Cow's milk is bad?

Recently I stopped drinking cow's milk, first I ditched full cream because it was too 'heavy' and then just gave it up completely in favour of almond milk. IMHO, milk was designed to make a 100 kg calf into a 1000 kg cow. Not good for us! Also, there's that myth about pus and blood. I know it's not true but it gets me every time... ugh.

I like almond milk in my coffee and sub it out to save calories in some dessert recipes. Milk isn't bad for you though, although that's a popular MFP myth people like to spout on here. In fact I sure your trolling right now with your op. Raw milk has excellent health benefits and most people who are lactose intolerant have no problems drinking raw milk. Most of the benefits of milk are lost in the pasteurization process. That's why calves often don't survive when fed pasteurized milk. I'm sure someone will chime in in how bad it is for you momentarily....

Eh. I fed my kids raw human milk and frozen human milk. Many of the benefits were lost during the freezing process, but I wouldn't say most. However, raw milk is an effective topical antibiotic (anti-viral agent as well)

That's actually true. Human breastmilk is awesome like that, I've used it many times on my own kids for conjunctivitis when they were babies.

Good on minor infections, like cat scratches. Usually they get really irritated and sore for a coupla days when I get them. I rubbed a little of my own breast milk on one once--BAM. Gone the next day.

Good points made about bok choy and raw milk. Thanks

Organic whole milk is fine. It's also delicious. I grew up with only skim or 1% milk in the house and never liked milk much at all until I finally tried whole milk.

Non-organic milk can contain bovine growth hormone, pesticides, and residue from antibiotics. Since it's probably not pasture raised, the omega 6 to omega 3 ratios aren't optimal. This is one of the instances where the organic version does make a big difference.

The other problem is that the fat in milk is a good thing in that it helps buffer the sugar to prevent insulin spikes. It may not taste sweet, but milk has quite a bit of sugars in it. I think the fat may also help absorption of protein along with fat soluble nutrients that obviously get removed with the fat. Saturated fat is finally being vindicated of being the villain in our diets. Saturated fat is very stable and provides a great nutritious fuel source and as long as you burn all of your daily calories, there's no excess in your bloodstream anyway.

Whole milk is around 4% fat, so drinking 2% milk denies you of the benefits and taste with minimal caloric reduction. 1% and skim milk taste like water and shouldn't even be called milk in my book.

Milk is however, not a great calcium source which many people consume it for. The dairy association pushes it for that, but there's a big difference between what nutrients may be in a food and how much of that is bio available. You do get some, but it's not absorbed that well for humans. Much better calcium sources are dark greens, sea vegetables, and veggies in general.

If you decide on almond or soy milk as an alternative, beware of the extremely high sugar content in most of the brands and be sure to factor that into your decision. I'd rather have the fat since essential fats are nutrients my body needs and sugar is well, just empty calories.

Btw, you should try full fat organic yogurts. That's what yogurt is supposed to taste like instead of like instant pudding. I love the full fat plain Greek yogurt that Cabot makes with 10% milk fat. It's as thick as sour cream and I go through a couple 2 lb containers a week.

Please follow up with scientifically backed up sources that prove organic milk is better and why and prove that all almond and soy have a high sugar content (not all are sweetened). Also show how full fat organic yogurt is better.

Make your own yogurt, it's much better than any store bought organic brand.

Leafy greens turn a 16lb gorilla into a 500lb gorilla. I better stop eating salad.

Organic milk doesn't contain pesticides.

Good points made about bok choy and raw milk. Thanks

That, and snarkiness, is what we're all about!

If you're really interested in understanding human's relationship to milk, here is an interesting article about the evolution of dairy consumption.

http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471

Things to note - different types of dairy are more digestible than others, only a percentage of the population retains the ability to digest milk after childhood due to a gene mutation, and dairy products have been quite important for human survival during times of famine.

I personally have no difficulty digesting milk so I won't get all up in other people's faces about whether or not it is "right" to consume it. That said, aside from butter, very little dairy makes its way into my cooking. And when I do buy milk, I often choose goat over cow simply because goats have a MUCH smaller carbon footprint.

Good points made about bok choy and raw milk. Thanks

That, and snarkiness, is what we're all about!

Did I sound like I was being snarky? That was a sincere comment...