does pretty much everybody on the boards think milk is bad?? i have to admit drinking another species milk is weird, but weve been told all our lives that milk does the body good. having read previous threads im not sure what to think. i feel kind of like ive been programed, i dont like that feeling.:-/ sarah.

we've been told alot of things our whole lives, but does that make them true?

I used to drink 3-4 cups of milk a day, and eat cheese with every meal. I haven't done either in nearly two years. I am convinced that not only are dairy products cruel to animals, they're horrible on the human body. My cousin died of breast cancer two months ago at the age of 32 and at her death was convinced that dairy played a role.

I'd suggest reading "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins. He was the heir to the Baskin Robbins ice cream fortune, but walked away from it (i.e. gave up his fortune) to get out the message of how bad dairy is for people and animals. It's a good read.

Cows milk is formulated to grow a baby calf into a 2000 pound cow in two years. It's fattening and the animal protein leaches calcium from your bones. You're far better off nutrition and bone-health wise to get your calcium elsewhere and lift weights. Now on the question of whether or not dairy is "humane" is for you to decide.

I have been off milk (as well as all animal products) for almost 2 months. When people learn this they tend to reply with: "what? That is so bad for you, we need milk!" Now I know that that is not the case and its really sad that most americans can not shake the idea that milk is vital for sustaining life.
Thanks for the milksucks.com link, iv never seen that site before and it explains everything really well. I might need to recommend it to some people.

Asides from what everyone else has said, since giving up dairy my once bad asthma has greatly improved. I used to have to use my inhaler several times a day, and sometimes it'd get very bad at night. Nowadays I use my inhaler a couple of times a week, sometimes not at all. So while I wouldn't say dairy affects everyones breathing, it clearly was worsening mine.

Here are some interesting facts on mlik: http://www.notmilk.com/

it IS really scary. not to mention the fact that of COURSE people in the industry see this evidence but they're more intent on making money etc. It definetely frightens me that we're brainwashed by 'the people who know' (ie. whoever does that food pyramid etc)..i drank milk for years and never even thought to question them. i find that a lot scarier than whats IN the milk.Yuck, to both the milk AND the people..

finding out that milk is "bad" is actually what prompted me to really start looking into healthier food.

Since this was happened YESTERDAY, i am still so puzzled about all this.

the thing i cant 'shake' is...there is apparently scientific proof backing up that milk is good, as well as that milk is bad...now how do you *really* know who to believe????

Would people here agree that milk (im talking organic, 1/2% here...not the really fatty, rBST kind...) isnt necessarily bad, but not nearly as nutritious as we have been programmed to think it is?? Or is that wrong?

Im just curious, cause so many people have "good" and "bad" stuck in their brains...when almost everything is bad if you have too much. Hopefully that made sense :p

I tend to believe those who don't serve to make billions of dollars from the information they provide. :)

I don't think milk is gross (no more gross than the other things I eat, I mean). But I do think it's unhealthy. I first read about milk's bad effects on humans in Discover magazine 5 years ago, which is hardly a veg*n conspiracy theorist magazine.

What about goat's milk? In a lot of other poorer countries, children are given goat's milk as a cheeper way to get their daily essentials (from what I have heard, however) I don't drink animal milk anyway, but what do you all think?

It's pretty easy to justify just about anything in poor areas where reliable sources of protien and other nutrients are unavailable.

Giving children goats milk is better than letting them starve.

I prefer dolphin milk myself.

I prefer dolphin milk myself.

:lol:

At some point I read some nutritional claims about milk and got the impression it's unhealthy. But I haven't really studied the info enough to make a good judgment, I only know (stealing from I.B.Singer's line) that milk is very unhealthy for the victims of the dairy industry and that I have healthy alternatives.

yeah... i'm pretty convinced that milk sucks. the same people who tell us that meat is good for us tell us milk is too- and we know about the problems associated with meat eating.

i'm lactose intollerant, and as a kid who loved cheese and milk and icecream and the like, i had (amongst other things) constant blocked noses and sinus problems, etc, leading to ear nose and throat infections, lots of pain, and feeling pretty cr@ppy with a weakened immune system, etc for a lot of the time. since i gave up dairy aged 12 ish (someone finally made the link between dairy and my being ill all the time) many of these problems just disapeared within a few months.

studies have also shown that dairy products don't have a positive impact on bone health, and don't aid weight control, and have found no evidence to support the notion that milk is a preferred source of calcium.

a lot of people are coming round to the idea that milk just isn't a great thing for people to be intaking. doctor spock even agreed that kids shouldnt be fed cows milk, and retracted his earlier teachings to the contrary. plenty of people worldwide do just fine without it, and some of us feel much healthier without milk- me included!

http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/dairy_deception.html
http://www.pcrm.org/cgi-bin/lists/mail.cgi?flavor=archive&list=news&id=20050307093449
http://www.veg.ca/issues/dairy.html

Iv heard many things. I for one do drink milk, but im thinking of switching to soy.

The indoctrination is massive, the industry huge and powerful. It's like the cattlemen's lobby in the US - a multi-billion dollar industry that isn't going to go down quietly. There's no doubt in my mind that milk is bad for you and worse for the cows and the environment. There are numerous studies that have supported this.

But I don't find that I'm disgusted by it on any inherent level. I mean, it's no weirder than eatng mushrooms or Quorn. Fungus or cow juice, which is more gross? Or xanthan gum, which is in a LOT of prepared food, and it was recently pointed out to me that it is essentially the mucous of bacteria. We eat a LOT of things that are gross if you think about it, some more so to me than you, and vice versa.

Kind of OT, but I also don't buy the arguments that drinking the milk of another species is unnatural. To me, this means "does not occur in nature," and it has obviously been observed that animal mothers will adopt and even suckle young of a different species. Also, animal husbandry is not in and of itself unnatural to me since some species of ants husband aphids and "harvest" their honeydew. But of course just because something is natural doesn't make it right. Agribusiness and monoculture have taken the natural out of the realm of the natural and into the realm of the unconscionable.

Don't drink milk! :stinkeye:

I don't think that suckling the young of another species, and an adult from one species drinking the milk of another is the same thing. They are very different.

you wouldnt catch me lying openmouthed under a cow any day of the week, lol.

Although it seems as though the majority of pro-milk information is distributed by those who would profit from the sales of milk, but the consumption of milk pretty much seems to be considered unhealthy by most studies, it's really up to the individual to decide.

I personally am going off of the fact that when my life contains excessive dairy, my life also contains excessive weight, excessive illness including bronchial problems, excessive throat clearing, phlegm, coughing, and VERY excessive digestive discomforts.

You can't really argue with results.

i find unflavored almond milk to be quite satisfying

i find unflavored almond milk to be quite satisfying

Mmmm, I always wanted to try almond milk! :drool:

thanks to excesses of 165 million in advertising, americans believe that they need milk, and federal laws dictate that milk will be served to our children or lose funding for schools. 90% african americans, 70% asians, and 15% caucasion kids are unable to digest lactose. humans are the only creatures on the planet who drink milk of another species.

1. All dairy products, especially low or non-fat dairy products contain abundant quantities of milk proteins. Milk proteins are the most commonly implicated causal factor in promoting the following diseases:

childhood onset diabetes, constipation, ear infections, sinus congestion and rhinitis, rashes eczema acne hives dermatitis, asthma, digestive disturbances, arthritis, cancer (lymphomas, leukemia) and obesity.

2. Dairy products are among the most common foods recalled by the FDA for contamination with bacteria such as salmonella, staphylococci, listeria, ecoli, and mycobacterium para-tuberculosis. Pasteurization kills most of the bacteria found in milk however, in doing so, it creates vital fragments that may also be health compromising.

3. All animal products, including dairy products, biologically concentrate the various poisons, including pesticides and other environmental contaminants. The resulting meat or milk products have highly concentrated levels of these toxins.

4. In order to maximize milk production, dairy cows are routinely injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone. This hormone dramatically increases milk production but also increases insulin like growth factor which has been shown to promote the growth of cancer cells.

5. Large quantities of antibiotics are given to dairy cattle and may be contributing to the increasing problems of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

6. Dairy proteins appear to be particularly well suited to stimulating inappropriate immunological reactions when they are absorbed through an inflamed intestinal mucosa, a process commonly called "gut leakage" In vulnerable patients a variety of inflammatory processes are aggravated and may be associated with many disease processes.

7. The process of raising dairy cattle for milk and meat is a major user of freshwater and a leading contributor to both water and air pollution. Meat and dairy based diets are very hard on the environment.

8. Some people believe that the involuntary incarceration of sentient being is morally repugnant and refuse to participate in a practice they consider immoral and unethical.


Taken from: http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles.htm

You have to 'download' the article, so I just posted most of it here. The rest of it is good, too.