Milk ~ it does a body...good?

If you are a milk drinker, and you are not drinking organic milk, then here's what you are consuming: measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins, antibiotics (at least 50 different kinds), blood, pus, feces, bacteria, and viruses. Seriously. Inspectors are just told to keep these things under certain limits. Yuck.



We have stopped drinking cow's milk altogether, and here's where people think I've lost my mind. "But what about those ads where Martha Stewart or Brooke Shields or whomever sport milk mustaches and tell us all we must drink milk for good health?" I've been asked. Know who it is that pays for those ads? The dairy industry, that's who, a multi-billion dollar government subsidized industry. I'm not buying into those ads.



The truth is, by the time we are 3 years old, we lose the required enzymes to digest dairy products, especially milk. Surprisingly, the majority of the human population does not drink or use cow's milk. Mostly just us Americans.



Milk is no longer a pure, natural food either. Fifty years ago, dairy cows produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today, thanks to bovine growth hormone (BGH) top producing cows supply 50,000 pounds per year. So, yeah, when you drink non-organic milk, you're drinking some nice bovine growth hormone, too. And also the antibiotics the cows are given when they get mastitis (inflammation of the udders) from the BGH they are forced to take - you're drinking that, too.



I've also been asked, "Aren't you worried you won't get enough calcium?" Well, actually, the processing that milk and other dairy products go through drastically degrades its calcium content. Yet, even if it didn't, calcium in cow's milk is much coarser than in human milk, as well as being tied up with casein (a milk protein) which prevents it from being absorbable by humans. Eating lots of leafy greens, soy, raw nuts, and fruits will give you all the calcium you need. But if you're worried, eat sesame seeds. They contain more calcium than any other food on earth.



Really, the only reason to drink milk is because you enjoy the taste, and even then I would urge you to buy the organic, rbst and bgh free variety. But if you are suffering from allergies or asthma or weight you can't rid yourself of no matter what you try, if you are full of mucus often or get every cold germ that floats your way, consider taking dairy out of your diet for one month. See how you feel and go from there. It worked for my youngest daughter. She is now dairy free, as well as snot free and mucus free, and we are not going back.