Do you think milk is safe?

crimsoncat

Edit: Since this post is no longer relevant, please allow me to remove to spare the drama.

To be somewhat useful, TLDR means "Too long, didn't read" and is a fast summary section I put at the end of my posts because I have a tendency to bombard people with information. Please feel free to read or skip over it as you wish. I certainly won't hold a gun to your head to make you read it.

Andrea3030

We're the only species that drinks another animal's milk, and there are far healthier ways to get calcium. That being said, if you spend the extra money for organic milk, you won't have to worry about the hormones and antibiotics. Personally, I love almond milk. Tastes more like cow's milk to me than soy milk does, and too much soy can be dangerous for those who have a history of breast cancer in their families.

What other species besides humans drink almond milk? Or soy milk?

katescurios

Yes I think milk is safe. I'm sick to death of all the scare mongering stories that get posted in the media constantly about what is and isn't safe. Last week I picked up one paper that said eggs were incredibly unhealthy and another that said they were a superfood ??!!??!!??!!

It's pretty much all S**T! Buy the best quality foods you can afford and enjoy eating it.

ladymiseryali

We're the only species that drinks another animal's milk

My cat drinks cows milk.

Not naturally (in the wild - part of an animals natural diet) -- your cat drinks it because you give it to him/her. And BTW, most vets would suggest you stop.

Giving a cat cow's milk can cause tummy troubles. That's why they have cat's milk substitute that's sold pretty much anywhere they have pet food/supplies.

mactaffy84

Milk was made to nourish baby cows, that should speak volumes. I've wondered about this myself and I am a milk drinker, though I am consuming less dairy recently because of things I have read. There are studies out there that link dairy consumption to cancer and heart disease (Jain, P. et al. Circulation, 1993; 88:2771-79, Keszei, AP., et al. Am J Epidemiol. , 2009). In April 2000, the Physicians' Health Study reported that having 2.5 servings of dairy each day boosted prostate cancer risk by more than 30%. In in the Nurses' Health Study, it was reported that the women who consumed the most dairy (and that was given as one or more servings per day) had a 44% greater risk for all types of invasive ovarian cancer. And studies don't really know whether it is the fat in the milk or the protein because skim milk has shown many of.e same correlations as full or low fat milk. Scary! There is a lot of things to consider regarding dairy and not least, governmental issues. The USDA has dairy as a food group not for our health, I believe, but for the dairy industry's health. But it is hard to ignore everything we've been taught about dairy and healthy.

crimsoncat

Giving a cat cow's milk can cause tummy troubles. That's why they have cat's milk substitute that's sold pretty much anywhere they have pet food/supplies.

This is true, but depends on that cat. In general, cats are lactose intolerant but some have adapted to be fine drinking cows milk. My adopted alley cat drinks cow's milk all the time and doesn't have any issues. My grandmother's barn cats could drink milk from infected udders and were just fine. It's because they were tough little cats.

All that said, please don't feed you cat milk if you don't know how they'll tolerate it. I always felt awful treating kitties with tummy aches just because they got a toddler's glass of milk

JosephVitte

I went to a church dinner last night and sat at a table where the discussion was cows milk and how damaging it is. How it possibly causes cancer and should not be consumed by humans. How it's injected with cancer causing hormones. I had never heard any of this. The thing is...I like milk. I'm not intolerant of it and it's a good source of calcium and vitamin D for me (especially in the rainy Pacific NW) But I don't exactly want cancer either. What are your thoughts? Do you think milk is safe? What about cheese? (gosh I love cheese!)

I think milk and cheese are both safe, granite, you use them sometime within the expiration date.


what you heard about the cows is true. So this goes for a lot meat as well. This also goes for chickens, and many other animals. Your country has super sized it's favorite animals that "provide" us meals. These animals didn't start growing at a magical rate on there own, the same way that guy on steroids, didn't get that big on his own.

God bless america, it's a corporation(big businesses) running it now.

GreyEyes21

Cow milk has a lot more pus in it than human milk because we over milk cows, so to get rid of that issue mostly buy organic fat free milk, since the pus is mostly in the fat and organic farmers treat their cows better.


Here is some info on the soy milk.-- WOMEN AND CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY, SHOULDN'T DRINK SOY MILK

"Soy milk may provide some health benefits for women, especially menopausal women. However, soy products are considered phytoestrogens since soy proteins contain isoflavones, which are compounds similar to estrogen. Soy milk consumption among perimenopausal women is the focus of many research studies, since soy isoflavones may have effects on a woman's hormones." - Livestrong

"But Newbold and other researchers are not convinced that eating more soy is healthy for everyone. Infants fed soy formula ingest six to 11 times more genistein on a bodyweight basis than the level known to cause hormonal effects in adults.

“Giving an infant or child estrogen is never a good thing,” said Newbold.

Though studies on the harmful effects of soy isoflavones in people have been limited and inconclusive, there’s strong evidence from animal studies that genistein alters reproduction and embryonic development, according to Newbold, a co-author of two of the new rodent studies.

In some lab studies, animals were fed doses similar to what people might get from a high-soy diet, which would be roughly 25 or more grams per day. Blood levels of genistein in people eating a lot of soy are generally in the range of one to five micromoles, or about one milligram of genistein circulating in the body of an average adult.

One study showed that genistein led to reduced fertility and abnormal embryo development in female mice. They were fed one to ten micromoles in their drinking water for four days. The highest doses were associated with fewer eggs that were successfully fertilized and increased cell death in developing embryos. Wen-Hsiung Chan at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan conducted the study, which was published in July in the journal Reproductive Toxicology.

In another study, young female rats were fed high, medium, or low doses of genistein. Those fed the largest quantities from birth to weaning had reproductive effects later, including early puberty and irregular estrous cycles (similar to the menstrual cycle in humans). High doses also led to smaller litters." -ScientificAmerican

rachelredefined

Check out these sources and see if you still want to drink milk:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html

http://www.milkdocumentary.com/

http://www.foodinvestigations.com/

Cow's milk is meant to fatten up calves, not quench your thirst or meet your nutritional needs. Besides, we are the only species that consumes the milk of another animal after weaning. That's why we stop drinking our mother's milk, we don't need it anymore! So why drink the milk of ANOTHER ANIMAL? It's absolutely disgusting, plus it's filled with pus from unsafe, unsanitary, and downright cruel milking conditions. Try some almond or soy milk, get rid of dairy, and you'll be well on your way to feeling healthier!

ShinyFuture

Think about this logically....Don't you think if this were true, there would have been a lot more sick people in generations past? Those hearty folk that lived by the milkman's deliveries?

Milk is fine, healthy even- full of nutrients. Consider the agendas of those that push this nonsense. Usually it's a vegan scare tactic.

Of course, those hardy, hearty folk back in the day were getting deliveries of fresh milk from normal diary cows who ate normal cow food, which is vastly different from the practice today. Today's cows are given so much medication and stimulators and antibiotics and "food" that milk from today's cows is nowhere near what fresh milk was. Organic milk, sans growth hormones etc., probably isn't all that bad. My family still prefers to hedge our bets and we use almond milk.

And considering the agenda of whom is pushing what is an excellent idea. When the companies making the things that the poor cows are being shot full of, making the things going into their 'food', making the profits from the sale of milk, and funding the studies that tell me "don't worry, all these growth hormones are perfectly safe", why would I even question it?

These are not the droids you're looking for, move along.

Sarauk2sf

Check out these sources and see if you still want to drink milk:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html

http://www.milkdocumentary.com/

http://www.foodinvestigations.com/

Cow's milk is meant to fatten up calves, not quench your thirst or meet your nutritional needs. Besides, we are the only species that consumes the milk of another animal after weaning. That's why we stop drinking our mother's milk, we don't need it anymore! So why drink the milk of ANOTHER ANIMAL? It's absolutely disgusting, plus it's filled with pus from unsafe, unsanitary, and downright cruel milking conditions. Try some almond or soy milk, get rid of dairy, and you'll be well on your way to feeling healthier!

Contrarian

My mother wouldn't let me leave the table until I finished drinking my milk. Now I know she was trying to kill me.

taunto

TLDR: If you drink raw milk, fine whatever but do it at your own risk.

In the wild wild east, in Sindh, when I used to go to the local farmers who kept some cows around, they would take the milk out of the cow and literally pour me a glass. I don't care what anyone says but that was the most delicious thing I ever drank. So rich and... just delicious!

Many people have drank that stuff raw, straight out of the cow. So fast that the milk is still warm. In Europe it is common practice to do so too. In US, regulations are wayyyy too tough and cautious which actually kills a lot of good enzmes too. Which is also why there are certain cheese that cannot be made the "proper" way in US legally and also why European cheese are far superior in taste

Just my humble opinion. Also thanks for adding tl;dr btw

etoiles_argentees

let me add some of Julia Child's wisdom.

''Everybody is overreacting,'' Mrs. Child said. ''If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do.'' ''We should enjoy food and have fun,'' Mrs. Child insisted. ''It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.''

Mrs. Child recalled that when she began her mission of bringing French cooking into American kitchens nearly 30 years ago, ''no one cared'' about what food might do to one's health. ''Those were halcyon days,'' she said. ''You could eat anything you wanted. I remember a wonderful recipe for spinach. You put in as much butter as the spinach could possibly hold.''

No more. Today, nutrition has ''reared its ugly head,'' she said, and cholesterol has ''become a trendy word.'' People are so fearful of what they eat, Mrs. Child observed, ''they are no longer enjoying food the way they once did, and the dinner table is becoming a trap rather than a pleasure.''

crimsoncat

That made my day. Thank you.

GreyEyes21

''Everybody is overreacting,'' Mrs. Child said. ''If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do.'' ''We should enjoy food and have fun,'' Mrs. Child insisted. ''It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.''

Mrs. Child recalled that when she began her mission of bringing French cooking into American kitchens nearly 30 years ago, ''no one cared'' about what food might do to one's health. ''Those were halcyon days,'' she said. ''You could eat anything you wanted. I remember a wonderful recipe for spinach. You put in as much butter as the spinach could possibly hold.''

No more. Today, nutrition has ''reared its ugly head,'' she said, and cholesterol has ''become a trendy word.'' People are so fearful of what they eat, Mrs. Child observed, ''they are no longer enjoying food the way they once did, and the dinner table is becoming a trap rather than a pleasure.''

---

Quote from - etoiles_argen "let me add some of Julia Child's wisdom."


I believe most of us are on this website because we didn't care about what we ate, and put as much butter in spinach that it could possibly hold. Those things had side effects on us that are, diabetes, HIGH cholesterol, heart attacks, etc... Don't know how this was supposed to help but if I ate like Julia Child's wisdom states, I'd be back where I started, unhealthy, unhappy, and on my way to diabetes.

ETA: quote

ripemango

get those people who seem to know so much about it to cite the sources of their criticism/proof.

i think it is prob better to buy organic milk (it tastes better too). To get labeled organic USDA certifies that the cows are not given the synthetic hormone known as recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH, also known as BGH, recombinant bovine somatotropin or rBST) or antibiotics. Organic milk also come from cows that are only fed certified organic feed, so you are not getting pesticides in the milk from the grass the cow eats.

I guarantee you they don't know that reg milk causes cancer. Association and correlation do not equal causation. They just don't.

mlb929

I think if you look hard enough on the internet you will find whatever you want to support your position. I've never been a milk fan, my kids don't get it, we don't buy it. It's a personal choice with me. I was raised on natural beef and cow's milk from a cow in the back yard. When a product to me tastes entirely different from the store than it does from the source, I've cautious of it and formed my own opinion. I certainly wouldn't let anyone at church or an internet forum board form your opinion for you.

craigy_84

100% of milk drinkers will die sometime in the future

BrunetteRunner87

maybe if you choke on it or drown in it.