Why Not Milk?

I had an interesting conversation with some one concerning the health benefits of milk, they were saying how healthy it was to drink and could not understand why i thought it was bad for people.  Well, I first of all thought, "oh my god, another person brainwashed by the Dairy Industry."  But after further thought I decided I would write a short piece on my reasons for not drinking animal based milks. 

First I will not dispute that during one period of a person's life they need milk.  All animal milk is designed through eons of evolution to provide all the nutrition that a baby needs, but the milk is species specific.  I mean Human Milk provides all the nutrients that a human baby needs to grow strong, the milk also passes on vital antibodies to help the infant fight off diseases.  While this is true of Human milk, and there are numerous studies promoting the benefits of breastfeeding. Human milk contains naturally occurring growth hormones that are specific to the human race.  The same is true of Cow's milk.  Cow's Milk is designed to take a small calf of about 45 -100 pounds and help it grow into a 300 - 600 pound cow in a year.  After one year the cow is weaned, as a human infant is usually weaned from breast milk after a period of time.

Humans are the only animal, and yes we are an animal, to continue drinking milk past the point of being weaned.  Not only are we the only ones to do that, but we are also the only species to drink the milk of another animal.  While I find this to be an interesting fact, as I have continued to read on this subject over the years, I have started to be concerned about what is happening to people as they continue to drink Cow's Milk.  I mentioned above how each species milk has growth hormones specific to that species, the growth hormones in Cow's milk is very close to the Human growth hormones.  Could this be a reason why we Americans are getting fatter each year?  Could this be why young girls in America are reaching puberty at an ever earlier age than ever before?  My personal belief is yes, these could be some of the cases for these two problems.

Now in addition to growth hormones being very similar between Cows and Humans, there is one hormone that is the same, that is IGF-1 (insulin-like growth Factor).  High levels of IFG-1 has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in women, and an increased risk of prostrate cancer in men.  To make this matter worse, two things help elevate the amount of IGF-1 the first pasteurization of the milk.  The Food and Drug Administration has report that pasteurization does not kill IGF-1 but increases the amount found in Cow's Milk.  The second factor that causes an increase in IFG-1 is rBGH (recumbent Bovine Growth Hormone), this is an artificial growth hormone that is injected into cows to increase the amount of milk they produce.  The unfortunate fact is that the makers of rBGH (Monsanto, among others) and the American Dairy Industry has lobbied to have laws passed not allowing milk to be labeled "rBGH Free."

Speaking of rBGH, the one other his nasty artificial growth hormone does is increase the the amount of puss in cow's milk, yes I did say puss.  Cows develop an infection in their teats causing them to swell, this disease is called Mastitis.  The US Department of Health and Human Services allows 200 million pus cells per liter of milk or 200,000 per milliliter of milk.  Now you might be asking "well if only one cow has this, it would not be bad, they could segregate that cow."  Well, as the milk of the whole dairy herd is combined and tested, there is not real way to segregate only the sick animals, besides, the farmer would have to dump the milk from those animals, not selling it, thereby losing money.  There is a list showing all the states in the US along with the pus count per milliliter of milk, Michigan's count is 287,000, and believe it or not, this is one of the better counts in the country.  To see the entire list go to the following page and scroll down Pus Count.

You may have wondered why I digressed into a discussion of pus and rBGH and what the connection between the two are?  Cows do not do well in hot and humid weather.  Many of the dairy farmers in the more temperate areas of the country such as New England, the Great Lakes area and the Pacific Northwest do not have to use growth hormones to get plenty of milk from their cows.  Meanwhile the farmers in the Southeast find that milk production is much lower than the more temperate areas, therefore they tend to use much more rBGH than other portions of the country.  Looking at the chart of pus counts, you are able to see the states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have counts over 400,000 per milliliter.   I find it amazing that there is not a public outcry over this contamination of the food supply, but then the Dairy Industry pumps tons of money into lobbying, and I guess it is easier to to lobby for no enforcement of laws instead of solving the problems.

Now I know this is sort of convoluted, but hang in there with me as I mention that between 1995 and 2002 over $2 billion was paid out to US farmers for price supports for cow's milk.  Now you might ask me why I bring this up?  Well it would seen to me that during a time when there is a surplus of dairy products that cost the US taxpayers $2 billion dollars over a seven year period, why would not the government ban the use of artificial hormones to increase the production of milk?  I cannot answer that question, except to say there is a quasi-governmental organization called the Dairy Management Inc. that farmers pay 15 cents a gallon for the promotion of Dairy, this is the group that has come up with the "milk mustache" ad that you see on billboards and TV.  They have been very successful in their advertising, they state on their web site that between 1980 and 2000 they increased the per capita intake of dairy products from 523 pounds to 584 pounds, is this a coincidence that obesity has also increased during this timeframe.

Ok, I digressed enough about the oversupply, the hormones that are used to increased milk production, the government prop ups of cow milk prices due to oversupply, and the farmers pay for advertising to increase demand.  But. grant me another minute to digress on one more point, don't worry it will be short.  You might be asking where this oversupply of milk and milk products is going?  Well there are two places that the surplus goes, the first being the USDA Surplus Food Program and the second being the food relief to other countries.  Now the surplus food is given to school districts for subsidized lunches.  The food relief is sent to countries suffering from famine.  Remember these two facts as I go into the next section.

As I mentioned earlier that all animals discontinue drinking the milk of their mother after a period of time, this is called being weaned.  One reason for this occurring is that all milk contains a sugar called lactose.  After a period of time, the infant loses its ability to produce the enzyme lactase to digest the lactose.  While you might say well that is animals it is not humans, well 75% of people of African, Jewish, Native American, and Latin descent are lactose intolerant, while 90% of those of Asian descent are lactose intolerant.  The one group of people that are the most tolerant of lactose are those of northern European descent.

Common symptoms include nausea, cramps, bloating, gas, and diarrhea, which begin about 30 minutes to two hours after eating or drinking foods containing lactose. Many people who have never been diagnosed as lactose intolerant or "lactase deficient" may notice that milk and other dairy products cause problems that don’t occur when eating other foods.