“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, and he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”
– George Orwell
Maneka Gandhi, the daughter in law of the late Indian Prime minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and India’s famous animal rights activist, stirred a hornet’s nest by speaking out against the consumption of cow’s milk. Her beliefs deeply irritated the sentiments of several hardcore veggies in India.
The real truth about milk:
Human bodies are not designed to drink the milk from other animal species. Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on childcare was one of the first to warn the world against the dangers of consuming cow’s milk.
Consider these cold facts.
- Diary products contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates
- Milk is saturated with fat and cholesterol
- Milk is contaminated with cow’s blood, pus, pesticides, and hormones
- Dairy is linked with allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease and cancer
- Cow’s milk can cause anemia in children
- Dairy can result in insulin-dependent diabetes in the later years of life
- Diary products actually cause osteoporosis. Chinese women who consume calcium from plant sources have lesser incidents of bone fractures in old age
- Milk has no iron, however it also blocks its absorption
- Milk has less protein than most vegetables
- Milk does not cure peptic ulcer disease. It only offers temporary relief of pain. In the long run milk causes acidity and further destroys the stomach lining
- Milk is carcinogenic. It contains a factor called as IGF-1. All cancer studies show that when IGF-1 rises in the body one gets cancer.
The cows pay a heavy price:
- Cows live for about 25 years and produce milk for about nine years. The stress of the factory farm leads to disease, lameness and reproductive problems and most cows die or are sent to the slaughterhouse in four years.
- In the farm, the cows are hooked by their udders to electronic machines and cows are subject to constant electric shocks. This leads to mastitis.
- They spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors and living conditions are abysmal.
- Cows are genetically manipulated given antibiotics and hormones so that their milk yield increases.
- To see that cows produce milk, they are impregnated. Female calves are either slaughtered or added to the diary herd. The male calves are killed for veal, which is considered to be a meat delicacy.
We need not be slavishly dependent on milk:
There are so many vegan alternatives to dairy products and they are available in all health food stores and supermarkets. There are milk substitutes like Soy, almond and rice milk that are equally tasty and nutritious. There are frozen desserts like Soy Delicious, Tofutti, Rice Dream and fruit sorbets.
References and links:
- Plant Foods and Dairy Products, Am J Clin Nutr 61, suppl 6 (Jun 1995): 1407 S—1415S.
- M. Nestle, Food Lobbies, the Food Pyramid, and U.S. Nutrition Policy, Int J Health Serv 23, no. 3 (1993): 483-96.
- W. C. Willett, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, in the Boston Globe, June 8, 1999.
- notmilk.com
- juiceguy.com
- snyderhealth.com
For those of you who are questioning why anyone would thing dairy was bad for you, I challenge you to stop eating dairy for a month. Be sure to eat your leafy greens for the calcium.
After the first week, check in with yourself and write in your journal about anything and everything you observe about how you are feeling–physically, emotionally, mentally, energetically.
Do the same after the second week. And the third. And finally, the fourth.
Then, add dairy back in full steam, just as you had always eaten it before.
After one week, check in with yourself again. Document in writing how you are feeling, just as before. Do this again for three more weeks.
Experiment. Decide for yourself.
That is the only way you will know how dairy affects you. We can read and read and read articles and opinions till the cows come home (no pun intended)–and debate until our brains explode–but none of us, not me, nor you–can truly know anything unless we experience it.
p.s. I meant “think” dairy was bad, not “thing”. Sorry! :)
Raw, unpasteurized milk from various animal sources has been used as a healthy food source by many of our ancestors. In his groundbreaking book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” 1939, Weston A. Price studied and clearly identified that the healthiest primitive, non industrialized peoples consumed a diet primarily or exclusively of raw foods including raw animal fats, proteins and dairy. It is perhaps the only book of its kind that conducted such studies before most of these cultures had industrialized.
Saturated fat is one of the 3 most vital substances in the body. The other two are protein and cholesterol. Contrary to absurd Western Medical paranoia that surfaced as a result of bogus studies conducted in the mid 1950’s, saturated fat, in its raw state is a highly available and necessary nutrient. Cholesterol is a vital substance which is produced in the liver and makes up every cell of your body. Like saturated fat it becomes problematic when it oxidizes (cooked or heated).
Raw dairy, though not a necessary food source for most adults, has many healing properties that are utilized by the body. This includes a very highly active acidopholous, which is the gut’s primary healthy bacteria. Many people have and do benefit from the ingestion of raw dairy as a medicinal remedy.
Each person’s biochemical individuality is quite different. Many people’s metabolisms need higher concentrations of saturated fats and proteins, others need quite the opposite.
Soy on the other hand is not a health food. In its non-fermented state soy is very high in phytic acid, which inhibits enzyme and nutrient reactions. Soy also contains nitrosamines which are toxic to the liver. Soy often is processed, genetically modified and contains rancid fatty acids, which will do more harm to your body than oxidized cholesterol. I was a vegan for 5 years and my digestion was never worse when eating non-fermented soy.
Hi Michael,
While I am not a milk drinker…. I couldn’t agree with you more. Weston A Price is one of my most used sources when determining how to continue my healing journey. I have read and witnessed many recovery stories that incorporate the use of raw dairy. I do not consume dairy at all anymore. I am a type A blood type and really just didn’t do well on it. However, I think its pretty sick that we can’t buy milk in its purest form legally in this city. We’ve got to go pick it up in someone’s garage, like its a drug deal or something.
I think its sick that we homogenize and pasteurize and add hormones to this potentially life saving food.. just for longer shelf life and to allow farmers to feed their cows poorly so they can save and make more cash!!!
It seems to me that raw dairy can be used (particularly raw butter) as a healing food — to line the gut. But I do not see it as a staple or necessity for healthy people.
Please see our articles “Should we legalize the sale of raw dairy?” and “Oh Soy Bad” you may have something to add to those as well.
I’d ask if you consume raw dairy, but that could get you arrested in this city :)
Wow I don’t know that I’ve seen an article before so full of obvious lies and misinformation. The so called “alternative medicine” people are no better than big oil or big tobacco companies with their lies, misinformation, and misleading of naive people.
True. dairy is cruel and full of crap. People need to wake up. It’s for COWS not people. That’s why COWS produce it. It’s for their babies so they can grow up healthy . People are retarded!
Thousands of years ago, in Buddism, the teaching to all the Chinese human race is already to be grateful to cows. And not eat or beat it. No other animals were mentioned with such privilege. They are the earliest beast to help human beings plough land for rice production.
This makes complete sense, its just not natural. We dont drink milk from our own mothers as adults, so we shouldnt drink it from another species.
Cows should be exterminated. All they do is eat grass and create methane. They are the largest contributors to global warming by far.
I don’t raise cows but I do raise dairy goats and use a milking machine. Milking machines do *not* shock the udder. Anyone wanting to test this can come try mine out (-: They gently suck the milk out of the udder. And also most dairies not only don’t use concrete alone because it causes leg stress and lowered production, they use expensive footing material like rubber mats one uses at work to stand on to ease leg strain. Living conditions are optimal as they can be to cut down on mastitis which is costly for the farmer to treat. Animals that produce milk are usually very well cared for because bad conditions/management equals no milk or less milk. Antibiotics are screened for in such stringent tests that even if the residue of antibiotics from one quarter of a treated cow get into the tank of milk holding milk from 1000 cows the tests will detect it and the entire batch of milk is lost.
And they milk cows with robots!Ban the robotic millking now! They do it in Europe and they are coming here!Do not belive the dairy industrys propaganda that the robotic milking is “voluntary” and the cows “milk themselves”.
I wonder how much is a cow’s life worth? When people come here to state that cow’s milk is affordable and soy milk is less, i wonder what is a life worth to them? When cows are deprived from a life that is theirs, as precious to them as it is ours to us, during which they have to endure the most vicious tortures including rape, for the sake of human palate, i fail to understand how do we call such practices humane. What is it that is humane about expoliting other beings, that are at our mercy, only because they are seen as inferior since they do not speak our language and walk on their fours. Humane is a variant of human, and means to be kind, compassionate, sympathetic. I see none of it in the dairy industry, i see none of it in the animal flesh industry. I see none of it in most humans so the term should not be used as it is ambiguous and ultimately obsolete.
Some say cows “Cows should be exterminated. All they do is eat grass and create methane. They are the largest contributors to global warming by far.” It is true that cows create methane that is lethal for our beloved environment but the great harm comes from over farming them. There would be harmony in nature if not for human’s practices which are moved by greed and lust for power. I blame not the cows, bless them!, i blame the unconsciousness, the ignorance of the human race that seems to be moving more and more towards the dark ages.
It is very detrimental for non human animals to be seen as a product, means to an end. An end that is so pathetic for it is only money, a pretence. Without wisdom and kindness true happiness is unattainable. “Those without wealth may one day prosper, but those without kindness are utterly and incurably poor. ” Old Hindu verse written by Tiruvalluvar
ERIK, i was so very moved by your thoughts. They were a true reflection of my own, only you put them together so harmoniously. They are well worth of appreciation. Your lovable being is admirable and i am with you. We, as conscious individuals must show due respect to our home – nature and its inhabitants, all of them – for all it gives to us, utter gifts, and remind ourselves that karma exists, what we plant will grow…and will be collected by us alone.
As i wrote on the other thread “We are the only species that consume milk after infancy. We do not need milk after this period hence why our breasts stop producing it. To drink cow’s milk is utterly unnatural and it supports a sick barbaric industry that deprives the cows and their offspring from their basic needs, and please do not be fooled by their Organic free range standards. Cows will have continuously reproduce, most of the time artificially which in my point of you qualifies for rape. Milk is for babies and Cow’s milk is designed for calves to grow fast and strong in a short period of time so saturated with hormones which are harmful to us. Not to mention the billions of pus and blood cells that are found in milk due to factory farming these loving beings.”
I find it appaling humans refuse to widen their horizons therefore live their lives confined in cages. They refuse knowledge because it may bring changes and the fear of change challenges them. So they keep on living enslaving others, and themselves. Sacrifing nature and our fellow earthlings. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”- Winston Churchill
Anita Karenina
Sorry for my error. I meant PAIS LO, not ERIK as i was referring to the words PAIS LO Wrote. Apologies.
While beans and such do provide protein for humans, animal meat is the best digested protein for humans yielding the highest amounts of USEABLE protein for the body. Also, someone made a comment earlier about meat consumption being the cause of obesity, which I fully disagree with. Fried foods (including fries and other veggies as well as meat)which are usually fried in vegetable oils and high carb foods (bread, pasta, rice,potatoes,cereal) have alot to do with this. Let’s just stick with the facts here and say that ANY diet can cause obesity except maybe the anorexic diet.
Some other things I wanted to point out…milk is not the cause of iron malabsorption…calcium is. Calcium is a chelating agent for iron, binding with iron so that neither is absorbed. This can be caused by any calcium agent…not just milk. This is the reason that multivitamins with iron contain minimal to no calcium. Also, organic foods have a higher incidence of e. coli contamination. For those unfamiliar, this is the bacteria found in and around the feces and back doors of humans and animals…the reason women wipe front to back and why we are SUPPOSED to wash our hands after going to the bathroom. With that noted I’m not sure that it would be any healthier to risk that over possible side effects of pesticides.
calcium is not an iron chelator. Ever heard of CaFe (ferric chloride)- impossible. That’s ridiculous iron in fact is absorbed through the excretion of intrinsic factor. Calcium may substitute in the channel as both have a +2 charge (if Ferric). calcium absorption is also dependent on vitamin D so eat up and get your sunlight. Drink milk also, because it is good for you. Forget hippy propaganda and remember that it has been a staple of human diets since the beginning of agriculture
Excuse me, but this article looks like a PR crafted by companies selling Soy products.
And I agree with Starr on the protein usability, so true. I am a bodybuilder myself so I know things from real life.
I know from real life too… I was a milk drinking/cheese consuming vegetarian for 5 years. I found out about the cruelty (and unhealthieness) in dairy industry and eliminated it from my diet a year ago. Ever since then, my arthritic knees and hands have stopped hurting… My nails are literally unbreakable – and my digestive system has improved 100%. I’ve also lost some 20 unwanted pounds.
It’s true – dairy is a poison as well as being an inhumane industry.
Choose compassion – Go Vegan
I do not eat soya. I speak for myself neither i would reccomend soya as it is not good for you unless is fermented. The protein on cow’s milk leeches the calcium off your body. No wonder you see so many people who have drank milk all their lives having so many bone related problems.
But the main thing about Milk ladies and gentlemen is that cow’s milk is for calves. And ultimately, not for grown up humans to drink. It is pretty pathetic to think of an adult man or woman drinking the milk of a cow. Just take the cow and put a human mother providing milk to a grown up. WOuld anyone be up for it? Just because they have a middle man fiddling with the cow’s udders, one does not see himself sucking the udder of a cow. But i do, and i see it clearly. And it is just not right, not meant to be, not ethical, morally wrong.
I know vegan body builders, there are lots of famous athlets who are healthy vegans and bless them. For they are on a truthful path. A path of well being at peace with nature and our fellow earthlings.
You guys bring up some really interesting points. I had not heard of these negative properties of milk before, and if your sources are to be trusted this is truly alarming. On the other hand, I believe many studies have shown the positive properties of milk too, as many have mentioned in the comments. I have also read and heard only good things about soy milk, but people in the comments have mentioned that soy is also unhealthy. Looks like more research will have to be done. -Ben
Hi Ben… great that you’ve got an open mind – there’s so many things about (animal) food production that needs to be examined closer. The dairy industry really does have many questionable practices and questionable issues regarding their “wholesome” products.
I’m not a fancier of soy beverages either… my preference is RiceDream… and Almond Milk. Both are fortified (just like cow’s milk) – and the taste is quite pleasant, without the negative effects to the dairy animals or to human health.
Friends,
Visit this site to know that a 5000 year old tribe of pure vegans (all are 100 years old) exists in the Himalayas.
They are all 100% vegan from birth and are built like Samsons. (they do not know what is B12 .
to them B12 is a medical myth invented by trolls
Here in India, peoples thinks about animals are for their food as livestock, to get milk & use them to get work to earn bread / butter but they do not think about their rights…..Hindu culture / mentality allows milk for good health but they do not know the merit….demerits of the milk.
Igorant fucks. Do you see calves sucking down pigs milk? It’s a natural born instinct to drink only our mothers milk only until were ready for the real thing. Humans go against whats natural. You are what you eat. So for all you fat, sloppy bovines out there how about this fun fact… it takes only two tablespoons of black sesame seeds to get the exact same amount of calcium from one cup of nasty cows milk. There are fruits and vegetables that completely eliminate any need for the shit. We were intended to live off the LAND that mother nature provided us not slaughter and use the creatures who are just trying to live like us. Oh and Starr, have you ever seen an obese vegan? Not ANY diet will make you obese, only those rich in animal fat, maybe you should try it out and you wouldn’t be so angry that you’re so unhealthy and can’t figure out why…hmm maybe the animal hormones? Yummy cow mucus? Ever wonder why when your cold is gone and your cough lingers? It’s that excess mucus that doesn’t belong in your body. I’d rather smoke a cigarette that drink a glass of milk anyday. Why would people who don’t support a healthy lifestyle by choosing to consume animals be reading this anyways? I cant believe you retards can even read, go suck on a fucking cow udder.
Oh i almost forgot to make a comment on that idoitic statement…well only one of many made by arjuna180..yeah females produce milk FOR OUR BABIES TO SUCK IT OUT OF OUR BREASTS. We don’t share it with cows or pigs or goats. Wells is saying that we take take take but what do we give back? Are you gonna hook a pump to your breast and put it into a bottle for a litter of puppies? no you selfish human.
I prefer my bovine medium, cooked over a charcol flame…ummmm smotherd in mushrooms and onions. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Lem… of course you have to smother it – to cover up what you’re actually eating. If that were on my plate I too would have to disguise it… with “real” food.
Susan…I have no health problems actually. However, your ignorance problem is well stated. Go to college and get educated so you can argue without sounding like an angry teenager. If you think that animal fat is the only way to get fat you’re even stupider than you sound.
Well big college girl I’d much rather be blissfully ignorant and very healthy and lean, eating up my vegetables than even start to think that animal fat doesn’t cause obesity and health problems. Sure there’s other diets that can make you large, but never as unhealthy as putting animals and their byproducts into your body.
So much hostility, so many assumptions, Susan. And you say I’m angry. LOL It’s cool. I’m rather humored by your “blissful ignorance.” Almost as much as I am by your pride in stating that you’re lean and vegan. Did you used to be an obese carnivore, with a very productive cough caused by milk?
I never said animal fat didn’t cause obesity and health problems. I merely stated that it wasn’t the only cause. A vegan could easily be obese from eating too much peanut butter or tofu, or too much rice and beans. Obesity is caused by overeating and lack of activity, not “ONLY those [diets] rich in animal fat.” I’ve personally never seen peanut butter with animal fat in it, but what do I know, right? It’s funny that someone so obsessed with health would rather smoke cyanide than drink milk and still have the audacity to call anyone else a retard.
For me milk is a white poison because it contains the toxic sugar lactose, which I cannot digest at all. Also, I have not eaten any dead, rotting cow carcuses for about thirty years. That is really what beef is.
There is nothing positive about cow’s milk at all and I am pretty sure that it causes osteoporosis along with refined sugars and consuming dead four legged animals.
Oh gosh… yet another reiteration from the animal ag community: “We love our animals. We treat them well. They are well cared for.” (blah, blah, blah). The animal ag industry does what it does because it protects their investment. These animals are commodities – after they serve their purpose they are butchered quicker than you can say hamburger meat. They “care” for these animals only as long as their is financial gain and profit. And the reality throughout is… we don’t even need their darn product – It’s unhealthy and inhumane.
Go Vegan :)
Bea, i am with you. Really am. When cows are exploited for pathetic grown ups to feed from, makes me shiver and have so little faith on our race. To deny it to calves for the sick pleasure of drinking their mummy’s milk…how on earth!!!
the cows are poisoned yeah i guess so…
but they are not the only ones…
soybeans are also…
and what else after…
take a look if you wish…
if you have a strong heart
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844&ei=m9wiSpiYD4-IrwLL4YTuDA&q=mossanto&emb=1
Concerned Citizen – Perhaps you should read The China Study by T Colin Campbell – This 30 year research confirms all the ills of dairy that are mentioned in this post. Human milk is meant for human babies — Cows milk is meant for calves… very simple. We don’t need anything from dairy – And there are dozens of fine beverages that can substitute for cows milk, in cooking, baking, cereals, etc.
I believe through personal trial and error dairy doesn’t agree with my physiology. My personal morals would rather ingest fruits, veggies and such. though I am not a vegitarian. Both sides seem to have evidence of their own cause. How about if you are sick or unhappy with your health you try diet and exercise and find what works for you and your family. Hostility and self rightous behavior will not convince others to entertain a different way of thought.
How could we get so confused as to what is healthy for us to eat-Consumerism! MONEY MONEY MONEY
You forgot something about the real truth of milk; it’s delicious.