What with all the Dairy Hate?

I would like to point out that beans especially have a very low absorption rate compared to milk. While I understand people may have allergies cow isn't the only animal that produces milk. You mentioned goat and sheep.

It has been proven time and again that animal products whether it be for protein, calcium, omega-3, B-vitamins etc are better absorbed by the human body than plant products.

I used to wonder the same thing. I always made sure my daughter drank her milk, and I drank mine to show her that I practice what I preach. I was almost always vegetarian, but I used milk, cheese, eggs, and yogurt liberally. I ALWAYS thought I'd die without cheese!

But then, as a continually read books, blogs, journals, took classes, etc. I started to see why the hype about losing the dairy. After years of suffering migraines, I attempted to try a vegan diet. Haven't had a headache since. I was tested for food allergies, positive to all dairy. Turns out, I would actually die WITH cheese. I had my daughter tested. Positive to all dairy.

One thing that really made sense to me was this explaination about milk:

All mammals produce milk for their young that is appropriate for that youngin' to reach a certain level of development. In humans, anthropologically speaking, we can feed our young for up to 5 years and they are then able to continue to thrive without it. This happened untill about 10,000 years ago when humans began domesticating plants and animals for food. Babies were being fed milk so mom and dad could pull their weight around the new 'farms' without little junior holding them back wanting to eat all the time. (Back then mothers fed babies whenever they wanted, there was no, "let him cry it out he needs to get accostumed to a feeding schedule.")
A cows milk is designed to grow a calf into a 400 pound cow. Kind of over kill for a human, right? We now know that its a bad thing to give milk to babies because they cannot digest it. And in this present day, milk is one of the most common allergens amonst the population.

Other things I can think of at the moment are......

In the U.S. 80% of African Americans, 90% of Aisans, and 60% hispanics are lactose intollerant to some degree.
(Roberta Larson Duyff, American Dietic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide)

The campaign showing the connection between drinking milk and weight loss was sponsered by the Dairy Council. Those results came about in conjunction with a low calorie diet. (No proof that it was the dairy doing anything) That campaign was suspended and claims redacted after the Dairy Council was sued by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

As women we have been beat in the head with the "we need milk for calcium" line. Well, whole milk contains 118 mg calcium BUT......Chickpeas=150, Almonds=234. So really, why does it have to come from milk? There are also studies, can't recall at the moment by who, that show that cows milk actually pulls calcium from the bones, is linked to diabetes, and linked to cancer. (But most things are linked to cancer anyway.)

Then of course you have the hormone/antibiotic issue. And the treatment of the animals who provide these foods to us. I'm not an animal rights activist by any means. I'm a vegan who is not a member of PETA, {GASP!}:noway: :laugh: I do, however, find the way cows are raised and milked to be despicable. Imagine when your boobs are sore, from pregnancy or pms. Now imagine a metal machine clamping on to your nipples and sucking the milk out. Thats just plain rude. I say that as a woman, not an amnimal rights person.:grumble:

Anyway, thats some of the hype against dairy. Everything will always have hype. As much as I loved cheese and yogurt, I wouldn't go back for anything. Thats just because I feel absolutely amazing now. I guess if you can tolerate it and you are ok with the other things being said, then:drinker: drink milk. Have a nice slice of cheese on a cracker for me too.

I think we all need to make our own decisions, but we need to have the whole story too. I always bought the dairy makes you skinny. But now I always look at who did the study and look at opposing evidence. Then I can comfortably make a decision for myself. And I'm always willing to stay open to new research and possibly change my mind. And no matter who tells me something is good or bad, I do all the research myself. I don't have anything against non-vegans or vegetarians, I just hope everybody is really, actually thinking for themselves.

This post is kind-of funny.

I guess I'm a dairy hater. While I would never preach to anyone about staying away from dairy products I don't eat or drink it. It has nothing to do with homones and junk like that. I just can't stand the taste... milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, whatever it is. I think it has great nutritional value but I can not get past the taste.

Sorry guys.

Dairy farmer's daughter here! I could not live without my yogurt and cottage cheese. Also like a glass of lowfat milk every now and then. When I was a kid we drank the raw milk straight from the cooling tank. We were the healthiest kids around and the strongest. I started gaining all this weight after I left the farm:grumble:

A LOT of people are lactose intolerant. I personal love dairy and wouldn't dream of giving it up, but a good chunk of my family members simply can't eat it. I think restaurants like tim hortons SHOULD offer an alternative such as soy, almond or rice milk.

Dairy is good for you, it's high in calcuim and vitamin D, but those that choose not to drink it wether for medical reasons or due to personal preference can obtain these nutrients in other ways.

While we're on the topic, what's with all the Grains Hate?? If I hear one more person talk about giving up all grain products I WILL snap.

A LOT of people are lactose intolerant. I personal love dairy and wouldn't dream of giving it up, but a good chunk of my family members simply can't eat it. I think restaurants like tim hortons SHOULD offer an alternative such as soy, almond or rice milk.

Dairy is good for you, it's high in calcuim and vitamin D, but those that choose not to drink it wether for medical reasons or due to personal preference can obtain these nutrients in other ways.

While we're on the topic, what's with all the Grains Hate?? If I hear one more person talk about giving up all grain products I WILL snap.

I know, the grain thing drives me crazy too. On the one side, there are people arguing that our body is meant to eat meat not grains. On the other side, there are people saying we are meant to eat grains but not meat. :laugh: The arguements are convincing either way.

Everybody is always going to produce evidence that benefits their cause. Currently, the huge surge in food allergies is benefiting the arguement against grains. I have some info from a medical site that my doctor gave me that give statistics and such, but I can't find it now that I want to look at it, lol.

All in all, if you can tolerate it, eat it. In moderation of course. I'm not going to lie, my daughter and I are aggresivly trying to find bread and other foods that we can eat. It is amazing how much we depended on grains. They are in EVERYTHING! Thank god we still have rice and beans, otherwise we'd starve to death.

A LOT of people are lactose intolerant. I personal love dairy and wouldn't dream of giving it up, but a good chunk of my family members simply can't eat it. I think restaurants like tim hortons SHOULD offer an alternative such as soy, almond or rice milk.

Dairy is good for you, it's high in calcuim and vitamin D, but those that choose not to drink it wether for medical reasons or due to personal preference can obtain these nutrients in other ways.

While we're on the topic, what's with all the Grains Hate?? If I hear one more person talk about giving up all grain products I WILL snap.

I know, the grain thing drives me crazy too. On the one side, there are people arguing that our body is meant to eat meat not grains. On the other side, there are people saying we are meant to eat grains but not meat. :laugh: The arguements are convincing either way.

Everybody is always going to produce evidence that benefits their cause. Currently, the huge surge in food allergies is benefiting the arguement against grains. I have some info from a medical site that my doctor gave me that give statistics and such, but I can't find it now that I want to look at it, lol.

All in all, if you can tolerate it, eat it. In moderation of course. I'm not going to lie, my daughter and I are aggresivly trying to find bread and other foods that we can eat. It is amazing how much we depended on grains. They are in EVERYTHING! Thank god we still have rice and beans, otherwise we'd starve to death.

I agree, a lot of people do have problems with gluten. BUT there are whole grain that do not contain gluten. Let us not forget about good old brown rice. Most people I talk to that don't eat grains don't do it because of allergies etc. They do it because they misguidedly think it will make them lose weight.

I found a lot of information about dairy products. None of this is my wording, but I believe most of it to be true as I've done other "investigation" over the past year and a half on why dairy isn't good. With that being said, I LOVE cheese! I think I'm obsessed. lol My dad used to call me his little rat because I ate cheese all the time and I still do. Is it healthy for me? No.

Here are some other links as well proving dairy isn't all that healthy.

http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/is-milk-bad.aspx
http://www.vivavegie.org/vvi/vva/vvi23/milkpcrm.html


AGAIN, below isn't my wording.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Yes... milk is Mother Nature's "perfect food" ...for a calf... until it is weaned.

Everything you know about cow's milk and dairy is probably part of a Dairy industry MYTH.

Cow's milk is an unhealthy fluid from diseased animals that contains a wide range of dangerous and disease-causing substances that have a cumulative negative effect on all who consume it.

MILK'S BASIC CONTENTS

*ALL* cow's milk (regular and 'organic') has 59 active hormones, scores of allergens, fat and cholesterol.

Most cow's milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics (perhaps 53, with LS-50), blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses. (Cow's milk can have traces of anything the cow ate... including such things as radioactive fallout from nuke testing ... (the 50's strontium-90 problem).

LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN AMERICA
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadc… (1998)

Rank Total Description

1 724,859 Heart Disease (think fats/cholesterol: meat/dairy)
2 541,532 Malignant Neoplasms (cancer: think toxins/milk/dairy)
2a 250,000 Medical system (drugs/etc. think ignorance/incompetence)
3 158,448 Cerebro-vascular (think meat milk and dairy)
4 112,584 Bronchitis Emphysema Asthma (think toxins/milk/dairy)
5 97,835 Unintentional Injuries and Adverse Effects
6 91,871 Pneumonia & Influenza (think weak immune systems and
mucus)
7 64,751 Diabetes (think milk/dairy)
7a 40,000+ Highway slaughter (men, women and children)
8 30,575 Suicide (think behavioral problems)
9 26,182 Nephritis (Bright's disease: inflammation of the
kidneys)
10 25,192 Liver Disease (think alcohol and other toxins)

(2a and 7a were added for completeness)

(note: Number 13 on the CDC list is -18,272 Homicide & Legal Intervention-. It is curious that the CDC would readily list law enforcement and homicides... and not the 250,000 deaths caused by the medical system!)

CANCER FUEL

Of those 59 hormones one is a powerful GROWTH hormone called Insulin- like Growth Factor ONE (IGF-1). By a freak of nature it is identical in cows and humans. Consider this hormone to be a "fuel cell" for any cancer... (the medical world says IGF-1 is a key factor in the rapid growth and proliferation of breast, prostate and colon cancers, and we suspect that most likely it will be found to promote ALL cancers).

IGF-1 is a normal part of ALL milk... the newborn is SUPPOSED to grow quickly! What makes the 50% of obese American consumers think they need MORE growth? Consumers don't think anything about it because they do not have a clue to the problem... nor do most of our doctors.

(See http://www.notmilk.com/igf1time.txt for a time line)

QUANTITY

Each bite of hard cheese has TEN TIMES whatever was in that sip of milk... because it takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. Each bite of ice cream has 12 times ... and every swipe of butter 21 times whatever is contained in the fat molecules in a sip of milk.

MONSANTO AND rbGH (Posilac)

Monsanto Chemical Co., maker of fine poisons such as DDT, agent orange, Roundup and more... spent around half a billion dollars inventing a shot to inject into cows... to force a cow to produce MORE milk (for an already glutted taxpayer subsidized market).

Unfortunately, they created *FIVE* errors in their Frankenstein Posilac (rbGH) shot that direly affected all test animals... but that important report (Richard, Odaglia & Deslex, 1989) has been hidden from everyone under Clinton's Trade Secrets act. The Canadians read enough of this report (before it was stolen) to reject rbGH for their country.

Monsanto's Posilac creates additional IGF-1 in milk: up to 80% more.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insists that IGF-1 is destroyed in the stomach. If that were true, the FDA has proven that breast feeding cannot work. Common sense says their "finding" is ridiculous because this growth factor DOES make the baby calf grow (rapidly, as mother natured intended). Visit the Dairy Education Board at http://www.notmilk.com/deb/100399.html to review a DAIRY study that confirms what the FDA has lied about this for years.

IGF-1 INCREASES

This study involved two groups. One group consuming 12 ounces of milk a day and the other consuming the USDA recommended allowance of 24 ounces (three cups). This report notes that the participants consuming 12 ounces more milk per day... HAD A 10% RISE IN IGF-1 IN THEIR BLOOD SERUM! Now, consider that PER DAY, from ALL sources, the typical milk/dairy consumer ingests approximately 39% of daily diet from dairy... and that 10% increase becomes the "tip of the iceberg". We have NO idea of the non-dairy versus full-dairy difference but considering cancer rates... it has to be significant.

FAT

Whole milk 49% of the calories are from fat.
"2%" milk 35% of the calories are from fat.
Cheddar cheese 74% of the calories are from fat.
Butter 100% of the calories are from fat.

Most folks suspect that butter is all fat. Most folks have no concept of the just how much fat is in the rest of milk and dairy. Perhaps the 54% of Americans who are obese need to comprehend that milk, ice cream, cheeses, yogurts, and all the OTHER products that use milk derivatives (casein, whey, lactose, colostrum) are most likely a significant cause for their weight and health problem.

CALCIUM

Calcium? Where do the COWS get calcium for their big bones? Yes... from plants! The calcium they consume from plants has a large amount of magnesium... necessary for the body to absorb and USE the calcium.

The calcium in cow's milk is basically useless because it has insufficient magnesium content (those nations with the highest amount of milk/dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Proof? How about a controlled study of 78,000 nurses over a period of 12 years?

Read more about it at:

http://www.notmilk.com/deb/030799.html Article on the 78,000 nurse study
http://www.notmilk.com/deb/092098.html CALCIUM AND BONE DISEASE
http://www.notmilk.com/badbones.html WHO GETS BONE DISEASE?
http://www.notmilk.com/bonehead.txt CRIPPLING BONEHEADS
http://www.notmilk.com/calcium/index.htm… Consolidated info

Cows milk has three times the calcium as does human breast milk. No matter, neither are very usable because in order to be absorbed and used their MUST be an equal quantity of MAGNESIUM (as exists in the greens that cows eat to get all the calcium they need for their big bones). Milk has only enough magnesium to absorb around 11% (33mg per cup) of calcium.

Per the USDA 8 ounces (one cup) of cows milk contains:

Calcium, Ca mg 291.336
Magnesium, Mg mg 32.794

The USDA recommends 1200mg of calcium per day. The USDA recommended three cups of milk a day only have 900mg of calcium. Some argue that only 1/3 of the magnesium is necessary. Mother nature seems to suggest it should be one to one. If the ratio for proper absorption were 1/3 magnesium to one calcium then no more than 300mg of that 900mg of calcium is usable. If, in fact, it is a one to one ratio... only 98.38mg of calcium is usable.

It is not a matter of how much calcium one ingests... but how much one does not lose.

PROTEIN

Milk can be thought of as "liquid meat" because of its high protein content which, in concert with other proteins, may actually LEACH calcium from the body. Countries that consume high protein diets (meat, milk and dairy) have the highest rates of osteoporosis.

THE 'WHOLESOME' PROTEIN MYTH

87% of milk is water. That makes it VERY expensive water.

Broken down into its basic groups... WHOLE MILK is:

WATER FAT CASEIN OTHER PROTEIN
87% 3.25% 4% 1% 4.75

(note: that is 3.25% "milkfat" which includes the 87% water.)

80% of the protein in milk is casein. Casein is a powerful binder... a
polymer used to make plastics... and a glue that is better used to make
sturdy furniture or hold beer bottle labels in place. It is in
thousands of processed foods as a binder... as "something" caseinate.

Casein is a powerful allergen... a histamine that creates lots of
mucus. The only medicine in Olympic athlete Flo-Jo's body was Benedryl,
a power antihistamine she took to combat her last meal... pizza.
For the whole Flo-Jo story:

http://www.notmilk.com/deb/092198.html,
http://www.notmilk.com/deb/111598.html and
http://www.notmilk.com/deb/112398.html for the whole story.

BACTERIA

Cow's milk is allowed to have feces in it. This is a major source for bacteria. Milk is typically pasteurized more than once before it gets to your table... each time for only 15 seconds at 162 degrees Fahrenheit.

To sanitize water one is told to boil it (212 degrees F) for several minutes. That is a tremendous disparity, isn't it!

Keep in mind that at room temperature the number of bacteria in milk DOUBLE around every 20 minutes. No wonder milk turns rotten very quickly.

PUS

ONE cubic centimeter (cc) of commercial cow's milk is allowed to have up to 750,000 somatic cells (common name is "PUS") and 20,000 live bacteria... before it is kept off the market.

That amounts to a whopping 20 million live squiggly bacteria and up to 750 MILLION pus cells per liter (bit more than a quart).

1 cup = 236.5882cc 177,441,150 pus cells ~ 4,731,600 bacteria
24 oz (3 glasses) = 532,323,450 pus cells ~ 14,220,000 bacteria
(the "recommended" daily intake)

The EU and the Canadians allow for a less "tasty" 400,000,000 pus cells per liter.

Typically these levels are lower... but they COULD reach these levels and still get to YOUR table.

CHOLESTEROL

The cholesterol content of those three glasses of milk is equal to what one would get from 53 slices of bacon. Do you know of any doctor who recommends that much bacon per day?

KOSHER

Is cow's milk and dairy "Kosher"? Consider this:

"D-3 always is derived from an animal. The sunlight reaction that converts 7-dehydrocholesterol to vitamin D-3 is a 'pure' chemical reaction that occurs in your skin in certain cells."

"The provitamin known as 7-dehydrocholesterol is extracted and isolated from the skins of mammals and purified." (Marian Herbert of the Vitamin D Workshop U of C)

Vitamin D-3 can come from four different sources:

Pig skin, sheep skin, raw fish liver, and pig brains. Most of the time, Vitamin D-3 is extracted from pig skin and sold to dairy processors.

Short answer to "is milk kosher" - probably not.

OTHER 'STUFF'

Fat and cholesterol. Lots of it. Per the dairy influenced USDA "food pyramid" all milk, dairy and meats should represent no more than 8% of the diet. Statistically, by volume of sales in a nation of 281 million Americans, it works out to almost 40% of the diet for MILK AND DAIRY.. without the meat.

The milk of each of the over 4,700 mammals on earth is formulated specifically for that species. There are special lactoferrins and immunoglobulins (cow specific immunizing stuff) that in humans serve as allergens.

LEUKEMIA

According to Hoards Dairyman (Volume 147, number 4)... 89% of America's dairy herds have the leukemia virus. (more at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/notmilk/me…

DIABETES

The protein lactalbumin, has been identified as a key factor in diabetes (and a major reason for NOT giving cows milk to infants).

CROHN'S DISEASE

Mycobacterium paratuberculosis causes a bovine disease called "Johne's."

Cows diagnosed with Johne's Disease have diarrhea, and heavy fecal shedding of bacteria. This bacteria becomes cultured in milk, and is not destroyed by pasteurization. Occasionally, the milk-borne bacteria will begin to grow in the human host, and the results are irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's Disease.

MAD COW DISEASE

There may also be prions (pronounced PREons) in the milk and meat. This is crystalline substance that acts like a virus... with an "incubation" period of from 5 to 30 years. The end result is MAD COW DISEASE!

HOMOGENIZATION

Large fat molecules cannot get through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. The cream no longer rises... because homogenization breaks up those large molecules into small ones that DO get into the bloodstream! This becomes an expressway for any fat-borne toxins (lead, dioxin's, etc.) into your (otherwise) most protected organs.

CUMULATIVE EFFECTS

How does this impact humans who consume cow's milk and dairy? Obesity (over 50% of Americans and rising), heart disease, cancer, allergies, digestive problems, diabetes, asthma, desensitization to antibiotics, behavioral problems, and the constant ingestion of dioxin's, herbicides, pesticides (and anything else the cow eats that is not good for any critter), that winds up getting stored in HUMAN fat... is not healthy by any measure.

Those who resist believing the truth should understand that MOST of the world's population CANNOT tolerate the lactose in cow's milk. Up to 95% of the black population, around 53% of the Hispanics, etc.) So much for cow's milk being "natures perfect food" for humans! Mother nature knows better.

Common sense question: Where was this massive "milk is a must" before refrigeration, pasteurization and mass transportation? Back when cows gave only 1-4 pounds a day it was quickly made into BUTTER and cheese! Now that those same cows have been tweaked and shot-up with Posilac to produce up to 55 or more pounds of milk per day... almost all year long... it is suddenly (after many thousands of years) a daily "staple". NOT!

POLLUTION

There are around 9.2 million dairy cows in the United states. Each dairy cow ingests around 330 pounds of feed (perhaps 50 pounds) and water (around 280 pounds or 33 gallons) per day. Allowing for the best dairy production of 55 pounds of milk per day (over ten times what mother nature designed the cow to produce) that means that what remains becomes "slurry".

That means around 275 pound of urine and feces per day... per cow, for a daily total of 2.53 BILLION pounds of pollution. Per year... that amounts to around 923 billion pounds of UNTREATED pollution entering our streams, rivers, lakes... and drinking water systems.

Cows are hot-blooded mammals. Like all other mammals they pass gas. Somewhat like elephants their compartmented digestive system is rather inefficient... which leads to the creation of MORE gas. During a Discovery Channel documentary on elephants a parting quip was that the average adult elephant passes enough methane gas per day to run a car about 20 miles.

Cows are not much better. The English New Scientist (page 5 -31.8.96) mentions that cattle produce around 48 kilograms (105 pounds) of methane each per year and that more bubbles out of the animals' manure. Dairy cows eat more because they produce milk. With 9.2 million dairy cows times a minimum of 100 pounds of methane gas per year... that amounts almost a billion pounds of methane gas released into the atmosphere each year. With around 100 million beef cattle... pigs, sheep, and other "factory farmed" animals it should not be difficult to fathom the extent of this problem.

This means that "Beef is a greenhouse-intensive food" and a major cause of global warming (with dairy a significant part of the problem).

Another major point is:

"Milk is a very strong pollutant: it is about 400 times more polluting than untreated sewage. To put it another way, 1,000 gallons of milk has the same polluting potential as the untreated sewage from a town of 7,000 people." Morlais Owen. Chief Scientist for Welsh Water. North Wales Weekly News. 24.3.88.

"It's not natural for humans to drink cow's milk. Humans milk is for humans. Cow's milk is for calves. You have no more need of cow's milk than you do rats milk, horses milk or elephant's milk. Cow's milk is a high fat fluid exquisitely designed to turn a 65 lb baby calf into a 400 lb cow. That's what cow's milk is for!" --Dr Michael Klaper MD

"I no longer recommend dairy products after the age of 2 years. Other calcium sources offer many advantages that dairy products do not have." --Dr. Benjamin Spock
Source(s):
http://www.rense.com/general26/truth.htm

I would like to point out that beans especially have a very low absorption rate compared to milk. While I understand people may have allergies cow isn't the only animal that produces milk. You mentioned goat and sheep.

It has been proven time and again that animal products whether it be for protein, calcium, omega-3, B-vitamins etc are better absorbed by the human body than plant products.

I'm only giving examples of what the OP asked, "What with all the dairy hate?" I didn't say anything about goat or sheep either. I didn't say anything about beans either. And yes there are studies that show that animal products are better absorbed, but there is also evidence to the contrary. Matter of fact, my endocrinologist who is a meat and cheese lover, admits that vegans tend to live longer and have less disease throughout their lifetime. He was a researcher and professor at U of M for 15 years. He directly relates my enormous turn around to going vegan. Does that mean you should go vegan? Not unless you want to. There are benefits, huge benefits when done properly. But its not for everyone.

My point is just what I said. And like some others have said. We need to look at the evidence, both sides, and decide what is best for us. Just before you adhere to a study that you want to agree with, find out who paid for and published the study. Alot of those meat, poultry, dairy and pork studies were sponsered by the industry who profits from you eating the product. I have health reasons for eating the way I do, I don't expect anyone to follow suit just because its better for me. But my experience has really opened my eyes to so called "research".

I totally agree with you. Cow's milk is produced by cows that were pregnant and need to feed their calves, same thing with women after they have babies. They both produce milk to feed their young. That's why they produce milk in the first place. I don't see women selling their breast milk to make profits off of other people. Why should cows or other animals have to be treated badly to do that? Also, animal calcium DEPLETES humans' bodies from calcium. The studies that have been done that say you need calcium from milk are from the DAIRY INDUSTRIES so you can't trust their word. Seriously, what retailer will tell you their product is bad and not buy it? None.

BUT I do have to admit that I'm a cheese addict. I love the stuff and always have some in my fridge. I try to stay away from it though because I know it's unhealthy just like meat.

Um... listen to the skinny girls. We eat dairy. Strong muscles, strong bones, etc. Unless you have some sort of aversion to dairy or have a moral objection to it, eating and drinking dairy products is part of a healthy diet.

Dairy is excellent for you, and that includes full fat milk.
I do use soy milk/almond milk/skim milk when I need a lower calorie/lower sodium alternative, but thats about the only reason I'd stay away. But I still love starting my morning with a bowl of cereal complete with whole milk.