Drinking milk is a prime example of how societal norms have become ingrained in our brains with very little logic behind it. Milk is great for babies, but not so much for adults. Here’s why.
#1. The ingredients are horrifying.
When you drink a glass of milk, you’re also drinking feces, antibiotics, growth hormones, and pus. Yes, pus. The same fluid that flows out of the zits on your face is in milk. Cows are susceptible to infection of the udder and their body’s reaction is pus production. While pasteurizing does help clear a lot of the pus and harmful bacteria, traces can still be found.
#2. Our bodies aren’t meant to drink milk.
A lot of people are lactose intolerant and milk is reported to be the highest food allergen worldwide. In fact, we’re the only animals that continue to drink milk into adulthood. No wonder so many of us are allergic to it. Not to mention the we’re the only animal that drinks another animal’s milk. You don’t see dogs drinking goat’s milk, do you?
#3. The health benefits are misleading.
Most of us drink milk because we’re told it’s healthy. We’re told it contains calcium that makes the bones strong. However, to date there have been no studies proving that milk helps prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures. In fact, quite the opposite has been found to be true: studies have shown that there’s a positive correlation between drinking milk and bone fractures. Indeed, in countries such as Asia and Africa where milk consumption is low, osteoporosis is actually less common.
#4. In fact, it can mess with your health big time.
Milk affects your health on a cellular level and has been linked to a whole list of big bads. Prostate cancer in men, ovarian cancer in women, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. The main protein in milk is also thought to initiate cancer-processes in the body.
#5. And it’s torture for cows.
Forget the commercials. Milk cows don’t graze in open fields eating grass. Instead, they’re cramped into concrete-floored milking pens to spend their miserable lives being milked by an automatic machine. In order for a cow to produce milk, she has to be in the pregnant or nursing phase constantly throughout her “milking” career. Here’s the cycle: impregnate her so she starts to produce milk, take the baby away within a day of its birth so the cow continues to produce milk for her newborn calf. Impregnate her again within 60 days. Repeat.