what IS milk?

Question

i am to write an expository speech on the topic of MILK. what really is milk? raw milk? where did it ORIGINATE?
if i were given exactly 8 minutes to speak, what would i inform to the judges? i know you wont write my speech for me, thats my job. :] i just need to know what to work with. what i should mention. and some of my questions i cant seem to find the answer to.
- who actually thought of [and when] to drink milk from a cow's udder?
- how does the female human[or mammal] produce milk? Do they know to produce milk right after the baby is born? or was it there their whole life? how DOES it all work?

*** i`d absolutely LOVE your help. please and thankyou. :DDD

Answer 1

According to dictionary.com, one of the definitions of milk is “an opaque white or bluish-white liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals, serving for the nourishment of their young.” Another definition is “any liquid resembling this, as the liquid within a coconut, the juice or sap of certain plants, or various pharmaceutical preparations.”

Wikipedia adds that “Animal milk was first used as human food at the beginning of animal domestication. Cow’s milk was first used as human food in the Middle East. Goats and sheep were domesticated in the Middle East between 9000 and 8000 BCE.”

Read the milk blog @ website cited below:

Answer 2

All mammals produce milk for their babies. Cows, cats, dogs, bats, rats, goats, sheep, deer, humans--they all produce milk when they are pregnant. The milk you see in grocery stores is basically the mammary secretions of a bovine. She has been artificially inseminated because she has to be pregnant to produce milk and pumped up with hormones to increase the supply.

I don't know how someone thought of drinking a cow's milk, but it might have something to do with people who live where there is a lack of sunlight in the wintertime (both sunlight and cow's milk are sources of vitaimin D). Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. There is a raw milk movement that believes it is "healthier" than pasteurized cows' milk.

Even so, we are the only animals to drink the milk of another species and the only ones to do so after infancy.

Answer 3

Women's mammary glands start producing milk not too long after conception (this is why they swell when a woman is pregnant). After the child is done nursing..the milk goes away, and the glands no longer produce milk until she becomes pregnant again.

I'm not sure who first thought of drinking cow's milk, but I'm sure it dates back a while. But what I do know is the person who first made drinking milk as widely popular and safe as it is, this was done through the sterilizing process of pasteruization...invented by no other then Louis Pasteur.

Answer 4

All mammals produce milk. It does it naturally.

Answer 5

milk comes from cows... don't get me wrong, it's good and very healthy. it is a nice creamy white dairy liquid that is very refreshing you should try it.( good with alost every thing...cereal, breakfast..ect.)