What You Need To Know About The Milk You Drink
Everywhere in the world, cow’s milk is so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even need an introduction. Whether poured on breakfast cereal or enjoyed alone as a cold glass of milk, this beverage has become a staple in the world’s diet that can be enjoyed from infant to the very old.
Wait! Before you take the next sip, consider the heavier side: growth hormones, chemicals, fat content and digestibility.
BGH: TURNING COWS INTO BIOTECH MILK MACHINES
Fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds! How was this accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, hormones (more than 59 types), forced feeding plans and specialized breeding: that’s how.
The latest high-tech onslaught on the poor cow is bovine growth hormone or BGH. This genetically engineered drug is supposed to stimulate milk production. BGH, also known as Bovine Somatotropin (BST), works by interfering with a cow’s natural physiology and artificially inducing the cow to produce more milk than is appropriate for her body.
As BGH forces cows to produce more milk than is healthy for their body, the cows become more susceptible to infections and diseases. This, in turn, creates additional needs for antibiotics and other drugs. All these looks like a vicious cycle of destruction that never stops!
Milk and dairy products, unless otherwise labeled ‘organic’, most probably come from cows routinely injected with BGH. A lactating mammal excretes toxins through its milk. These synthetic hormones injected to cows are transferred to milk and eventually into our body through the consumption of milk from such cows. It has a serious effect on children’s obesity and premature puberty, where children are growing too rapid for their age. Little girls are reported to have their first menstruation earlier and earlier. One case was reported in the USA at the age of 4.
IGF (INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR) IN MILK LINKED TO CANCER
“Levels of IGF increase in milk after cows are treated with rBGH”, a hormone fed to cows to make them grow unnaturally large in a shorter period of time to maximize the dairy industry’s profits -National Institutes of Health Assessment of Bovine Somatotropin, December, 1999
IGF-1, a powerful growth hormone that is identical in bovines and humans, and is becoming known as a KEY factor in the rapid growth and proliferation of breast, prostate, colon and lung cancers.
“The IGF system is widely involved in human carcinogenesis. A significant association between high circulating IGF-1 concentrations and an increased risk of lung, colon, prostate and pre-menopausal breast cancer has recently been reported.” -International Journal of Cancer. 2000 Aug, 87:4
THE 21st CENTURY COWS’ DIET IS RIFE WITH CHEMICALS COCKTAIL
Besides synthetic hormones, these cows also retain in their flesh and milk all the pesticides they have consumed or absorbed because their feeds are often grown on land sprayed heavily with fertilizer and poisonous pesticides. They are sprayed with and fed with many toxic compounds never encountered by organic cattle raised in a more natural way. Further intensification of the dairy industry has disastrously turned cows (natural herbivores) into carnivores by feeding them meat and bone meal. These are rotten, inconsumable meat from supermarket rejects. Think how ‘mad cow disease’ outbreak happened.
FATS
“Milk fat has been identified as a cholesterol-elevating fat because it contains cholesterol and is primarily saturated.“- Journal of Dairy Science 1991:74 (11)
Saturated fat in the diet damages arteries leading to heart disease, promotes cancer, contributes to gallbladder disease and is the fundamental cause of obesity. Only low fat and organic milk can help fulfil your daily requirements for a variety of important nutrients.
So choose wisely. Choose low fat!
DIGESTIBILITY ISSUES
So, once you get the fat out, milk is a highly nutritious food? Wrong!
Milk is a highly nutritious food ONLY IF your digestive system is able to digest and handle milk.
Most people (especially Asians) do not have the enzyme lactase to digest the milk sugar (lactose).
Undigested milk sugar in the large intestine often results in diarrhoea, gas, stomach cramps, and other severe symptoms like eczema and asthma.
Further, many also find it difficult to digest the milk protein (casein). So what is the good of all the nutrients that milk contains if it becomes a poison to the body when one cannot digest it?
YOGHURT IS THE BEST ALTERNATIVE FOR MILK
For centuries, yoghurt has been characterized by its live and active cultures. Because yoghurt is cultured, it is highly digestible than milk for most if not all of us. In fact, when we make yoghurt, the live cultures create lactase to break down the lactose and the casein is denatured into a two-dimensional structure, which would be less likely to cause allergic reactions. Yoghurt also contains friendly bacteria that benefit us by improving intestinal microbial balance, which aids in preventing colitis, an inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the colon, and possibly even preventing colon cancer. Furthermore, it lowered the pH value, which also aids in the absorption of minerals like calcium and magnesium.
Five Reasons Why Families Who Take Dairy Products Should Choose Organic
Produced without synthetic hormones. Hormones are so powerful that even trace amounts can cause dramatic changes in living beings. When you choose organic milk, you can be sure that no synthetic hormones are used in stimulating the cows’ milk production.
Produced without antibiotics. One of the main places where antibiotics are used today is actually in husbandry. Antibiotic overuse is posing a major public health problem due to mutation and increased resistance of bacteria. They weaken the immune system and wipe out the natural colony of flora in the intestinal tract, making humans, especially children and infant, more susceptible to infections. Organic dairy products come from organic cows that are not treated with antibiotics, so it doesn’t contribute to the growing problem of bacterial resistance to the cow or the person who consume it!
Produced without harmful pesticides. Organic agriculture eliminates pesticide and fertilizer exposure. It allows cows to roam and graze naturally on lush pastures.
High in Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLAs). CLAs are important good fats that have been linked to decreased cardiovascular diseases. Dairy products made from cows which roams freely has higher CLA content. Since many organic farmers allow their cows to graze freely on fresh green pasture, organic milk often has a high CLA content. Whereas, ‘factory’ cows are confined physically and are on forced feeding plan with corn, meat and bone meals, they do not have the desired CLA.
Say ‘No’ to animal cruelty. Unlike factory cows, organic cows must have access to open air and are allowed to graze freely in organic pasture. This kind of farming is kind towards animals, supportive of wildlife and agriculture, healthy for rural communities, respectful of our air. water and soil, and sustainable for future generations. Cows can’t say no. but we can!
