 20th century in the US, milk was consumed unpasteurized or raw. Later on, homogenization became the industry’s standard. These processes further alter milk’s chemistry and actually increase its detrimental acidifying effects.
Raw milk advocates claim that if cow’s milk is left “as is” it is a healthy and wholesome drink. It is true that raw milk is less acidifying than processed milk and that pasteurization and homogenization may cause a long list of digestive and other health problems, but I still don’t recommend drinking any kind of cow’s milk.
Nowadays, milking cows are given antibiotics and most are also injected with a genetically engineered form of bovine growth hormone (rBGH). A man-made or synthetic hormone used to artificially increase milk production, rBGH also increases blood levels of the insulin-growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in those who drink it. And higher levels of IGF-1 are linked to several cancers.
This should not be ignored, especially in view of recent information by Samuel Epstein, MD, Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition. In a press release titled “Monsanto's Hormonal Milk Poses Serious Risks of Breast Cancer, Besides Other Cancers” (June 21, 1998) Dr. Epstein concludes that:
“Drinking rBGH milk would thus be expected to significantly increase IGF-1 blood levels and consequently to increase risks of developing breast cancer and promoting its invasiveness.”
Even though organic milk is from cows that are not given antibiotics or rBHG, if you truly care about your bone health and your overall health, you should…
Avoid drinking cow’s milk
As I explain in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program and contrary to mainstream recommendations, drinking milk and eating lots of dairy products are not the answer to reversing osteoporosis. And while in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program no food is completely off limits, I strongly recommend that you explore the different milk substitute options that I will list for you here.
But first, I’d like to clarify that unsweetened fermented or cultured dairy products such as yogurt, kefir, and sour cream are acid neutral. Yogurt in particular is chock-full of beneficial qualities. As is the case with milk, organic yogurt does not have rBGH, but even several of the most well-known yogurt brands have stopped using the bovine growth hormone (rBGH). You should call your favorite yogurt company to confirm. One more clarification: when I say unsweetened I mean without sugar or any artificial sweetener. However, you can add honey or stevia, a zero calorie plant-derived sweetener that is delicious and alkalizing as well. I like to carry around stevia packets in my purse so that I'm always able to sweeten food or drinks when I'm on the go.
The best milk substitutes
My favorite milk substitute is unsweetened almond milk, not only because it is alkalizing (as almonds are), but also because it's delicious and tastes very similar to milk. I even cook with it!
If almond milk is hard to get, you can also try rice or soy milk. I strongly suggest consuming only organic soy milk to insure it’s not made with genetically modified soy. There is also some controversy about unfermented soy products, so try to use it in moderation.
What Else Haven't They Told You?
What else have you been told about bone health by your doctor or other “experts” that is flat out wrong? What other “facts” (like drinking milk does a body good) are keeping you from optimal health?
Myths like these are a big reason I created the Osteoporosis Reversal Program. To give you the straight scoop on how to deal with osteoporosis the natural way.
I can help you take control of your future.
Learn more about the Osteoporosis Reversal Program here →
And remember, if you ever hear someone ask “Got milk?” smile and think to yourself “No, because I know better!”
And as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Share them with me and the rest of our community by leaving a comment below.
References
1 Cumming RG, Klineberg RJ. “Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly”. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 139, No. 5, 1994
2 Feskanich D, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. American Journal of Public Health. 1997
Great source of information. Thank you
What about options for formula fed babies? What are the thoughts? We switched to soy based formula after our son has had so many issues spitting up.
Duh!!! What do you think women’s breasts are for???
Aren’t you a little too sensible to be on this page? And not even cussing at that! That is all that it boils down too… and everyone is different and everyone knows what makes them feel bad when they eat xyz and what makes them feel good. I bet you might be aware that the pyramid of eating in the US was not acceptable, but whoever over rules in the government would not let it change. Even when PROOF was given. That was -in the news a few years ago. Try telling that to someone who loves to argue. If people want to eat cake all day every day…. then do it. If people want to feel better and have a good attitude, then almost all will tell you it will happen when the fuel is good that you give your body. I’m sure if we were talking about cars, …. well maybe some cars are better cared for than we care for ourselves, and think of all the books that are read. But religion and food we can not talk about, so we die over it I guess. I understand the controversy, but I can’t for the life of me understand disrespect, though each EXPECT respect. That is just another saga…. Maybe we should do a study on how to have a conversation without getting high blood pressure! lol. I do have a question I can not figure out. Why are men on here regarding nutrition yet they don’t believe in it? Seems this would be boring and watching a movie would be better. Maybe it’s the debating…. and debating goes on all the time in healthcare, but it is done more adult like (at times!) It just seems this would catch the eyes of those looking for ideas on health and eating….. not how to fight and win every battle. Sorry, I’m a woman and I’m a mystery too. 🙂 I loved what you said about what isn’t known. There are things I can not eat that are no biggie, but I’ve actually seen the papers through researching because I could not believe it. I finally found it. I’m not saying what, because it will wake up the ones we know will not look anything up, but make fun and cuss. Even working in a hospital giving informed consent… which was a joke. But I tried to find a way to answer their question by telling them where to find the answer. No one is going to say anything about autism, etc… that plagues us also. (no, don’t even ask me if it’s vaccines) And we are not allowed to say. So, my response is look up medication up in the PDR. Whether they do or don’t… I can’t control. So many things we and our children suffer from, but it’s kept quiet. Then I read this junk from responders and I understand why some just don’t want to bother. I don’t ….. I don’t want to be cussed at and treated like a calf. So when something bad happens to their sweet children, we grieve and they grieve. But we know most could have been avoided. And I’m not talking milk…. I’m talking about not being open to new findings. Not being open to look things up instead of making fun of. Alzheimers is on the rise and many have the gene. But, no one wants to hear the truth of how to help that problem. My father in law was just like many here. He knew it all and everything was based on his life and his health. Alz hit and now he wants to me to help him. He was committed and he ended up doing cross word puzzles, etc… He was sold – no cussing on this one. But, he decided wine and whiskey was better, so now he is behind locked doors without a clue. Within months. To late, so he is living the life he begged me to help him not to live. I am not an expert, but I can google. Laugh, drink and cuss now, and tomorrow no one may listen to a cry of help. I’m like everyone else. This is about milk and is it good or bad. I’ll have to say that what I have read by researchers who have no agenda, so far I’ve not read that milk is good for us. BUT, we can cheat if our bodies allow. 90% is taking care of ourselves because most of the time we determine where we are at age 80. But take that 10% and enjoy what ever it is you love. If you are healthy – celebrate by keeping that way, and still enjoying that choc cake on occasion (with a glass of milk). If you have health problems and are in pain…. which is not understood by those who aren’t…. research, try it out on yourself, see how you feel, and that’s what you eat. One size does not fit all. This could have spurred some good research topics and what people know but are hesitant to say. Instead, we read about gods, and cussing, and everything else that doesn’t matter. This article was good if it was written a while back. Just recently, new studies are coming out fast. Conventions are being held all over the world to get the word out, and I bet your doctor didn’t go. Which means, knowledge is getting more and more behind. I see those here who are honestly wanting to know something…. Just go to google and write your question. Look at what looks good (like not reading something written by Bordens milk). Keep your mind open and keep reading. Find blogs who are knowledgeable and who have the info’s home page. What works for you might not work for another. And if you have found something that works… I’ve found that many have learned to keep quiet so they don’t have to endure what is seen here. What a shame. We talk about our government and hate what is going on, but yet we will eat exactly what they tell us too. Haven’t figure that out. 🙂 Stay cool, enjoy discussing things. Your wife, ex-wife and children and friends will love you for it! lol. (just had to sneak that in – but I didn’t cuss!)
I was thinking one size doesn’t fit all , too.
Read Vactruth Interview with Dr . Andrew Moulden regarding the mechanism of harm from toxic overload mainly from vaccine ingredients, causing the increasing prevalence of diseases , including dementia.
I’ve heard that soy is not a good substitute. It is often as allergenic as milk. If you can’t breastfeed, try ordering breast milk online if you can afford it. Or try a non-soy formula. Or try changing your diet so your baby can tolerate your breast milk. He may be reacting to something YOU ate.
I’ve done a bit if research this morning, on the pro cow’s milk argument and the articles I’ve read back up their arguements with research data and references. Any chance of you doing the same to help ys make a more educated and confident decision?
Thanks.
I’ve had a closer look and a more thorough read, please forgive my previous impatience. This article is very well supported.
Thanks
Please question everything you read, I was intrigued by this article and wanted to know more. A quick search however, showed this is a load of rubbish, not to mention 2 sources from the 90s which only say there is no evidence of a link between dairy and bone health (read the actual reference articles) is not evidence that milk is BAD. Calcium used for pH buffering comes from kidneys not bones.
Here is a well written article with MANY current studies to back it up.
https://chriskresser.com/the-ph-myth-part-1/
Do your own research and don’t stay ignorant people. Additionally, I read a previous comment from a guy who says don’t trust a website that ends in .gov, however if he actually bothered to look at the website it is a database of scientific research (I’m a research scientist myself) and while some may be government funded they have ABSOLUTELY no say in most research. Nearly all medical scientists only seek to help people, I will admit there are a couple of exceptions (like Andrew Wakefield who made up he autism/vaccine thing to try to promote his own vaccine which backfired hugely) but if we wanted to dupe people and make money we’d become lawyers not scientists who are vastly underpaid and are just trying to help millions of people with medical progress.
Andwew Wakefield had his reputation professionally tarnished. Most , if not all, people who speak out against vaccines would have had far more lucrative careers if they had stuck with the medical establishment’s views.
After reading this article, I know why my stomach turns acidic everytime I consume milk, and most of the time, I have to take an anti-acid tablet to counteract the problem. I am 50 years old.
I have been drinking a liter of milk each day for over 40 years. My bone density is just fine and I am strong and healthy.
@Jay => you are a very lucky minority… but your argument doesn’t have to apply to us all, does it? => on the same “theme”/kind of evidence I could say: my granddad smoked 20+ (more than a packet) cigarettes a day for more then 60 years and never got cancer or other diseases connected with smoking and he died recently at the age of 96. so what does that prove: 1. was he a lucky individual or 2. smoking is healthy? would you give me the answer? thanks
I’m not sure you got your answer but maybe I can help. You know the answer…. We don’t know why some can smoke all their life and die of old age. Or their spouse dies of 2nd hand smoke. Or why some can’t tolerate one food and another can. Or why some die early of a heart attack and have no signs and are healthy as a horse. Fate? Who knows, it’s a mystery to us all. There is no research to prove this at all… but I noticed my grandparents and older who worked in the fields either lived healthy and died old, or died mid age of a heart attack. We know stress is bad… so did the heart attack worry and stress over his crops? and the other one didn’t? 🙂 I don’t know, but they had good healthy food without planes flying over spraying crops and other modified foods. Some people must be made of iron. If you are made of iron, then I’m jealous! 🙂 As you see, there is no answer – but there are defects that are picked up now more so than then. But it still happens. The medical field doesn’t understand everything, sometimes it’s the patients that do a lot of teaching!
seems to me that i’m also lucky then
I reached this page because I was basically searching about “are cow’s milk healthy?”. I searched about this topic because I have read an article from PETA about their summer campaign, “Not Your Mom, Not Your Milk” (with hashtag SuckLess) encouraging about avoiding cow’s milk. In the article, cows are dreadfully abused and maltreated just so that they can be “milked”. Reading the article was, indeed, very disturbing. And so I searched for other articles also regarding if consumption of cow’s milk is healthy for humans. PETA’s and your article are on parallel grounds. And I am so glad I came upon this article – full of information and enriching in promulgating good health.
Now, I know better. 🙂
I always wonder how comments get so off track. Now I understand a bit. And no, there is no research. I am so turned off by any abuse, I could throw up. But when commenting about a specific thing… is cows milk good or bad, I wonder when things are brought up about conditions, and other things, that’s what starts things going. I have no control by myself to change the fate of those animals. I would if I could. I know there is evil out there even with animals and it makes me sick. But when someone tells us milk is bad (or good), and if we stopped drinking then all the animals would be saved…. it’s a turn off. Please don’t hate me yet. The world is not going to boycott milk and save cows and their young. It is too political. And I usually wear rose colored glasses. But if we really stop and think…. is the world going to stop milk and the cows will be free? Will chickens be free? Will slavery ever stop? When we buy from China, it’s possible it came from a slave place (I can’t think of the name). So do we not buy from China? None of this is going to change anyones mind. Because they know the government and politics. But as for each of us, we can choose to do what we want and make it what we choose. That’s our freedom. If I thought standing on every house top shouting don’t drink milk – watch this video, would help, I’d be there. So when this gets in the mix of a question about food, it seems things go down hill. Plus we just have people who aren’t respectful when they don’t agree. But don’t turn the tables! I can’t stress over everything…it hurts to much. So I don’t drink much milk because I know I can’t – not because of the baby cows, but because of health issues getting worse. I want my eggs tasting good, so I’ll find them where they run free. It still won’t m
ake a chained chicken free. There’s too many people and we are told myths and we don’t check it out. We can’t change people, but we can change ourselves. If we stick to the subject, there will probably be less of this junk. But there is always a kid in the bunch. Which makes the learning and talking back and forth impossible. We can probably do more to keep those “kids” out of a site so we can visit, than much of anything else. Sad that we have lost that wonderful image of what a man is and what a woman is. And this is proven right on this page! 🙂
Thank you so much for your information. I knew something was wrong with cow’s milk when it makes me ill to drink it. I’ve been on almond milk for awhile now and love it!
Gail and Roderick Ewins, thank you for agreeing with me.
Michelle Dinova:
None of the “scientific research” I was referring to in my comment is related to the ‘dairy industry’. They are independent studies that have nothing to do with dairy but more with how our bodies work. I did not even mention any study that can be related to the dairy industry. I had major health problems for years and I can say with confidence I have done much more research than the average person. The knowledge I shared in my comment is a culmination of the bigger picture. Notice that I mentioned “raw unpasteurized milk” which the dairy industry is against and does not want to be made legal because they loose profits and small farmers expose their bad practices with regards to the health of animals and quality of milk. I am advocating raw milk in my comment, not the commercial low quality milk from the supermarket.
Breeze:
I am the one with the agenda? Please try to be sensible. I am not selling anything nor do I have any explicit benefit from sharing the information that I did. On the contrary, this author Vivian, has a lot of benefits by writing an article like this. This is a big website and it is selling products. I think you should be more concerned with the author and the website having an agenda, than with me.
Further, yes my claim that milk is legit because it’s still around is NOT flimsy. The fact that milk is still around is a testament to it’s nutritional value in a healthy diet. It seems like people nowadays take our ancestors (even our grandparents) as a joke, as if they weren’t independent thinkers or as if they didn’t have the capability to differentiate between what’s good and bad.
For example, for Hindus, in ayurvedic teachings, milk is the highest form of food. And Hindus have consumed milk for thousands of years. And even they advocate RAW milk, not the supermarket commercial milk.
And like Khen said, are you really comparing twinkies to milk?
The bottom line is: Milk is really good for you (if it’s raw and comes from healthy cows).
JACK:
Yes I used “LOL” in my argument because I was laughing out loud while reading this article and as I wrote my comment. It’s laughable because she is twisting up some generic studies on dairy products and making huge conclusions based off them. There are a thousand factors you have to consider to make conclusions like this and it’s clear she didn’t consider them. Like someone else pointed out, those countries with lowest dairy consumption also drink less cola soda and processed sugars. Further, it’s commercial diary, which I am not advocating. My argument is for raw milk from healthy cows.
KELLY FOSTER:
You call my comment ignorant but fail to tell me why? You did not even give any counter arguments. Please explain why my comment is ignorant? I presented many different ideas and proofs for milk being good for humans.
GRANT KENNEDY:
I don’t think I am full of it. And I mentioned God once (because I believe in God) but it was not part of my argument, I was just hoping that this author gets justice.
Raw milk contains lactase which is the enzyme needed to process lactose. People wouldn’t be lactose-intolerant if they consumed dairy products the way they were meant to be consumed.
And most people can tolerate yogurt, because of the probiotics in it that help digest lactose.
In fact, if you really look into what you eat daily, there is so much food that we ate that contains dairy products or has dairy added into it. You wouldn’t really know unless you were actually allergic to dairy and had to read the label of everything you bought.
Cows make so much excess milk and it is not too different than human breast milk. And cows are happy to share their milk.
And if you look at goat milk, it is the closest to human breast milk in composition and structure.
The argument that ‘cow milk is not for humans’ is repeated so often and is honestly the worst argument.
Is meat for humans or is it only for predators like lions and hyenas and crocs?
Are the vegetables for humans?
Are the fish for humans or is it only for the other predators in the oceans?
The point i’m trying to make is who decides cow milk is for humans or not? The bottom line is milk is a food. If it is good for us, we should drink it. If it is not good for us, we should avoid it.
And milk from my knowledge, is one of the best things a human can have, so we should drink it.
You can drink human breast milk if you want, but it would be extremely expensive because well…humans don’t produce much milk.
We drink cow milk or goat milk or camel or sheep milk, because they produce milk in abundance and they can share with us.
Whether it’s human breast milk or other mammal milk, it’s the same. People even drink WHALE milk. Milk is just a food.
DRINK MILK PEOPLE! DRINK RAW WHOLE MILK. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS. EAT YOGURT AND EAT CHEESE. IF YOU CANNOT TOLERATE MILK, THEN EAT YOGURT. THE CALCIUM WILL KEEP YOU SMILING AND DEPRESSION FREE, AND KEEP YOUR BONES STRONG. (it’s not JUST the calcium, dairy products have the fats and other vitamins and minerals that have great synergy with calcium and aid calcium metabolism in order to keep our bodies full of energy and disease free).
I think my favourite part about this disaster of a post is that you keep claiming that cows and goats are willing to share their milk with humans.
Even if we disregard the fact that the vast majority of milk is mass-produced by raping and torturing cows, there’s still the fact that you made that decision for an entire species without asking. It’s not your place to do that, and it sure as hell not your place to say what God intended.
Saying “the bottom line is” followed by whatever you want people to believe doesn’t make you right.
Milk does not keep you “depression free”. That is incredibly insulting to people with mental health issues. Good grief, if only depression were cured this easily.
You know, yelling your bullshit at people in caps lock doesn’t make it true either.
I’ll fall to your level as an experiment, shall I?
MILK IS TERRIBLE FOR YOU. DON’T DRINK IT OR EAT CHEESE. YOU CAN’T DIGEST IT PROPERLY BECAUSE IT’S NOT EVEN MEANT FOR HUMANS. IT’S NOT GOOD FOR YOUR BONES OR YOUR SKIN OR YOUR DIGESTION!
Is this obnoxious enough for you? Am I suddenly right now because I’m yelling like an asshole that wants people to do as told?
Your self-righteous religious bullshit is sickening. I for one refuse to believe in a God that wants us to exploit other animals for our own pleasure. This is not how nature intended it, not how God intended it. It’s merely how you WANT it. And that’s not an argument. That’s thick-sculled arrogance.
So much to reply to, so I’ll try to comment on the common things you three pointed out.
Bob Lake:
There are plenty of studies that prove dairy products reduce depression.
There are a lot of ‘independent’ studies that show how calcium deficiency is one of the biggest factors in depression.
Honestly, I can’t explain it all, you should do the research yourself.
Ayurvedic teachings also support this view (thousands of years of experience and knowledge).
Do you know what doctors prescribe to cure depression symptoms? 5HTTP, Serotonin and other SSRI’s, that ultimately increase serotonin/dopamine in your brain. This only reduces symptoms but chronic depression is a breakdown of the body that requires a complete healing of the nervous system. Milk as you know is the best food to nourish the nervous system and aids in development of the brain/nervous system in babies.
If you want to go in detail, you can research the connection between Tryptophan, serotonin, dopamine, calcium and vitamin D, and the connection they have in depression.
For example, vitamin D deficiency is also actually calcium deficiency. One study shows that without changing any other factors in the body, except increasing calcium intake by 2,000 mg/daily, in just one month, vitamin D serum levels increased 20%.
Another example of this is why people with extremely deficient vitamin D levels (Less than 29 nmol, and I had severe Vitamin D deficiency as well), don’t get better supplementing Vitamin D or getting sunlight. Go to https://overcomingms.org/ (multiple sclerosis, and go to their Vitamin D forums).
Why would this happen? Well because when the body is becoming calcium deficient AND there is very little intake of calcium in the diet, the body shuts down Vitamin D synthesis and PTH acts to break down the bone for calcium and other minerals. If you are simply calcium deficient, then PTH acts to break down bone AND increase Vit D synthesis. Vitamin D increases calcium metabolism, but if you are not even eating any calcium, the body has no use for it and it’s a very taxing process to synthesize Vitamin D (because it’s a hormone), so the body slows the synthesis down.
It can get complicated but no…this all has nothing to do with a hidden agenda. Seriously, i’m just sharing what I know.
My point is: If you connect all the dots, it becomes increasingly clear how important calcium is for the body (and it’s implications in chronic depression) and unfortunately no matter what you say, science supports the fact that milk and dairy products are by far the best source for calcium, and without them, you will inevitably become calcium -deficient, whether it happens in 3 years, 5 years or 15 or 25 years. It depends on your lifestyle.
Also, yes the fact that milk is still here after 10,000 years, is a testament to it’s value and nutritional benefits. I honestly don’t get why you don’t understand that. Your argument does not work with FOOD. Milk is still around because it’s good for us and for thousands of years, humans were agreed on this. Otherwise, they would have stopped drinking it. Arguing against this point is foolish. And it’s not one part of the world, milk is drunk all over the world, in all cultures , before globalization or technology was evolved. Cultures and societies separately valued milk.
And please, raw milk or milk from healthy cows is expensive compared to commercial dairy, but it’s also extremely filling and if you drink it regularly, you will lose your cravings for crappy food and save there. Anyone living in Canada or US has no excuse not to prioritize good high quality food. People waste money on so many random things they don’t need. It’s not about the price of the healthy milk, it’s about what people prioritize in their life and what they care about.
Jean Baker:
Why are you assuming things out of nowhere? Did I anywhere in my post advocate mass production of raw milk for everyone in the world? If you want to drink milk from unhealthy cows, be my guest. All I was trying to convey is that milk is good for humans and should be from healthy animals.
So your whole comment makes no sense in reply to my comment. On it’s own, your comment makes sense but I don’t know why you’re replying to me with that stance.
Obviously I understand raw milk cannot be provided for everyone, but whoever loves milk like me and wants to drink it, should support local farmers. And if enough people show an interest, more people would return to agriculture and farming.
In fact, Jim Rogers (legendary investor) thinks our society will shift back to agriculture, farming and mining.
Another example, where I live, they are working on a 100 acre Co-op farm, where each farmer can own 1 acre for $5000 and grow what they want. The farm is pesticide free for 50 years and has good soil. And thousands of people have shown interest because they will be able to grow organic fruits, vegetables and get healthy dairy products, and sell to local community members who purchase a premium membership for $100/yearly.
The project is pretty much done.
The point is: Food is something EVERYONE should be involved in, because we all need to eat to survive and our health depends on the quality of food we ingest. And by everyone, i mean all families or local communities(not literally every single person). Instead of giving everything to the big corporations and letting them dictate the prices/products.
And believe me, you don’t know how much $$ people waste on random supplements, random food items (junk food & eating out) and on other things for entertainment, when really, good quality food should be one of the biggest priorities. So yeah, many people can afford good food, if they prioritized their health more.
For example, people nowadays work hard and sit on the computer for hours a day and build a good career and put all their efforts into making money. Then what? When they are past 30 or 40, they spend the same money they earned, on their health.
No CEO of a big company is going to come to your doorstep and offer you your dream job. You have to work hard and put in hours. But when it comes to health, people think being healthy is the ‘norm’ and whatever they go through in their daily life is ‘natural’. When really, it’s not. And if you want good health, you’ll have to work hard and put effort into attaining it. And so many ‘symptoms’ of health issues people have just become accustomed to, as if it’s normal to catch a ‘viral flu’ or ‘allergies in summer’ or ‘stomach flu’ or ‘sinus’ or ‘headaches n migraines’ . No, these things are your bodies way of telling you that you are doing something wrong. Don’t just pop a tylenol to make the pain go away. Unfortunately, doctors endorse these things now and any symptom is ‘viral’ or ‘seasonal’.
Sara:
What really is the point of you comment? Did you actually mean the things you said in capslock or is that just a mockery?
Also, I don’t know what to say to your other point. I mean, milk is a food and animals produce abundant milk. Just like you can hire a woman to suckle your baby for you. If you are saying milk in ‘inhumane’, that’s another argument altogether. And I agree cows should not be ‘raped’ and tortured or have their kids taken away.
and if only you took the time to do the research and figure out that chronic depression is actually curable easily. Why would the big pharma companies want to cure it though? Of course not, because they are making BILLIONS of dollars….and why I would advocate an alternative that brings me $0, on the contrary. Think about it.
Many cultures and societies didn’t have epidemics of depression or heart disease, and some didn’t even hear of something like that.
These things are only recent, in the last few decades. Acute depression is understandable (loss of loved ones, etc) but chronic depression is an unheard thing according to history (look into it please).
To Bob Lake and Sara:
Bob “Cow milk is not designed for humans”
Sara “. YOU CAN’T DIGEST IT PROPERLY BECAUSE IT’S NOT EVEN MEANT FOR HUMANS”
Prove this to me. Instead of just saying some bullshit like every single person who is against milk does, please prove that MILK is not for humans.
Milk is milk. If you say cow milk is not for humans, then is goat milk okay? Considering goat and human milk are extremely similar. And the size of goat babies is similar to human babies.
I’d love to hear any argument you have to prove that ‘milk’ is not for humans.
75% of adults are lactose deficient. Instead lactase is added to make us digest the milk.
That’s unnatural don’t you think?
That’s because it’s normal and natural for adults to be “lactose-intolerant.” We’re NOT supposed to drink it and that’s our bodies’ way of telling us, kind of like getting a hangover is telling us not to drink so much booze.
LoL! I dunno if you’re like…really stupid or think everyone you’re talking to’s really stupid. You can’t have raw milk from healthy cows for everyone. Mass production with shit milk full of hormones that has to be pasteurized exists because so many people drink milk. Support your local farmers? Ha. ha. ha. Local farmers produce very little. You can only produce very little if you don’t stuff your cows full of hormones and keep millions of them in shit conditions. Enough raw milk just can’t be made for everyone in the world. It’s also expensive as hell. Mass production of crappy milk isn’t like…a thing corporations can just stop doing and still produce the same amount of milk. You can’t make it afordable and in big quantities without those conditions. It happens because so many people drink milk. It has to be mass produced in those shit conditions. You can’t make enough any other way. You can’t make it cheap any other way. What you’re capslocking over there is like saying everyone should buy natural diamonds, or only eat fruit that fell from a tree on its own in the woods. I dunno if you don’t understand supply and demand or if you aren’t connecting the dots of something. What you’re selling can’t be done.
You know, of all the things that are wrong with this post, what pisses me off the most, is the “milk keeps you depression free”. That’s like saying “orange juice will protect you from schizophrenia”, or “apples will keep you free of paralysis”. Depression is a medical condition. Do you not understand that? What century do you live in that you think you can say ignorant, offensive things like that and still believe yourself righteous?
“Milk is still around” is the flimsiest argument there is. There are so many things still around that are horrible, but they’re still around because someone gains from their existence. And milk is a huge industry, with a lot of money and power, which allows them to continue brainwashing folks like you into thinking milk is good. You might be propagating raw milk, but like several people have already pointed out to you, you can’t provide raw milk for the world’s population, and you either don’t get that or pretend you don’t get that, I don’t know.
Your personal experience is not proof. Even if milk really did you well, that doesn’t mean it’s good for humans in general. You know, my ex had issues with appetite, and the absolute only way he could make himself eat was to smoke marijuana. It saved him from having to be force-fed or hooked up to tubes. It maybe even saved his life. That doesn’t mean weed is good for people and should be propagated as a healthy choice for everyone.
Giving up dairy cleared my acne. I mean, seriously, it literally cleared my skin. Will you take that as proof that milk is bad for people? That’s a sample of one. I’m sorry, but your personal experience is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
No, human milk and cow milk isn’t ‘just milk’. It’s not the same. That is so nonsensical I want to throw a textbook at you. Cow milk has a completely different chemical composition. It is designed for a different species, for different purposes. It’s not about ‘deciding’ what’s for us and what isn’t. It’s not an ethical issue, it’s a chemical one. There are things some animals can eat that would kill others, or give them serious health issues. Cow milk is not designed for humans. Just because it’s food doesn’t mean it’s good for everyone who eats. Holly berries are food to, for plenty of birds. Are you going to feed them to your child?
We’re not taking our ancestors as a joke. We take them as people who lived in a less civilized world, who had less information available. We take them as people who spat on wounds to disinfect them, who treated free will in women with hysterectomies, who used cocaine as an anesthetic. We take them as people who drank milk out of necessity, not because it was good for them. You know our ancestors also ate a lot of plants and mushrooms that can sustain you, but will poison you overtime. They did that because they had to, or because they didn’t know any better.
Bringing up ancestors as proof of something being good is just illogical. You do realize you’re talking of people who sold their daughters into marriage, owned slaves? Of people who lost their teeth by 20 and died by 30? And are you presuming our ancestors always knew the difference between good and bad?
No, I don’t think my grandfather was a joke. I think he was a racist, misogynistic alcoholic, and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to take his opinion and present it as proof of something being good.
The bottom line is not that milk is really good for you. It’s so utterly arrogant to present your opinion as fact like this.
Yes, you DID use god as part of your argument. Yes, you did present research that could have been tainted by financial gain. You just don’t realize the correlation between presenting an argument about ~how our bodies work~ and the kind of effect it has on the human population and their willingness to purchase a product.
Or maybe you do. And that’s precisely what you’re after.
I think you’re also entirely blind to your own privilege. Most people can’t afford raw milk. They buy the mass-produced junk because that’s the only thing they can buy. As long as you keep claiming milk’s good for people, that’s what they’ll buy.
That’s actually also one of the reasons there are millions of people in the world who went on a plant-based diet, because they can’t afford meat or milk or eggs. People like to believe a plant-based diet is too expensive because that saves them from having to reconsider their lifestyle, but it’s only the sophisticated foods that are expensive. Plants are cheaper than animal products. Even mass-produced animal products. And many people can’t afford animal matter at all. Yet here you are, telling them to go drink raw milk.
Cows are not happy to share their milk with a farmer who took her child away. And yes, every farmer does that. Because there WOULD’T be enough excess milk to sell otherwise. Cows will succumb to milking because they have to, since their calf is not around to free them of that milk thanks to the farmer. It’s like imprisoning someone, then saying they love you because they take food from you, when in reality they just have to do that to survive a hell you put them in. Again, I don’t know if you don’t realize this or choose to ignore it.
You’re either just really ignorant or you purposefully ignore information that goes against your views.
And you’re propagating something that can seriously hurt people, while thinking yourself some sort of health-bringing hero.
Your arrogance and self-righteousness are disgusting. Yet you wear them like a badge of honor.
Damn. This might be the best thing I’ve ever read.
Please actually make a counter-argument with a collection of evidence or proof of research at the bottom of your comment in order to confirm your information is true. What I read in the your comment is just stating the opposite of the original commenter. In the original comment, it stated logic. Now think about lawyers. Half of their job is using logical reasoning, and while the other half may be information, this article doesn’t even have links to prove their credibility, proving how your comment isn’t the best, and you are the ignorant and arrogant one in this situation.
Please just listen to your parents and stop trying to convert this world into a nightmare where everyone is underweight and breaking bones at every second.
– Aidan 🙂
Bob– that was a fantastic rebuttal! This Registered Dietitian is in full support of your statements as well as the position of this article! Cow’s milk for baby cow’s– NOT humans!
How many adult animals still drink from their mothers? We’re supposed to be weaned at some point. It’s the natural order of things.
Hey I am a hindu and while milk has been around. Yes but as per ayurveda milk is a on the five white poisons. Ayurveda also denies consumption of cow’s milk. It is deisgned for a calf, who stops drinking it after it is weaned.
Also if any practise has been carried for a thousand years doesn’t make it right. We have sati, child marriages…we are glad to be rid of them. I am still researching on this milk controversy but I am sure that Ayurveda suggests you to not have any other mammal’s milk simply because nature didn’t create it for you. It will not work with your system.
Just curious, was this article, by any chance, endorsed or written by PETA?
Just wanted to make sure these claims are based on actual facts and not biased by the opinions of people’s personal beliefs.
And for the life of me, I can’t understand how milking a cow is considered “cruel.” As any lactating mother knows, it’s actually cruel to NOT drain the milk and let breasts get engorged.
As any mother knows, you have to be pregnant to give milk. Cows are forcibly impregnated so they can give milk. Then their children are taken away from them to be made into veal, and which point the cows are impregnated again. This goes on until the cow’s body breaks down and can no longer produce milk. Then she’s killed off for low-grade meat.
No, sure, that’s not cruel at all.
Jack
Milking a cow is not cruel. Sabrina is 100% right about that.
What you have mentioned are the wrongful practices of the big dairy corporations. Those practices are cruel. Milking the cow in and of itself, is not cruel, in fact if you talk to farmers, cows are happy to oblige and will go out of their way to not hurt you and be patient with you.
Instead of attacking ‘milk’ as a food, we all need to be attacking the big dairy corporations and farms, that operate with 1000-5000 or even 10,000 cows and mass-produce unhealthy milk, which has to be ultra pasteurized to insure nobody gets disease from drinking their filthy milk.
In fact, sometimes that’s not enough, because as you will see frequently, Nestle and other big dairy sellers, often recall MILLIONS of bottles/packs of milk they sold for contamination of Salmonella or listeria. There was just a recent recall for 2 million Nestle chocolate milk because of 1 of the diseases.
And of course, those big corporations can afford to settle the disputes out of court and pay $500k – $1 million to the families affected. And everyone is quiet again.
There’s one tiny problem here though.
There is absolutely no WAY to produce healthy milk for people in humane, healthy ways.
If a cow were to breed only when she wanted to and milked only when there was excess milk, allowed to stay with her calf instead of having it taken away for veal, allowed to live out her natural lifespan even when she can no longer breed or produce milk, can you imagine how much it will cost? Can you imagine now long it would take? Can you imagine how much space would be needed for that?
Sure, if there were only a few million people in the world, then milk could be produced humanely, but there’s 7 billion and everyone wants their milk. So cows HAVE to be kept in horrible conditions, raped repeatedly, pumped full of hormones, then discarded when they are no longer of use.
In order to stop that from happening, in order to have happy cows instead of factories with thousands of them in horrible conditions, we would have to significantly decrease the demand for milk. There is simply no way, no time, no space to provide for the current demand without resorting to the cruel practices. It’s not physically possible.
So sure, you can attack the big companies, the factories, but what’s that gonna do? If people still all want milk, the only way to provide it is with the mass-production. So how do you cut the demand enough that it actually can be met with humane conditions for cows?
You can’t. Even if everyone were to significantly cut down on their milk consumption, the demand would still be very high. The only way to make milk humanely is to provide for a considerably smaller percentage of humans. And billions would have to give it up completely. So who’s that gonna be? You? I’m guessing not.
And by the way, I wasn’t attacking ‘milk’ as a food. I was responding to a comment about why people consider milk cruel. Because the vast majority of people who drink milk buy it from corporations that rape, torture, and kill their cows when they are no longer producing.
You might be able to afford that spiffy raw milk, but most people can’t. Most people want their milk cheap, and in abundance, and that’s how the horrible conditions happen.
If everyone were to want that raw milk, then there would be no way to make it. And even that raw milk from healthy cows still means cows are separated from their offspring. It still means they’re killed off when they are no longer useful. Because the quality of milk is not affected by the emotional pain cows suffer, or by how quickly they’re killed off.
You may not care about this. But please, don’t deny that it’s happening. The more you tell people to go buy dairy, the more demand you’re trying to create, the more supply is needed, the more those horrible practices are necessary to meet the demand. You may not care about the cows or have some delusions about how we can live in a happy world were 7 billion people get their daily dose of milk from cows on green pastures that aren’t raped and killed off at the quarter of their lifespan, but claiming that milk is not a source of tremendous cruelty is either very ignorant or intellectually dishonest.
Sorry, I think I should correct myself a little here – you weren’t denying that the cruelty takes place. You did admit that it does. It’s just that you claim that the corporations are the problem rather than the humans who create the demand. I suppose if we do what you say and somehow magically manage to shut down mass-production of milk so the only milk that was produced in the world was produced humanely, then the milk production wouldn’t be AS cruel. Except then billions of people would be forced to quit milk at they could no longer afford it, plus there simply wouldn’t be enough of it. But I doubt that’s what you want, since you’re telling everyone to consume dairy.
Yeah, sorry, but Jack’s right on this one. You can’t provide good, humane milk for everyone.
Like, if we just set aside ethics for now and only talk about quality – imagine that I was making homemade jewelry, and it was pretty and unique and stuff. But then more and more people started buying it, so I wanted to make more, and I had to hire workers. Then I got machines that started stamping that jewelry, and it became crappy and cheap-looking and repetitive. Then you come in and say, hey, stop making that crappy jewelry, make good, handmade stuff like you used to. And suppose I do, but then I’ll be making far less of it, and it’ll be more expensive, and fewer people will have it. Even if there’s thousands of such jewelers, if everyone wants a new pair of earrings every morning, you can’t handmake them with care and still provide for everyone who wants them.
On a global skale, where everyone wants milk, everyone is constantly told they need that milk, demand is so high that good milk can’t be made for everyone. Some farmers can make it humanely, but that will be a short supply. It won’t satisfy demand.
You say mass-production is cruel, but you tell everyone to consume dairy.
You can either have a lot of bad, unhealthy milk produced by hurting cows, or you can have a little healthy milk from happy cows that’s going to be very expensive. You can’t have both. It just cannot be done.
Jack makes a good point too, that healthy milk isn’t necessarily humane. A lot of organic farms are not that much different from regular mass-production. They just don’t use hormones and conditions are better so that cows don’t get sick as much and milk’s cleaner, but it’s done for the quality of milk, not for animals. Even in organic farms cows have to be impregnated when the farmer needs them to be pregnant, because they wouldn’t be competitive if they didn’t have enough milk with minimal cows. And the cow’s kids are still taken away from them, they’re still killed when they’re spent. The milk’s good, it’s healthy, because the cows are kept in good conditions. But they’re still exploited, they’re still hurt, they’re still separated from their young, they’re still killed when their production decreases. And the more milk people want, the worse the exploitation gets, even on organic and local farms.
The only way to make milk without cruelty is on private farms with a few cows, where they are not forcibly bred, and only the surpluss milk is taken. But you can’t do that for the planet’s whole population. What you’re suggesting – everyone consuming dairy, but there not being cruel mass-production is just not doable. I don’t know if you truly don’t understand that or if you don’t want to admit it because that would make your whole argument fall apart. You need to realize that you are either telling everyone to consume dairy, which will create demand, and as a result create cruelty to cows, or you stop telling everyone to drink milk and stop pretending like that can be done without cruelty. There’s either no mass consumption or no cruelty. You really, really can’t have both.
To Jack & Robin:
I understand your points I read all the posts.
And you both make good points, sincerely.
However, think of it in a long-term perspective.
Did our world population grow to 7 billion in 1 day? No, it took decades.
Did the milk production grow to current amount in 1 day? No, it took decades.
Are people going to jump on healthy whole milk in 1 day? No, it will take decades.
And around here where I live (Toronto, Ontario), the change is happening fast. People are becoming aware of health and food and the organic/raw industry is emerging and booming.
Does everyone in the world have the knowledge you and I have? No. And they won’t have it tomorrow.
Change takes time. And adaptation to change will take time as well.
People are moving to healthier food choices and bigger companies who no choice but to accommodate healthier food choices for consumers. For example, even smirnoff (alcoholic drink) is advertising gluten-free fruit flavoring in their drinks.
The power is in the people, it always has been. If more and more people demand healthier milk, they will have no choice but to make standards stricter and supply healthier milk.
The problem isn’t that everyone wants cheap milk. The problem is that people don’t care. I’ve talked to 100’s of people that are scared death of raw milk (even though i suggest to boil it or just buy VAT pasteurized milk from healthy animals).
People are happy buying the milk from stores, they don’t care. But when more people become aware and start caring, things will change.
We have to be more positive and optimistic. Change can happen (and with good results). It’s not going to happen in 1 day so don’t think there will be some economic collapse or huge supply/demand issues. It doesn’t work that way.
If more people wanted healthier milk, more farming jobs would become available and I also (i’m 24) when I grow up, can get a farm of my own and some animals.
And one more important point, I’ve talked to many farmers and they are bullied by big companies to sell their milk to them. They really have no choice, the government is involved and the banks are involved.
Yeah some big companies have huge farms with 1000s of cows, but a huge chunk of their milk comes from small local farmers who sell their milk to them dirt cheap (like $0.50/liter or less). And they mix it all up and pasteurize it.
So don’t think that cruelty can’t be handled. Yeah for the greater good, there might be some, but it can be greatly reduced.
And nothing will change unless the government, banks, private investors, elites, and big corporations have something to lose.
And even if by stricter standards, the burden of price shifts to consumers, milk wouldn’t skyrocket, because like I said, more farmers would joii the market and people would seriously start thinking of farming as a career.
Still, milk is a cheap food if you use dollar to calorie ratio and I don’t think people will be affected too much. On the contrary, the better health benefits and peace of mind will positively affect overall health and can reduce health expenses (supplements, disease, prescriptions, fractures, etc).
I KNOW I went all over the place but on my screen the comment box is so small, I can only see a few lines of my whole comment and it would take a lot of time to make everything coherent and flow smoothly.
Just don’t drink it…
The bit about cruelty of milking in and of itself is kinda debatable. I actually didn’t have enough milk when I was breastfeeding. My sister had the same thing. A lot of mothers don’t need to pump milk, or don’t need to pump it as often as others. It’s a results may vary kind of situation.
With cows, without human interference, the calf would drink the milk, and many cows would only produce as much as the calf needs. Some would probably have more, but not all. People think cows need to be milked because we’ve created a world where cows are habitually separated from their calfs, and as a result, their milk needs to be removed. It wouldn’t be the case if humans didn’t decide to make cows into food machines that are run in the way the people want to run them. If you didn’t take the calf away from the mother, she wouldn’t need to be milked. Some might have too much milk, and I’ll agree, that milk’s not cruel to take. But that’s not the milk you’re drinking. That’s not the milk anyone’s drinking, except maybe like a farmer with a family cow and they only take the milk for themselves. There’s no way to make a profit on surplus milk from a cow that got to stay with her calf. There’s just not enough of it.
Cows have a really strong bond with their calf. If we’re talking about cruelty here, don’t you think removing the calf from the mother so that people can take her milk for their own consumption is cruel? Even if we don’t talk about factory farming and bad conditions and all that, taking the calf away is an inevitability that happens in any dairy production scenario. Organic or not. It has to happen or there won’t be enough milk to sell. That alone is cruel. And then there’s the fact that most people don’t drink organic milk. They drink the stuff from farms where cows are forcibly impregnated several times, pumped with hormones, hooked up to machines, and killed in 4 years because they aren’t producing anymore. And the male calfs are always beef/veal. Even on organic farms.
I’m not a PETA supporter but I know this article is based in truth, just because of my own experience for the past 20 years, and some seat-of-the-pants research. I get my calcium from a liquid supplement – pricy, but much better than the swill they call “milk.” When I drank milk I was often depressed, lethargic, dizzy, with stuffy sinuses. I found out I had some bone loss when I was in my 30’s. When I was 50 I did another bone test and I had actually gained some bone mass. The only major change in my diet was a LACK of milk. I eat junk food, don’t exercise, and I’m a major candidate for osteoporosis, supposedly. But I have good bones (and no more sinus infections) because I don’t drink milk. Please, people, this article is based in fact. If you don’t believe me, keep researching.
Sabrina, the entire useful life of a dairy cow is producing milk. If that was my entire existence, I would think that cruel. No titties are designed to produce milk without end, are there?
lol, I adore Miley! She is so crazy !
https://author.directory/51174
Hi, you know the world sells you so much crap its hard to believe. The milk industry tells you milk is good for you, you tell me milk is bad for me, so many studies,so many opinions. If i stop drinking milk and your wrong i lose, if i stop drinking milk and your right i win, i have two young kids that means the world to me and we give then lots of milk because doctors say to do so, i believe in what you say because cows milk is for cows, but did our lord put cows on earth to inrich us, or is it all bulshit and you are correct, i am so confused, i want to start a dialog with you about this, please i care so much for my family i am ready to give up all dairy products. Please i need to hear more from you because i have herd the same things from many other people. Please you have my e-mail address i have to know more. Thanks.
Hi there.
I appreciate that you love your kids. That is exactly why my family went vegan and stays away from sugar-enriched processed foods. I am off all of my medications and my gout and heartburn are gone. I have never been healthier or stronger!
I am a teacher and I am astounded that we still have a milk program, considering the facts that have been proven about cows milk (and the high sugar content).
The problem lies within the dairy and meat industries who don’t want anything to change. There are 10 lobbyists for every politician in the white house “convincing” politicians to tell the public that milk is good for you. Probably the same reasons why Trump wants to back out of the Paris agreement…
In the end, believe the people that have no outside interests and check who is funding studies or who the people are on the publishing councils.
The more control you take in your food, the better off you will be.
Check out Forks over Knives on Netflix. They backup the claims in this article.
Raise your children on red meat and dairy only. Who you gonna believe, people on the net or the government?
Certainly not the government…are you kidding?]
You rape rednecks?
Red meat and dairy = certain doom
well milk from supermarkets i.e. milk industry is bad for you, milk from private farmers is good. The difference is that when you try to mass produce something like milk things go out the rails.
What is up with some of these ridiculous comments? Calling the author a “dumb slut?” Misspelling “you’re” to boot. LMAO and you call HER dumb?! And the cola bit. Are you honestly using the “cola defense?” Last I checked, cola, while also not healthy for you, as milk isn’t, wasn’t laden with antibiotics and growth hormones like milk is. This is why many girls are reaching puberty at a younger age. Not to mention how gassy many people get drinking milk. Would you drink cat’s milk? How about rat’s milk? No? Why not? Why in the world would anyone in their right mind drink liquid coming out of animals? When you think about it, it’s nasty! We were all brainwashed in grade school learning about the 4 major food groups. Guess who subsidizes those programs? The meat and dairy industry! Not to mention the cruelty on factory “farms.” Do some research on how cow’s are treated in the dairy industry. If a male is born to a cow they are stilen away at birth and placed into dark crates to be slaughtered as veal. Let’s not forget the disastrous environmental effects resulting from factory farmed animals. Air, water and ground pollution. It’s solely about money. They don’t care about your health, the animals or the environment. Wake up people.
hell yes i agree!!!
RIP the cows 🙁
Hi, i am sorry for all the idiots with rude and unkind remarks, i on the other hand need and want to know more about this, i need proof of this, i need to know for sure that i am not going to hert my kids if i get rid of dairy products, i myself love soy products but i do drink milk, and my kids drink lots of milk, but if its going to hert my kids or me, well i rather never touch it again. You have my e-mail i need to know more lets right to eachother and pass info to one another, i also wrote the auther of this post and asked for help, o yeah and dont bother with rude ignorite people, its more importent to get the message out. Thanks
Clean water pH 7… milk pH 6.4 to 6.8 (hardly acidic)… Cola 2.5. No wonder you can clean oil of your drive with it, imagine what it does to your bodies natural balance! Instead of using milk, a drink people have enjoyed for thousands of years, as a means to bring about awareness of animal cruelty think about this…
The countries (pertaining to this article) that drink the least amount of milk no doubt consume the least cola also (and other sodas), have a better diet rich in vegatables not processed meals, and lead a more active and less sedentary lifestyle. Cola, enjoyed by millions, does far more damage to the body than milk ever could and has none of the health benefits of milk, perceived or otherwise.
This woman clearly has an agenda. I hope God exacts justice from her. This is one of the most misleading articles I’ve ever read. Milk is a blessing and a wonderful complete food, in fact, eggs and milk are the ONLY two whole foods that have the full nutritional profile to sustain LIFE. (eggs have everything inside them to facilitate growth of life and similarly, milk facilitates growth in newborns and sustains life).
Raw milk is THE best food on the planet. This woman needs to examine her head lol but clearly she is just lying for some other agenda she has.
Anyone who seeks the truth would understand this basic fact: Cows have been domesticated for more than 10,000 years and so, milk has been drunk by humans for similar amount of time (completely raw until the 1800s when pasteurization was introduced DUE to malpractice of farmers).
Conclusion? If MILK was so BAD for us, it would have been removed from our diets 1000’s of years ago……but it has PERSISTED throughout our diets after 1000’s of years of observations and experiences and people living on milk and milk is still here.
If milk was giving people weak bones and other problems, just after a few generations of drinking milk, people would have learned and told their children to not drink milk.
The only reason MILK persisted till now is because it is so good for us.
And your reasoning is bullshit. LMAO it’s actually laughable. Milk can be slightly acidic BUT all the minerals and vitamins it has in it have the OPPOSITE effect because they are alkaline. You said yourself that calcium is one of the biggest buffers of acid in the body……and Milk has A LOT, and to get it from other sources is REALLY tough.
And again…LMAO. Milk has so many things in it to facilitate BONE GROWTH. LOL.
Milk does not help pull calcium from the body, it helps to PUT IT BACK IN.
The fat in the milk (especially guernsey/jersey cows with 5% fat milk) is a major factor for bone growth (in fact, butterfat/butter increase bone density the most out of any other fat, followed closely by olive oil)….meaning saturated fats in the milk.
The potassium in the milk helps bone growth and to RETAIN CALCIUM..LOL.
The vitamin K2 helps to absorb more calcium and to PUT IT IN THE BONES…again LOL.
The Vitamin D again, helps to absorb more calcium and utilize it.
oh…and the MAGNESIUM (yes raw milk has a A LOT of magnesium) helps to increase bone density and retain calcium.
oh…and the B VITAMINS….and etc etc..you GET THE POINT I HOPE LOL.
One more thing, vitamin D deficiency is actually CALCIUM deficiency…so get the hell outta here with this milk myth…..people are getting so many diseases because they LACK CALCIUM to buffer the acidity in their body (your point!).
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2362.1988.tb01165.x/abstract
the study above shows that increase in calcium intake, INCREASED serum vitamin D by 20% or more, in just ONE MONTH.
I had weak bones for years and injuries/fractures in my wrists, my shoulders, my ankles and my 2 fingers. They didn’t heal for 4 years!!! Then when i started drinking raw milk, they fully healed in 7 months!!!!! During those 4 years, i was having an “amazing” diet i thought, full of nuts seeds, vegetables, fruits , some occasional meat.
My experience with milk has been the complete OPPOSITE of this dumb article. And I can prove it with studies if someone doesn’t believe me.
Calcium is the MAIN mineral in the body for a reason!!! God created us perfectly, the only reason we can survive so long without food (just water) is because our bones break down to provide calcium !! In comparison, Magnesium (which is so highly regarded these days, only has storage capacity in body of 30g!!!!….whereas calcium is up to 1.2KG or 1200g!!!!) We need Calcium WAY MORE THAN MAGNESIUM and other minerals.
And I firmly believe all these diseases people are getting is because of lack of CALCIUM.
Studies even show, that LACK of calcium causes kidney stones, especially with a high vegetable diet (with lots of oxalates and phytates).
IF ANYONE READ ALL OF THIS, THANK YOU, and YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE I SHARED, IT REALLY IS THE TRUTH, SO FEEL FREE TO BELIEVE IN IT 100% !! (Do your own research too and you will know i have spoken the truth, whereas this woman has lied to thousands or millions of people!)
🙂
Mujtaba it seems you are full of it. And you bring god into this?
Approximately 70% of all people are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk protein. It is a horrible food for humans. Luckily I was told by a doctor 20 years ago that milk is good for baby cows but not people!
Exactly. Maybe she works for Oberweis.
wow this is the most ignorant comment I have ever seen. Do some research before you start acting like you know anything.
You argument is for the cows!! You left the F out of LMAO. Drinking all that milk from the utter is causing you to lag. Who uses LOL in a respectable argument. Go take a Valium with your milk.
HA! Good one Jack .. agreed. Maybe she needs 2 V’s.
WRONG. If anyone has an agenda it’s you. Your claim that milk is legit because it’s still around is flimsy. Twinkies and child prostition have been around a long time too. Do some more research.
Are you honestly comparing milk (a natural product consumed by humans since the dawn of agriculture) to Twinkies (a manufactured good that first appeared in the 30s)?
Look, when the national health institute, the mayo clinic, and constant doctors insist that we need calcium, I’m not going to be so easily swayed by a single blogger with a clear agenda.
So misinformed, you are. The so-called “scientific research” was done by scientists paid for by the dairy industry, whose goal was to produce outcome-based results.
Dairy is said to be the most successful marketing scam since the tobacco industry’s 1950’s & 1960’s compilation of lies that “scientifically proven”, tobacco is non-addictive and non-harmful and even had doctors promote it in advertising. These scientists were also paid by the tobacco industry, just like the dairy industry. Research and know the truth.
Gail and Roderick Ewins, thank you for agreeing with me.
Michelle Dinova:
None of the “scientific research” I was referring to in my comment is related to the ‘dairy industry’. They are independent studies that have nothing to do with dairy but more with how our bodies work. I did not even mention any study that can be related to the dairy industry. I had major health problems for years and I can say with confidence I have done much more research than the average person. The knowledge I shared in my comment is a culmination of the bigger picture. Notice that I mentioned “raw unpasteurized milk” which the dairy industry is against and does not want to be made legal because they loose profits and small farmers expose their bad practices with regards to the health of animals and quality of milk. I am advocating raw milk in my comment, not the commercial low quality milk from the supermarket.
Breeze:
I am the one with the agenda? Please try to be sensible. I am not selling anything nor do I have any explicit benefit from sharing the information that I did. On the contrary, this author Vivian, has a lot of benefits by writing an article like this. This is a big website and it is selling products. I think you should be more concerned with the author and the website having an agenda, than with me.
Further, yes my claim that milk is legit because it’s still around is NOT flimsy. The fact that milk is still around is a testament to it’s nutritional value in a healthy diet. It seems like people nowadays take our ancestors (even our grandparents) as a joke, as if they weren’t independent thinkers or as if they didn’t have the capability to differentiate between what’s good and bad.
For example, for Hindus, in ayurvedic teachings, milk is the highest form of food. And Hindus have consumed milk for thousands of years. And even they advocate RAW milk, not the supermarket commercial milk.
And like Khen said, are you really comparing twinkies to milk?
The bottom line is: Milk is really good for you (if it’s raw and comes from healthy cows).
JACK:
Yes I used “LOL” in my argument because I was laughing out loud while reading this article and as I wrote my comment. It’s laughable because she is twisting up some generic studies on dairy products and making huge conclusions based off them. There are a thousand factors you have to consider to make conclusions like this and it’s clear she didn’t consider them. Like someone else pointed out, those countries with lowest dairy consumption also drink less cola soda and processed sugars. Further, it’s commercial diary, which I am not advocating. My argument is for raw milk from healthy cows.
KELLY FOSTER:
You call my comment ignorant but fail to tell me why? You did not even give any counter arguments. Please explain why my comment is ignorant? I presented many different ideas and proofs for milk being good for humans.
GRANT KENNEDY:
I don’t think I am full of it. And I mentioned God once (because I believe in God) but it was not part of my argument, I was just hoping that this author gets justice.
Raw milk contains lactase which is the enzyme needed to process lactose. People wouldn’t be lactose-intolerant if they consumed dairy products the way they were meant to be consumed.
And most people can tolerate yogurt, because of the probiotics in it that help digest lactose.
In fact, if you really look into what you eat daily, there is so much food that we ate that contains dairy products or has dairy added into it. You wouldn’t really know unless you were actually allergic to dairy and had to read the label of everything you bought.
Cows make so much excess milk and it is not too different than human breast milk. And cows are happy to share their milk.
And if you look at goat milk, it is the closest to human breast milk in composition and structure.
The argument that ‘cow milk is not for humans’ is repeated so often and is honestly the worst argument.
Is meat for humans or is it only for predators like lions and hyenas and crocs?
Are the vegetables for humans?
Are the fish for humans or is it only for the other predators in the oceans?
The point i’m trying to make is who decides cow milk is for humans or not? The bottom line is milk is a food. If it is good for us, we should drink it. If it is not good for us, we should avoid it.
And milk from my knowledge, is one of the best things a human can have, so we should drink it.
You can drink human breast milk if you want, but it would be extremely expensive because well…humans don’t produce much milk.
We drink cow milk or goat milk or camel or sheep milk, because they produce milk in abundance and they can share with us.
Whether it’s human breast milk or other mammal milk, it’s the same. People even drink WHALE milk. Milk is just a food.
DRINK MILK PEOPLE! DRINK RAW WHOLE MILK. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS. EAT YOGURT AND EAT CHEESE. IF YOU CANNOT TOLERATE MILK, THEN EAT YOGURT. THE CALCIUM WILL KEEP YOU SMILING AND DEPRESSION FREE, AND KEEP YOUR BONES STRONG. (it’s not JUST the calcium, dairy products have the fats and other vitamins and minerals that have great synergy with calcium and aid calcium metabolism in order to keep our bodies full of energy and disease free).
If you have Netflix, watch this documentary “What the Health”
It’s pretty eye opening.
There are so many of these sorts of “scare” posts on the internet, that it pays to check them with REPUTABLE sources. The Mayo Clinic has a number of articles online about calcium intake, and lists milk as one of the appropriate natural sources. One article is https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/calcium-intake-for-adults-over-age-55/ but there are a number — check Mayo Clinic site. I would sooner believe their experts than this person.
Mayo Clinic is s for profit corporation
Go ahead listen to them, dipshit
Great response, thank you for taking the time to share this information. I tend to agree with you, milk is healthy.
Lovely high horse you have there. I hope some god or another executes justice on you too. For claiming you know what gods want anyway. That’s ridiculously arrogant.
Yeah, milk has been around for a long time. So has genocide, rape, slavery, and a myriad of other things that are just to great for people because surely, if they were bad for us, in a couple of generations, we’d stop.
I love how you think that if just throw whatever you believe in at people and claim it’s “basic fact”, then it makes it true. Surely. Also, insult the writer a few times for good measure.
LMAO at you as well, love. May god strike you down for your ignorance and your arrogance. Keep telling people to consume things that are destroying their body. I’m sure your deity of choice will just love that.
You mean you hope your radical Islamic god strikes her down?
I never could drink milk… didn’t have much of a go at mom’s milk cause her teats were too small… and couldn’t drink cow’s milk… it always settled too heavy in my stomach… the only exception is the occasional drink at 0600 of fresh raw chilled milk from Mother Dairy… by 12 years of age, I had already figured out and made clear to my mom, cow’s milk if for calves, not adult humans, period…
Everything is bad for you in some way, and everything has a small benefit is someway or another…
I’ve drank milk, chocolate milk for 30 years probably more than I should and I’m one of the strongest men at my job site …. has this been proven by scientists experiments having humans drink large amount of milk as their only beverage or is this just another theory made by individuals who hate the taste of milk ? … Europe and America have the largest amounts of osteoporosis because of milk or is it the processed gmo foods injected to grow faster be larger, stay on the shelf longer ?
If this is true and you drink milk, don’t be lazy… get up and move and make sure your eating and exercising to build bone mass, the older you get the less your bone has to work will when it’s tearing down and rebuilding
MILK IS NOT ACIDIC!!! ITS A BASE!!! Like wtf, you’d think with all the good reasons to be vegan, you wouldn’t see so many dipshits on the internet.
https://www.thoughtco.com/milk-an-acid-or-a-base-607361
What did 7th grade science teach about protein digestion? The end product of protein digestion is amino acid! Hence the theory that milk is acidic AFTER it is digested.
Wrong, milk’s pH is 6.5-6.7, clearly acidic
Ya know what VEGANS? Why do we insist on trying to convince Animal-eaters to come over to veganism (Or at least plant-based nutrition)? Why? Let them continue to listen to Weston A. Price and William Davis… they’re so brainwashed by the Meat-industry that they refuse to look at science. They can’t even use common sense anymore.
Even a 7-year old, can look think and draw a logical conclusion without scientific evidence… and ask “Mommy, why do more than 1 million people die in America in diet-related deaths and you are feeding me the same crap that 98% of the people eat? Aren’t I also going to get diseases like these other people?”
It’s pretty ignorant to use America’s diet related death count. Or maybe you know that diet related death is only connected to meat by heart disease which is only a threat for sedentary people who eat a lot of red meat.
You’re right, meat it’s generally bad for the human body, but don’t argue it with vague statistics that actually say more about our unnatural food stuffs and fast food. No other country has diet related deaths like the US, but it’s not because they’re all vegans. Lol.
I only use unsweetened almond milk. I was watching TV one day and saw a infommercial for a new type of milk made from peas. It’s not widely available yet. Could this be another form of non-dairy milk to use and would be good for you?
This article has some serious flaws. First off, using calcium to reduce acid is NOT the body’s first line of defense. Bicarbonate is by far the #1 buffer in the human body capable of handling large amounts of both volatile and dietary acids. “New” Bicarbonate is made every day in the kidney, and our serum has approximately 24mmol/L, which can prevent fairly significant pH swings. As an example, our metabolism alone creates enough endogenous acid that if you hold your breath for one minute without a buffer, it would kill you! Lucky for us, we have a great buffering system. That just shows how powerful bicarbonate is, and how much it can handle. Drinking a few glasses of milk WILL NOT make you acidic enough to need calcium to balance the charge. I would like to see more studies published, as I believe that science moves forward based on evidence from research, but until more research is conducted showing a direct link and not just a association, keep drinking milk.
So if milk is acidic due to the fact that it’s an “animal protein” and ” all animal protiens are acidic” – as you claim – why is yogurt not acidic? Isn’t yogurt an animal protiens? One with an even higher protiens concentration than milk? Also, after slamming milk, you recommend people use honey??? Numerous studies have shown honey to be much more damaging than milk could ever hope to be, not only is it a sugar – which, surprise, is acidic in nature – it’s partially broken Dow making absorption into the blood stream quicker, which causes hard to control and severe blood sugar spikes,and contains digestive enzymes from the bees… like cows milk being made for a calf, honey… is made for bees. Being ” natural” doesn’t always mean it’s good. Finally the typical gallon of almond milk has something like 4-6 whole almonds in it… There are no health benefits associated with almonds, in almond milk. Soy also contains absurdly high levels of estrogen… Not God for anyone. But hey, slam whoever you want! Write articles with no sources listed except two poorly sighted statements.
chemistry wont debunk the myth of whether milk is good for you or bad. ask those who been drinking it for years , im sure you will get an answer. I have been drinking milk for 40yrs now and not a broken bone or fracture for that matter and I have been super active from early childhood.
Take chemistry 101 as you have lots of wrong scientific information. You have no understanding of basic chemistry and you allow yourself to go deep into basic. Iochemistry and you are Wasting readers time and derailing them from what really happens when one drinks milk. Your calcium depletion explanation is wrong and has nothing whatsoever to do with science.
I like how very little sources you provide to back up your argument and the fact that what you do present is from the 90’s. Your information is outdated. Read some current research and then present these so called “facts”.
there’s something here that everyone is missing. Except for the 100% fact that cow’s milk is meant for calves, have any of you ever asked yourselves what happens to the calves that are born from these dairy cow’s? The meat, dairy and fishery industries are an absolute disgrace and it doesn’t matter what excuses you continue to make about the supposed “need” for these “food” items…
https://www.whitelies.org.uk/animal-welfare/what-happens-calves-when-we-drink-cow%E2%80%99s-milk
Amen.
As a nutrition student I had to write a paper about a food myth, I chose whether or not milk is harmful to consume or not and after reading this article and researching the claims I can tell you this article is very weak in support.
1. In the article the first claim she makes is that “milk depletes the calcium from your bones” rather than the bones absorbing the calcium. However the only support she provides is “But many scientific studies have shown an assortment of detrimental health effects directly linked to milk consumption.” There are no graphs, data, quotes, or any reliable form of evidence provided in this claim.
2. Goldschmidt claims that milk is pulling calcium from the bones because milk is causing an acidifying effect in our body. However milk is a base, and the body pulls calcium from the bones when the body is breaking down proteins. The body releases acids into the bloodstream to breakdown proteins and then pulls calcium from the bones to neutralize the pH level. According to Harvard University “Nurses’ Health Study, for example, women who ate more than 95 grams of protein a day were 20 percent more likely to have broken a wrist over a 12-year period when compared to those who ate an average amount of protein (less than 68 grams a day).” Harvard University also points out that this is still a controversial topic because studies show that high protein diets also lead to high bone density.
3. Goldschmidt also claims that countries with low dairy intake have a lower chance of fractures but still lacks to provide evidence to support her claim. After that she then states that healthcare practitioners ignore these so-called “Facts” (which she still has failed to provide support). She then goes on to point out that cow’s milk is designed specifically for cows. She claims that it will only cause metabolic disturbances. However this is an assertion because she does not address lactose intolerance which not everyone has.
4. Harvard: “When researchers combined the data from the Harvard studies with other large prospective studies, they still found no association between calcium intake and fracture risk.”
Thankyou. I will research current information. If i hadnt read these replys and comments i may have been fooled.
Okay, so I thought I would read this article to look at the ‘other side’ of the dairy milk discussion.
I am not a scientist but as a sustainable horticulturist I do understand some basics of chemistry.
Any credibility in the argument put forward in this article fell apart thanks to this…”milk acidifies the body pH which in turn triggers a biological correction. You see, calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer…”
Let’s just dissect this shall we?
– Milk does not acidify anything. It is pretty darn close to pH neutral. That is one of the reasons it is very useful for mild heartburn – it can re-balance stomach acid.
– Nothing, repeat nothing, ‘acidifies the body’ or the blood on any more than a minor and temporary basis. If your blood or body was ‘acid’ (or alkaline for that matter) you would know about it. Big time. You would be very, very ill with renal failure or very unpleasant severe GI symptoms.
– Please someone explain to me how milk is apparently acid or has an acidifying effect yet it is pH neutral & is rich in calcium & this sentence then tells us that this same calcium, which in milk is apparently acidifying, is “… an excellent acid neutralizer…”
Look, sorry, but there are some basic & immutable principles of chemistry that are being disregarded by this milk/calcium/bone theory – the pH scale & acids & bases – these chemical reactions are facts, not theory.
I won’t even get into the fact that pH regulation in your body is performed mainly by your kidneys, not somehow magically by your bones.
I have a very open mind but I start from the point of facts. I am yet to see any substantial ones in this argument.
Shockingly stupid response. Anyone thinking milk is ph neutral needs to try to make cheese. Milk will drop to 4.0 if left too long on the counter. Almost vinegar.
Milk sitting on the counter drops its ph because there is bacteria in it, and as the bacteria metabolizes the milk (eat the milk for an energy source), its waste product is acidic.
The pH of milk is 6.5-6.7, clearly acidic!
Milk is actually slightly acidic.
She is selling a product…almond milk.
Well she must be selling so and rice milk too cuz she mentioned both of those as well. Idiot.
After doing additional research I can only come to the conclusion that the author is either a Peta member or just dumb. It’s unfortunate that people will read this and take it the wrong way.
I Drink milk all the time, and it “increases fracture risk” ive fallen 5-12 feet before and landed on hard ground directly on my arm with my hand stretched out and havent broken/fractured any bones. i played hockey for 10+ years being slashed by hockey sticks quite alot and no bone fractures either, do i just have strong bones or is the “increase fracture risk” completely bullshit.
You are honestly are praising milk because you have not broken bones…
Read the comment you wrote several times to yourself …………holy cow
I’m a Christian, and God mentions “a land flowing with milk and honey” many times in the Bible to indicate peace, well being and prosperity. In Isaiah 55:1,2 “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. . . . Listen to me and eat what is good.” I believe God made milk for us because it is good for us, and I do NOT believe a newly man made substitute is better. I was also a chemistry teacher before my children were born. Milk is considered a near neutral pH. It does contain many vitamins and minerals that the body needs. In ancient days, most people only had a cow or a goat with limited fruits and vegetables. It sustained them and kept them healthy. In America today, we have an obnoxious amount of food and snacks, both healthy and unhealthy. We eat to much in general and do not get enough exercise. The main thing that causes your bones to be strong is weight bearing exercise. That is why the hockey player has strong bones. We need to get off our bottoms, walk, lift, and move things. Eat food for enjoyment and nourishment and GIVE GOD thanks for the beautiful life we enjoy.
You’re citing the bible, really? The bible is basically ancient advertising. They stuck whatever they wanted to sell to people in there so they’d buy it. That’s why it says you’re not supposed to grow different plants in the same garden, or wear mixed cloths. Are we going to stick to that as well?
Milk did not keep people in ancient times HEALTHY. It sustained them, yes. But they were neither healthy nor did they live long. You’re talking about a time when life expectancy was 25 years.
Milk can sustain you, sure. So can mashed potatoes. People lived off nothing but turnips in war times. Just because something can sustain you doesn’t actually mean it’s healthy.
God did not make milk for us. Even if you believe some sort of higher being made everything, then it made milk for cows. To sustain and raise their offspring. We just usurped it from them like we do with everything, because we’re arrogant assholes that think we’re entitled to just about anything so long as we can take it and get away with it. You can justify that with god’s will, but then you’re just making god look like an asshole that put cows on Earth so we’d torture and rape them, then take their milk and kill their children so we can have a tasty milkshake and veal. I don’t think god is that horrible of a being.
I consume 18 pints of cows milk a week which only cost me £4.35 if i where to swap to an alternative like almond milk it would cost me £16.20, that’s almost £65 a month just for milk, so unless i become rich i will be sticking to cows milk, milk alternatives are a rip off and the production does not justify the price.
You don’t need to consume milk substitutes which are either overpriced or too much for your budget. Milk substitutes are only sold for helping people transition from the vegetarian diet since most people are addicted to the taste of milk, cheese and butter. If you just want to keep your bones healthy and need calcium you can consume any green leafy vegetables, carrot, cabbage, etc. To see a detailed list of plants that contain calcium visit this link https://adaptt.org/veganism.html and click the link titled ‘Vitamins, Minerals, and Other Nutrients’. The only reason cows milk has calcium is because cows feed on grass which is rich in calcium. But that calcium from cows milk as explained in this article is not absorbed by our body and the other byproducts in milk actually lead to decrease in bone health. By the way, if you still need a substitute, you can prepare oat milk (which is really healthy), by soaking the oats overnight and mixing them in a food processor. If like me, you are wondering why the hell were we taught that ‘milk is good for bones’ I have no idea, since every evidence proves otherwise. If you have any doubts please reply and ask.
Ok. Wait. Go it!
Everyone, nearly in this comment section is saying this article is old, outdated and completely wrong. And I don’t know what to believe anymore. LITERALLY, I’ve been seeing so much evidence that milk is good for you, and I can’t find enough evidence to support that it isn’t good for you. I am REALLY desperate to find enough evidence and information to prove it’s bad for you.
Forget whether a female cow’s breast milk is good for you. Go onto Glass Walls fb page for a behind-the-scenes truth about the dairy industry. Repeated rape of each female cow, while in a “rape rack”, the kidnapping of her babies, almost immediately, they both cry for each other until they lose their voices in about 3 days, at which point their tears continue to flow for about 3 weeks. Men kicking, punching, calling them ‘Bitch” and “Cunt”, because their bodies are so spent that they can’t walk or get up, so while being kicked they are yelled at by men abusively yelling, “Get up bitch”, or “Get up you fucking cunt”. Of course they want to get up but can’t, so then are then dragged by a forklift which have them chained to one of their legs, even attached to their broken leg, and dragged as far as needed, along gravel and concrete in excruciating pain and ultimately terrified until their horrific slaughter.
I live in Florida, and there are cow pastures all over the place. The cows are seen with their young nursing in the fields. It’s cute to see the baby cows every spring. Not all farms rape their cows, and what a horrible thing to have happen to all those cows. To please God, go on a mission to help change legislation for those farms that allow the raping of cows. To please the LORD is to get justice for the oppressed, the homeless and the widow, and that includes animals too!
There’s actually plenty of evidence to support the fact that cow’s milk is bad for you. This article is not the greatest, but it’s not the only one. There are plenty of reputable sources that try to nudge people away from milk, because even if it has some health benefits, its hazards far outweigh them.
I don’t know how you’d be struggle to find information on this, because a lot of health organization these days are being more and more open about the dangers of milk, even as they have to go against the monstertruck that is the dairy industry.
Of course there are plenty of places that will tell you that milk is good for you, because the dairy industry is massive and they pay people to conduct inherently flawed studies that support a desired result. Independent studies are harder to come by, and when you do, there will always be people that claim that someone’s independence just means they’re vegan or something and they want you to stop torturing cows, so they tell you milk is bad for you.
There are some health benefits from raw milk, which is ridiculously expensive and difficult to come by. But those health benefits are much better acquired from other foods that don’t have the health hazards that milk does.
I have switched to goat’s milk, as reading up on it, they say the body absorb’s this milk more easily than cow’s milk, I found with drinking almond milk, I wasn’t getting enough calcium. Do you agree?
Regards Janine
I don’t believe that the author would agree, especially since she has advocated that all types of animals on this planet once they would have weaned their young off of milk, there was no turning back. Humans are the only ones it seems who seems to want to regress instead of growing and thriving in the way nature intended.
I also understand that Goats multiply in body weight more quickly than cows, it has more fat in it, its intended for goats and not you, in addition to almond milk and other plant based milk (that’s perfect for human consumption) green leafy vegetables are an excellent source of calcium, you don’t need to resort to the animals to get your calcium, just look at what they eat to get their calcium…and leave the goats alone.
Go onto Glass Walls fb page for a behind-the-scenes truth about the dairy industry. Repeated rape of each female cow/goat, while in a “rape rack”, the kidnapping of her babies, almost immediately, they both cry for each other until they lose their voices in about 3 days, at which point their tears continue to flow for about 3 weeks. Men kicking, punching, calling them ‘Bitch” and “Cunt”, because their bodies are so spent that they can’t walk or get up, so while being kicked they are yelled at by men abusively yelling, “Get up bitch”, or “Get up you fucking cunt”. Of course they want to get up but can’t, so goats are then dragged by a man by their hind leg, cows by a forklift which have them chained to one of their legs, even attached to their broken leg, and dragged as far as needed, along gravel and concrete in excruciating pain and ultimately terrified until their horrific slaughter.
Please link me to these ‘scientific studies’ you mention in your article. You include no sources where this information is coming from and I cannot find similar research on the Internet.
How retarded do you have to be to think milk is bad for you? Apparently quite a bit.
Passing judgement on a subject you have obviously not researched really shows your level of ignorance. It’s never to late to try and make some changes.
Good Luck.
You may find this video by Mark Hyman (MD) helpful to understand why dairy isn’t good for our health. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O-ehIkwGME There are other videos on youtube which are also informative. Please search around and educate yourself. It’s on your own and you family’s health. Don’t believe what the society and media tell us.
The media can never be trusted. Especially when it comes to feminism. Gooodness me! Media promoting feminism is one of the worst things ever. Because it’s a complete lie.
Not the person who wrote it but here is a website with research on it, https://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/72/3/681.full
From the Nutrition article / study mentioned by Eclipse:
“Numerous studies (see below) have shown the effect of individual nutrients on calcium status and bone mass, but only 2 studies compared the effects of different dairy foods. In both studies, milk had a favorable effect whereas total dairy food and cheese intakes did not have a favorable effect on bone mass (17, 26).”
The bigger problem is not whether or not cow’s secretions are good for humans is the cruelty and torture of the dairy industry. Go onto ‘Glass Walls’ or ‘Mercy for Animals’ fb page for a behind-the-scenes truth about the dairy industry. Repeated rape of each female cow, while in a “rape rack”, the kidnapping of her babies, almost immediately, they both cry for each other until they lose their voices in about 3 days, at which point their tears continue to flow for about 3 weeks. Men kicking, punching, calling them ‘Bitch” and “Cunt”, because their bodies are so spent that they can’t walk or get up, so while being kicked they are yelled at by men abusively yelling, “Get up bitch”, or “Get up you fucking cunt”. Of course they want to get up but can’t, so then are then dragged by a forklift which have them chained to one of their legs, even attached to their broken leg, and dragged as far as needed, along gravel and concrete in excruciating pain and ultimately terrified until their horrific slaughter.
Are you the same Milk Man from HWNDU? The guy who ate the raw cow brains in front of vegans?
not drinking milk will lessen the effects of flatulence.. So if you want to have good volume in your farts keep drinking milk!
this is stupid i have drank milk all my life and i have never broke any bones i fell from 15 feet and landed on my wrist while it was bended back and all i got was a sore wrist.
Nice sample size of 1 man. Very scientific and we’ll thought out.
Love that comeback, spot on!
This clip is from “SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN”….Do Dairy Products Cause Osteoporosis?
People who are suspicious of milk’s role in bone health like to point out that the countries with the highest consumption of dairy products also have the highest incidence of osteoporosis. Is this convincing proof that dairy products cause osteoporosis? Not even remotely.
There are many things that affect bone health, including genetics, physical activity, body weight, smoking or exposure to second hand smoke, alcohol use, hormone levels, and medications. If any of those risk factors are more common in countries that have higher dairy consumption, then the link between dairy and osteoporosis may be nothing more than a coincidence.
Now this comment is a well thought out and practical comment.
Very logical!
Thanks for posting!
My grandparents ran a dairy farm back in the 1920 ‘s- 1968..drank whole milk and homemade cheese n ice cream. Grandma lived to be 82 and grandpa 103 yrs old. Their sibling all lived passed their 80’s. We ( a family of 15 ) are enjoying life well past our 60’s n 70’s. All milk drinkers..so WE are totaly contrary to tyour facts presented. I myself taught gymnastics over 35 yrs and can still do a good share of them even now. My old sis broke a collar bone as a kid falling down the stairs. My heart goes out to these other who have allergies and bone loss…but your facts havent touched over 6 generations of our family of milk drinkers.????
Is this the same coach that taught in Columbus Ga back in 1980?
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Re advice to substitute milk with rice milk, almond milk or soy milk:
The commercially packaged milks found on grocery shelves have additives/preservatives (includes organic milks) that should be avoided.
Carrageenan comes to mind. It is allowed in some organic foods. This additive is an inflammatory agent linked to GI problems ranging from IBS to colon cancer.
You can easily make fresh coconut milk with canned or fresh coconut.
If you don’t like coconut, homemade almond milk is another option.
Both recipes are on the internet.
oh boy, milk is good for you not bad for you…although drinking TO MUCH MILK can is very bad for you as long as you drink a good amount of milk your 100% A.O.K but to much, A.NO.K
what an idiotic argument, calcium from the bones doesn’t help reduce the body acidity. That’s completely wrong,calcium comes from the cells in the body , not extracted from the bones. This article is BS.
The sarcoplasmic reticulum stores calcium which is located in the muscle, calcium aids muscle contraction in the sliding filament theory, to allow the cross bridges to move therefore contract the muscle fibre
I just skimmed through the comments. Yeah, people are not that easily convinced however.
I’m Asian, I hail from the Philippine Islands and my late aunt died recently. She had arthritis, really bad arthritis, so bad she’d moan and groan for the pain to go away. I even had to apply some sort of liquefied ointment on her skin to make the pain of the bones underneath to go away. Yeah, that’s cause she lived here, in San Francisco, United States. Where we sell tons of dairy.
My aunt drank coffee with guess what? Milk in it too and she was quite fond of purple yam ice cream. So yeah, did that shit help with her arthritis? Nope.
I have some relatives in the Philippines. Filipinos don’t drink milk. I would know, I was born in Manila. My aunts and uncles over there? No way to get calcium through dairy products, so not a broken bone. You convinced me, so thank you writer. As for the others, well, whatever. Call me gullible, but I believe in what you have to say.
I say fuck milk, that’s only for baby cattle you know? If the cows started drinking milk from humans, well, I would feel violated and raped of what I need to feed my babies exclusively.
The comments section showed so much stubbornness and adamance of others and how they don’t want to listen to somebody who has actually done their research. Sad.
Likes ^^^
You do know that arthritis and bone fractures are completely different problems, right?
Think, and do some research before fucking something
Lol
Sir: You are were many can get the “controls” for research. I know this conversation is a mystery for you. But, some cultures, and we are included are very opinionated. Myself included. So, I have to remember my opinions are….. nothing. So if I have a question I have to know how to research the correct answers. Who did the research? Is there any agenda? As mentioned by the woman in comments, we are hard pressed to not find out what is good or bad for us. It may sound to you like these people have not read any true research, but many of us rely on the honest MEDIA! lol. If one looked up medications in the PDR and all the side effects, they would not encourage many things for their children. But our media tells us we are very bad parents if we don’t do XYZ and drink milk. So we have little kids who can hardly breathe drinking their cup of milk. But, getting to the real deep studies takes effort, and even Mayo’s is behind in a couple of issues. Things change fast and it’s hard to keep up. But most doctors will agree – they can’t keep up with what is coming out regarding our health and food. So if we want to be healthy, then we have to do it. Some seem to have iron stomachs and can eat anything. But that’s not the greater percentage. I don’t know if there are any other medical people on here, but there is much held from the people. It’s coming out, and it’s coming out so fast that doctors can’t keep up. So some just keep saying the same thing. Doctors are just like us. If they believe for years that milk was good, then changing to “not good” isn’t going to happen very fast. No one wants to admit they may have messed up. Who cares… now we know so much, and we know how to cure so many things, but with our government, it will take a while to get it out. Don’t even start on stuff about Gov, and hiding things and whatever. I think we are adults, and if you don’t believe something, then say it respectfully and what if we all learned something that will help us later or help our children or grandchildren? Those who are stubborn in the wrong way, is something I find hard to take. Because I watch as they cry, and their loved ones have something that is still not not common knowledge in other countries, and will not do any type of research. That is sad, very sad. There are cures for things that your doctor either knows and is helping you work with or knows and will not tell because it’s more learning, or because they are stubborn. Please understand… doctors are humans just like us, they are not Gods. If you are unfortunate to have a health issue, I hope you will do your own research. Change is difficult, but really we can learn more by discussing instead of cussing and name calling. Responses show who is intelligent or not. Who knows how to research or not. Who follows and ends up where they don’t want to be, or learns for themselves. I’m sorry for what you have seen on this page, but you have seen that there are some who are open minded and will search things out, and those who will make jokes about it. Our doctors are only given a semester of nutrition… and it used to be a elective. Not sure if it’s still an elective or not, but for doctors to be telling us how to eat – well, be careful. Some are very health conscience and they do more to help their patients than anyone. No need to prove, just look at how many die and what their problems are. Thanks for speaking out…. that’s brave! 🙂
Whoops, I don’t use spell check after midnight. It’s bad for your health! 🙂 Please excuse.
“milk acidifies the body’s pH”
I have stopped reading after this, because this is completely bullshit
Have fun living in pain if you live that long. Hope you saved money for medical costs and you are not looking for us to pay the bill.
If youdont believe it put about 20 minutes if extensive research yourself and look it up buddy. It you still dont want get it through your skull. Well whats worse than being ignorant, is being ignorant of your ignorance.
I have spent more than 20 minutes reading the ‘extensive’ research. It is all BS. As a matter of fact at least one doctor (Dr. Nick Berg) recommends acidifying for health but that it is difficult due to your bodies ability to control it’s PH. Another (see Quackwatch website) agrees. Chris Kresser calls it BS. There were many others. I actually am having a hard time finding research that ‘proves’ or evening lend a little credence to the alkaline BS.
Perhaps Google is conspiring to keep that information unavailable?
PAM, you are not in touch with what is going on in our food system. Yes, there are Hormones in our animal products. Organic products do not include hormones, or so they say, but the MAJORITY of our Factory Farmed dairy is done cheaply to provide a product as quickly as possible to feed the masses. Read about it, it is EVERYWHERE. That is why many, not all, little girls are menustrating at 7 years old. Yes, that means she is capable of having a baby! Uterine Fibroids, another one brought on by xenohormones. Read, Read Read….The China Study, educate yourself. No not everyone will get cancer, just like all smokers won’t get lung cancer but the statistics are showing we are getting sicker with cancers and cardiovascular disease.
Around here milk has recently broken the $1.gallon price–less that $1/gal, not at all stores but several.
A friend told me that in MI, loads of milk are being dumped on farmland, over production. I dont know that consumption is down. We do kill thousands of babies every year in MI.
CL
Despite what the Bible says, despite what all doctors say, despite all opinions of all people, it is an obvious fact that we were NEVER intended to drink milk from another species, only milk from our own mothers. When that milk naturally “dries up” then we nourish ourselves on other nutritious foods that provide all the calcium needed. That is exactly how that little calf survives and grows to be a LARGE, HEALTHY animal. In addition, it is very unnatural and disgusting the way we treat farm animals, cows included. Watch Mercy For Animals and other videos and see for yourself just exactly what goes into providing a glass of milk or a chunk of cheese, both of which are proven to be cancer causing and detrimental to cardiovascular health. The abhorrent conditions and horrifying abuse for unnecessary products.
Well, for some who don’t believe this article…get on Netflix, with a free trial or anyhow if you wanna learn, watch Food Choices entirely. It’s a documentary about meat and milk…it will change your mind. Otherwise we can’t convince someone just by one article.
Who or what is to say that NetFlix is not in cahoots with this art
I’m not a hate symbol
Im sorry but either this tread is just absolutely BS, or my body has mutated to sustain bone structure or what ever way is explainable. Same goes for my step-father. We both drink outrageous amount of 2% cow milk on a daily basis. I have yet to have had a broken bone and I’ve had my fair share of crashes in cars or crazy stupid flips on my ATV/dirt bike/snowboard/snowmobile. I’m currently 23 my step-father is 46 and we have no issues with our bones. I have sprained my ankles, wrist, fingers even sometimes bruises for weeks but no broken bones. Maybe the milk in Quebec, Canada is just that great!
Same I drink so much milk, and haven’t had a single broken bone.
And I’ve never broken a bone either and have been vegan for over 20 years since I was a teenager (i.e. none of this counts as evidence!!).
What is indisputable however is that milk is definitely not necessary and if we can source our calcium elsewhere, why should we enslave cows to be continually pregnant milk machines? It’s a horror. If we can live without hurting others, shouldn’t we? (that has to be good for our bones too, in some way 🙂
Don’t knock it then! 🙂 Actually, I think we are stuck on broken bones. There are other major health issues that milk has been associated with. I’m sure there are ways to find out, since I found reputable sources. But you know there are those people who smoke like a chimney for 80 years and die of old age. Go figure! 🙂
You say,”Like all animal protein, milk acidifies the body pH which in turn triggers a biological correction.”
Seeing that the pH level is higher in breast milk, wouldn’t that have an increased effect on calcium depletion?
Good or bad, fact or fiction. When there are so many other plant based alternatives to get calcium etc. why choose to put an animal through so much suffering?
I’ll stop drinking milk when stops tasting so good. The sun gives you cancer and so do cell phones. Are you going to stay indoors and not communicate with the outside world now?
If each time I went outside women were raped, then their male children stolen from them, murdered after a few weeks and then their mother’s were raped again. Yes I wouldn’t go outside. Fortunately if you want this to stop happening in cows you don’t have to stop going outside, you can just drink something else instead of dairy milk.
Cheers
Are you suggesting cows are raped?
yes. In order to produce milk, cows are raped.
Why do you think it is called a “Rape rack”?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UcN7SGGoCNI
You don’t actually think cell phones cause cancer do you?
Perhaps the reason u have osteoporosis is that u havent had enough dairy? Also in countries with maximum dairy consumption there r highest rates of obesity. That could contribute to osteoporosis. But dairy can also mean cheese and butter (more fatty than lowfat milk) .
You say that “most” dairy cows are injected with rBGH. Well, I don’t know of a single milk producer/brand that uses rBGH. From the cheapest brands to the most expensive, conventional to organic, none of them (that I’ve seen) use it. Since you used the word “most”, I’ll assume that you have a list of producers that use it. Could you please supply that list?
No hormones in Canada. As for antibiotics are concerned, they’re are guidelines about how long after the cows can milked after injection.
Let’s just round up all the cattle world wide and slaughter them all. Then a whole slew of problems are solved in one fell swoop. You will though, have to leave the cows in India alone since they are sacred creatures. But still, think about it? Global warming?…..bye bye. Milk good vs. milk bad?…..bye bye. Inhumanity to cows?…..no longer an issue. Actually now that they are all dead except the ones in India, they truly have become godlike.
So there you have it dipshits. Problem solved. Now you can either go find something real to discuss or argue over or go crawl to your little snowflake safe places and cry a tear for all the future unborn baby cows.
Mental midgets!
That was quite the chimp out, over people having a discussion about health. One might even say you seem ‘triggered’.
I’m not sure how you arrived at the conclusion that we would have to slaughter all cows to stop ourselves from ingesting dairy, but it was quite a remarkable display of melodrama.
Dick, I think you need to take some deep breaths and let’s adults communicate, if you are incapable of having a discussion without becoming emotional.
Well said Jasna.
Dude, totally!
I say, we also murder all people! Like, literally, nuke everyone. Can you imagine how many problems THAT would solve?
Racism? No more. Sexism? Bye-bye! Homophobia? Done with!
Perfect. Let’s kill everyone.
Your argument is amazing.
Mike,….your kidding me right??? The milk money makers are bigger than any scrubs trying to push -no product imparticular-, just deter people from drinking milk by trying to open so many small brainwashed minds. And what’s all this about “radical vegans” o0o0o0o. Scary!!! It’s as if they are violently trying to,…oh wait???educate people on a very important subject, that no more evidence be needed, than common sense, like a.(um milk’s for the baby’s), it can only be produced by pregnant mothers of any mammal. Creepy how we artificially ensiminate them so they will keep producing milk for us!!!! & for free, the PEOPLE that sell it however are very rich, and therefor powerful & unless your on the payroll, Mike, why are you so radical in your disapproval of people sharing this very sound & rather obvious concern & in my opinion obvious conspiracy??? Are you that hooked on milk that you can’t stand anyone putting it down especially when the evidence neednt be mentioned with the immense amount of agenda driven motivation by: corporations/such as,but not limited to::pharmaceutical, food,dairy who have gotten so good at irradicating basic common sense & comprehensive ability in their consumers that they have them attacking those who are hip to the what’s really going on. So I ask YOU,….who in the hell would be paying these ” radical vegans”..???? which, btw, I am not,.. which I am presently ashamed of since I cannot think of anything that could justify this. However in the meantime I won’t lash out (because im in denial) at those sharing who are not.