Deciding whether or not to drink milk?

Question

Should I continue to drink milk or not?

What is good about milk? What is bad?

Do you drink milk?

Answer 1

I do not drink milk. Think about it a little. Every species that nurses has a milk specific to that species. And even then, it's only used up to a certain developmental point. We don't even drink human milk after a certain age. When anybody hears of adults drinking breast milk, they get grossed out, but they have no problem drinking a cow's breast milk.

And why cows? We only drink their milk because they are essentially docile and easy to breed. If it weren't for that, we could just as easily be drinking horse milk or antelope milk or pig milk. Do those sound gross to you? They should, and so should cow's milk.

Since you basically only asked about the health concerns, that's all I will address. I'll stay away from the 35,000,000 other reasons (animal torture, environmental exploitation, etc.) not to drink milk.

Answer 2

For all the people who said you need milk for strong bones, they have been misled.

A recent study shows the best thing to help grow strong bones is physcial exercise. Running, gymnastics, field sports, where your legs get some pounding, flexibility and stretching. They compared a person's bone who was a runner with those of a swimmer, both very healthy athletes.
The runner's bones were much stronger and thicker.

Bones continue to grow until about the age of 34 - you should continue to exercise frequently until at least that age for strong bones.

Osteoporosis occurs at higher rates in Northern Europe, and North America - the same places that drink the most milk. Milk isn't helping those populations. Look any of these tidbits up online - do some research - answer the question for yourself. Don't buy into information given to you by the people making money off the product, they will lie to make a dollar.
Don't buy into information from the animal rights zealots either, they will do anything to save an animal. Instead find the information from researchers in bone density and osteoporosis. The studies reveal more of the truth than these other sources.

Best line I read last week - (something like this) - cow's milk comes from a different animal why would we need it? If human milk was bottled and sold in the groceries would we consume it at the age of 10, 20, or even later?

Answer 3

Try going to milksucks.com. It gives a lot of information about the dairy industry. The folks who posted and received a lot of thumbs up have given a bunch of factual information regarding the practices and inhumane treatment of cows. It's terrible.
Something else that has not been mentioned is the horrible things that are in cow's milk. Because they are over-milked, they develop sores on their udders. The sores are (9 chances out of 10) not treated with antibiotics and the blood and puss gets into the milk. Besides that, there are growth hormones (of course) and there have even been traces of feces in the milk. (Dairy cows are confined to small stalls where they cannot turn around, lay down or even stretch. It's common for them to soil themselves in the small stalls).
From where I stand, there is NOTHING good about milk. I think it's totally ridiculous that humans drink another species' milk long after our development stage.
Studies have also shown that the calcium and vitamin D supposedly "found" in milk is actually added while it's being processed. Those do not naturally occur in the milk.
No, I don't drink milk. I use rice milk most of the times and every now and then, I drink soy milk.
I hope that helps you....kudos to you for wanting to be more informed. It's important to know what's going into your body.
:-)

Answer 4

All those that said milk is not good for you had some good answers. Human breastmilk only contains 33 grams of calcium per serving. And this is a human's perfect food for the first couple of years, when high amounts of everything is needed at its peek. So why should we get so much more from another species? Just check out this website for lots of information:

Answer 5

Cows milk is not the best idea although I use it sparingly. If I want a glass of milk I usually go for light vanilla soy milk.

Calcium can be found in a lot of veggies and Vitamin D is available by just being outside in the sun for 15 minutes a day. Milk is not necessary for good health at all.

Answer 6

I think milk is bad. Humans drinking milk is not right. We are the only animals in the world that drink milk after infancy. There is pus, blood, and scabs in milk. Cows are 'raped' to obtain milk, then their cows are slaughtered for veal. It's a cruel and unnecessary process because there are so many alternatives to milk.

I don't drink milk and am transitioning to veganism.

http://www.milksucks.com/

http://milkisgross.com/

Answer 7

People weren't really meant to digest milk (as infants nursing, of course) Most people develop an intolerance to lactose. There are lots of great alternatives.....soy, rice, almond milk. My favorite is Silk brand. If you are going to drink milk, though, make sure it's organic and not full of steroids.

Kim at: http://www.peaceful-organic-planet.com

Answer 8

You might want to consider these impacts to the cows when deciding to drink milk:

Artificial incemination every year
Hormone enriched feed
Bribe/feed caged carousels that restrict feed depending on how much milk the cows give - entirely decided by computers and no doubt accountants.
killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old
excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day instead of a natural 10 -15 litres.
intensive rearing means low husbandry checks - 1 person can milk 400 cattle twice a day - no time to look at thier health
removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed
killing the cow at 7 years old instead of a natural 20

There are also many issues regarding the health or nutritianal value of milk.

I can only answer about the cows because i see them every day so know its true.

kate said "I don't know of anything bad about milk"...oh dear.

Answer 9

You shouldn't continue to drink milk..

Cow's milk is filled with hormones, that's NOT good to drink.
DON'T drink cow's milk, do your re-search and you will not want to..it's not good for you.

No, I don't drink cow milk, i drink low fat soy milk :O)
plain and vanilla flavored!


ps. You should switch to soy milk, rice milk or almond milk! you can do everything you did with the animal's milk, it taste even better than cow's milk, they come in flavors like vanilla and chocolate, they are way more nutrition than cow's milk.. drink up your healthy "milks" !!!

<3 xxoxoxoox

Answer 10

i drink semi skimmed, low in fat n cals, source of protein n calcium, good for bones which in the long run can help prevent stuff like oestioproisis (cant spell sorry). also if u hungry bt not starvin n just want a light snack, believe it or not milk can help fill u up! also if u eat a hot curry, milk is better than water in coolin ur throat!

however if u dnt like it u cud always try soya milk, or milk from animals other than cows, such as goats milk.

personally i wud say carry on drinkin it as its really good for u, especially if ur young and still growin!