Cow's Milk: Good or Bad?

Question

I really enjoy drinking milk - I've grown to like it for the taste, the fullness, and the protein, calcium and vitamins it contains. However, I am aware that there are some sources pointing out that Cow's milk may not be so good for you.

If anyone could clear this up for me, that would be great. I drink about a gallon a week of regular 1% milk.

It may be strange, but just because it does not occur naturally does not necessarily mean that it is bad. No other animals cook the meat that they eat, yet it was that which allowed the human species to take in the advance proteins necessary for the evolutionary development of our brains. And that certainly got us somewhere.

Answer 1

You shouldn't fear drinking milk. It is part of a healthy diet and provides your body with calcium which helps strengthen bones. It will also reduce the chances of diseases such as osteroporosis (weakening of bones).

The only problem is with age. If your young then this is extremely healthy, if your aged near your 60s milk becomes less or a nessesity in your daily diet.

Answer 2

I am sure some answers will point out that milk is for calves, not humans. But, if thats the case, what is meat for? I think commercial milk is garbage-full of antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, synthetic vitamins, etc. When milk is pasturized, it destroys the vitamins and enzymes. The homogonizing agents are synthetic. So, you end up drinking milk that has all of the nutrition destroyed, then added back in with synthetic stuff. Vitamin D in commercial milk is a steroid! I do think that raw, unpasturized milk is an outstanding source of nutrition, and tastes far better than the grocery store stuff. Google rawmilk.com for info and resources to where you can get it, such as a local dairy or food co op. I loved it so much, I invested in my own cow!

Answer 3

Well, current highly processed and adulterated milk = bad. Very bad. Talk to anyone from a farm who consumes organic raw milk, they'll tell you how that stuff from the store doesn't even compare. It's like comparing a fresh vegetables from your garden to mushy cooked old canned vegetables.

As the other person pointed out, it's completely unnatural for non-breastfeeders to be consuming milk, especially from another animal. Once you stop breastfeeding, there is no need for milk. In fact, once you stop, your body will slowly stop producing the enzyme that helps break down milk and thus you will become what the milk industry has termed "lactose intolerant". Contrary to popular believe, people outside of N. America do not consume much dairy. In fact, most of Asia consumes none at all. My wife is from China, and she says dairy is not part of the Chinese diet. Beyond breastfeeding, she never had any dairy. There are billions of people in Asia, by-the-way, and they get along fine without dairy.

Milk has never been a large part of the human diet until the invention of artificial stimulation of the milk, as prior to this, a cow would only product milk when pregnant or with baby. So, you'd get some milk at certain times of the year and you'd milk the cow, and take the milk straight to the table... no processing except to perhaps make butter or natural cheese (without renet). All cheese looked much like cottage or feta before someone got the 'brilliant' idea to suck the stomach fluid from a baby cow and add it to milk. See, the enzyme creates a solid (a food, not a drink) from milk. Basically, babies are making cheese in their stomaches -- they are not just drinking milk as adults drink water. If you cooked breast milk first then fed it to a baby -- it would die. So would an adult on a 100% cooked milk diet.

Milk is high in protein, this contributes to Osteoporosis . Osteoporosis is not an ailment caused by the lack of calcium; the body is taking calcium reserves from the bones in order to process and and get rid of excess protein. Zinc and other minerals in lesser amounts are also used in the process of breaking down protein since amino acids are what the body utilizes, not whole proteins.

Conclusion, milk can be good, for babies, but it's never good for adults. Sure, hey, you are stuck in the middle of the desert, trekking for days, very thirsty as you have no food or water, and a cow walks by dripping milk from her udders. Do you drink to stay alive? Sure, go ahead. Otherwise... no.

Answer 4

LOL!
I'm a dairy farmers wife & I hope I can put a few things straight about milk. :-)

Caesario. If you like milk, then drink it! :-)
... but everything in moderation please!

Milk out of the cow is just over 4% fat. That's not much is it?
Full fat milk is about 3.9%
Semi-skimmed is 1.7%
Skimmed has none.

In the UK we're not allowed - & don't want to, use growth hormones or steroids in milk.
The milk from a cow that has had to be treated with antibiotics because it is ill, is not allowed to be used for human consumption.
We don't use lots of antbiotics - for one, it's too expensive, but also, the same as with human antibiotics, over use would make them less effective at treating the animal.

Pasteurisation just kills the bugs in the milk so that it has a longer shelf-life.
We drink our own milk unpasteurised - but it doesn't make us ill, for sure, because we make sure it is all produced hygienically.
We get penalised if the milk is not clean enough - it's not worth producing milk that isn't fit to drink.

Homogenising is a process where the fat glodules in the milk are broken so that they don't rise to the top to form a layer of cream. it's only done so that you, the customer can have a 'uniform' product!
I would hate not being able to have cream on my breakfast cereal!

Milk in the shops is still full of it's nutrients & perfectly safe to drink.

Just remember to keep it in the fridge when you are not using it.
:-)
See www.milk.co.uk for more information.

Answer 5

Consider this.. we are the only mammal alive that drinks milk after we have been weined off the bottle.... and we drink milk from other animals... I'm sure this is not how nature intended for us to be. Don't get me wrong.. I love milk myself.. but don't you find it strange??? And there are vegetables out there to get your calcium from.. like broccoli... So are we really supposed to be drinking another animal's milk,... probably not but I still like it.

Answer 6

Cow's milk is great if you want to grow up to be a big and strong cow.

The fortified vitamin D in it comes from pig, cow, or sheep skin, or from wool.

It's also full of growth hormones.

Answer 7

i read that what got us to this point in evolution was our diet of root vegetables. meat probably helped, people like homer.
they also say that vegans are the healthiest so maybe we could probably live without milk.
if we really needed it then we'd still be sucking ... ok, i'm going to stop there.
but i'm just putting in my two cents, i'm still drinking milk... though should probably make an effort to stop...

Answer 8

Bad, definitely bad but what ive concluded is that its still milk and somewhat it helps. try soy milk or organic milk.

Answer 9

1% means that butter-fat has been taken out of the milk. The amount you are drinking is not bad for you.

Answer 10

milk is good for health. but the persons are in diet constious should aware of milk becauz os cholestral