Got Milk? The Dairy Dilemma

Okay, if this photo doesn't get you off dairy we've got some work to do! Dairy is a tough subject. I'm a girl who grew up in Wisconsin - I've got heavy cream running through my veins. And like the rest of the country I've been seduced by sexy celebrity milk mustaches and scared to death by threats of osteoporosis - so much so that for years I bought into the hype that dairy was the only thing that would whittle my waistline and keep my bones from snapping apart. Well, guess what? It's baloney! I'll let the experts tell you why...

"When you consume dairy products, you are ingesting the same antibiotics, pesticides, steroids, and hormones you would if you ate meat directly. Cows are injected with bovine growth hormone. Their udders, under normal conditions, would supply about ten pounds of milk a day. Greedy farmers have their cows producing up to a hundred pounds of milk a day! There is no gentle farmer milking the cow with a bucket between his feet. Cows are milked by machine; metal clamps are attached to the cows' sensitive udders. The udders become sore and infected. Pus forms...To get rid of all the bacteria and other shit, milk must be pasteurized. But pasteurization destroys beneficial enzymes and makes calcium less available without even killing all the viruses or bacteria. Hell, even radioactive particles are found in milk!"1

And what's in cheese and butter? You got it.

How about eggs? "Eggs are essentially cholesterol and salmonella delivery devices... A hundred people every year come down with salmonella poisoning from alfalfa sprouts, so the Centers for Disease Control says no one should eat alfalfa sprouts - yet a hundred thousand are infected by eggs each year, and that doesn't produce the same indignation."2

"Sickeningly high levels of pesticides found in dairy meet government standards. Records from the Food and Drug Administration show that 'virtually 100% of the cheese products produced and sold in the U.S. has detectable pesticide residues.'"3

What about organic, free-range or cage-free dairy products? "Although cage-free, organic, and free-range eggs are better from a food safety point of view they have pretty much the same nutritional profile and certainly the same amount of cholesterol."4 And the same can be said for milk and cheese products.

You mean dairy is fattening?!! Duh. "Cow's milk, by design, grows a 90-pound calf into a 2,000-pound cow over the course of two years... Sounds even more fattening than human milk, right? It is."5

Okay, so dairy myth is crumbling before our eyes. But we still have to address the burning question, where do you get your calcium? Simple...

"Great sources of calcium include green leafy vegetables, nuts, oranges, kidney beans, lima beans, whole grains, Swiss chard, lentils, raisins, broccoli, kale, celery, tofu and romaine lettuce."6

And here's one more thing to consider..."One reason why Americans have such a high incidence of osteoporosis (or weakening of the bones) isn't a lack of dietary calcium but an excess of animal protein, which leaches calcium from the bones. In fact, did you know that the countries with the highest rate of dairy consumption, including the United States, New Zealand, Britain and Sweden, also have the highest rates of osteoporosis? ...Meanwhile, people in rural China, who consume one-third the amount of dairy we do, have almost zero cases of osteoporosis."7

I've given you a lot to consider but we've barely scratched the surface. If you want to learn more, check out the International Vegetarian Union or any of the three books listed below. In the meantime, enjoy exploring all the great alternatives to dairy!

1,3,5 "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
2,4 "The Quantum Wellness Cleanse" by Kathy Freston
6,7  "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn