Here's a fun infographic from LearnStuff.com that tells us why we seriously don't need to drink cow's milk. When I first moved to Austin at the age of 21, I went to see a dermatologist and was appalled when she told me humans shouldn't drink milk. What was she talking about?! Now, after going plant-based and learning how dairy can affect your cancer risk, I set the glass of milk down in a heartbeat. In only 42 years, cows are now producing nearly double what they used to, thanks to growth hormones and other factors! There's no better time to stop drinking milk than now.
Before I went plant-based, we were probably buying a gallon of milk every 10 days. I have no idea why we were consuming that much (cereal and mac n' cheese, I'm guessing!), but I've now switched completely to almond milk. If I had know all of this before, believe me, I would have put a stop to bringing this in my house a long time ago! Dr. Neal Barnard, founder of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), has discussed the link between milk consumption and an increased risk of prostate cancer.
During a broadcast of Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell on April 15, 2011, Dr. Barnard discussed the consumption of milk by children during a program about milk as part of school lunches:
"It`s hurting our kids. And the problems are that kids today are in the worst shape of any generation we`ve ever had. The risk of diabetes, the risk of obesity, the risk of high cholesterol and the heart disease it leads to, they are higher than it has ever been. And a big part of the reason is that schools, sometimes they are forced to — they are feeding junk to kids. It`s as simple as that.
And it`s not just the sugar that`s in the milk. It`s the milk itself, the main nutrient in skim milk, believe it or not, even before you add anything to it, is sugar, lactose sugar. There is fat in it, as well. The proteins, a lot of kids don`t react to it. Kids just don`t need it."
I believe that everyone has must have the right to have their own opinion about everything, which is one of the most beautiful characteristics of a democracy, as present in the United States.
ReplyDeleteObviously this propaganda was made by people with a strong opposition to farming. And again, I respect their opinions.
However, this propaganda uses FALSE information to miss-leading a argument. One thing is to have a opinion, another is to use FALSE arguments to try to convince other people that your opinions is right.
The first step for a healthy discussion is that it is based on TRUE arguments, especially when the scientific data is available.
I will talk about some examples to be more clear and objective:
1. They start talking about how USA drinks 9 times more milk than China- I have strong relations with dairy veterinarians working at china and personal contact with Chinese, and all that I can hear is how they WANT to drink more milk and are investing money and efforts to achieve this goal - So how can the fact that the US drinks more milk than China be a bad thing?
2. They say drinking milk is not natural - this is a vague affirmation that aims to manipulate the reader, since what is the definition for a natural food?
3. They say how cows now produce more milk than cows in the 1970's (almost 10,000 lbs more a lactation according to their data). Nowadays cows are usually larger and more efficient in food conversion. In addition, we feed cows a diet that is based on years of research aiming at improving the quality of the cow's food, so that it fits the physiological and metabolic need of the animal. So the cow isn't "paying the price", it is instead just reflecting the potential that it always had, but which in the 1970's we did not have the knowledge or ability to support. This is the result of a nation's investment in technological advancement.
4. They say that there are hormones in the milk - bovine somatotropin (BST) - which they say can increase IGF-1 in milk - and they misleadingly use the findings of articles to say that bst is bad for you. BST can increase the level of IGF-1 in milk but not in the serum, since IGF-1 is a protein and will be digested like any other protein in the stomach. Furthermore, IGF‑I is present in human breast milk, and at levels as high or higher than the levels in milk from bST‑supplemented cows. Here is a link from a Cornell researcher with more information -http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/bauman/envir_impact/rbst_booklet.html#ConsumerIssues
Overall, I can respect the opinion of the people who wrote this propaganda, but if you want to really "learnstuff", I have personally concluded that I cannot trust their words when referring to the hard facts for their arguments, since they did not show honesty and were very much misleading.