Milk, it does a body good. At least that's what they tell us, right? I'm beginning to question that more and more. And the video I attached to the bottom of this post really has me thinking today.
Milk was one of the very first things that my husband and I altered in our diets several years ago when we started our quest for health. Now don't get me wrong, we still use milk in our cereal, and our kids drink it, but I have honestly never been a huge fan. It's always made my stomach upset... blech!
Although, I really started researching the other harmful affects of milk when we lived up in Bellingham, Washington, where we were friends with a vegan. She was the very first vegan we ever knew. And I remember her telling me, "You can get more calcium absorbed into your body from a sprig of broccoli than from an entire glass of milk." That statement
has stuck with me for a long time. So I started learning about the hormones they put in to milk. Have you ever seen the pictures of the cows with the udders that have been treated with growth hormones?? Well here you go. Tell me, how can it do that to a cows udders and not do anything to our bodies??
I have also read that cow's milk is the hardest milk of any animal for humans to digest. If we drank goat's milk, there would be far less allergies in the world. But watching this video makes me question drinking milk at all. What other animal in the world continues to drink milk after they are a baby?? Do cows drink milk into adulthood?? How strong are their bones?? When do our children reach the age when they would naturally stop needing milk, if we didn't know how to milk other animals?? And that question breaches the whole separate topic of breastfeeding, one that is very touchy with many people, so I will save that for another post.
Until I feel comfortable with the answers to those questions, our family is drinking a milk that is non-homogenized (they don't spin it around really fast to make the cream and the rest of the milk "stick" together) but it is pasteurized. Homgenization alters the milk molecules, changing good things in to not so good things. And pasteurization kills all the bacteria and makes it safe to drink, but the thing is, not all bacteria is bad, especially when it comes to milk. So you lose a lot of the good things milk has to offer when it is pasteurized. But for me right now, the benefits outweigh the cost, as far as pasteurization goes that is. The milk we drink also doesn't have all the yucky hormones.
So here is my "balance" question. Why do we even drink milk? My doctor recommends whole milk to the kids starting at age one and two percent at two. She tells me it's for the fats that the milk provides. I want to believe there's some truth to this statement. Maybe, if cow's milk was totally unaltered, no hormones, disease, homogenization and pasteurization, it would then be healthy for us??
I have absolutely no idea, but if you haven't already, please watch the video below so you are more informed on the issue. "Knowing is half the battle" - right? So the more you know, the better decisions you can make. But please don't just blindly drink milk because somebody in a milk moustache told you to!
Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts. I'd love to hear what you think of the video clip and where you are with milk!!
Thanks for reading,
Kelly
