Milk (Cow's Milk): Good or Bad?

[Flaming Ice]

I dislike the umbrella argument of "nothing about North America or society is natural now so you should just accept it otherwise you're a hypocrite" argument. I dislike personally using birth control because I don't think it's natural, either, but that's an entirely different argument.

Well at least things are getting much better as you can get more organic and natural products. .....I guess you have to do what you have to do. We have so many more people living now so we need whatever sources we can get for food and what-not.

[Chris]

Best thing to eat ever!

[Jinx]

Yeah, smurf PETA.

[Quindiana Jones]

It's demonstrably fine.

[noxious.sunshine]

Best thing to eat ever!

Are you sure you're not Messcan?

[Jinx]

I wonder why it's not more socially acceptable to drink breast milk forever. Like, if it's in a cup or whatever. I'm pretty sure if you drank breast milk from 1000 different women you'd become immune to everything.

This is the key to human immortality.

[noxious.sunshine]

I wonder why it's not more socially acceptable to drink breast milk forever. Like, if it's in a cup or whatever. I'm pretty sure if you drank breast milk from 1000 different women you'd become immune to everything.

This is the key to human immortality.

Because I don't want DD/E Size breasts for the rest of my life.

Plus J-Woww & Snooki & their boyfriends tried Snooki's breast milk on "Snooki & JWoww" and their reaction to it wasn't good.

Although I do agree with you on the immune thing 100%. Hence the reason I haven't put my daughter on an all-organic diet with free range chicken and organic veggies. She's not gonna be able to eat completely organic 100% of the time and I don't want her to develop an allergy to "Lake Blue 5" and whatnot.

[Depression Moon]

Drinking animal milk has been downplayed for hundreds of year. I know at least with Africa it was looked down upon for the longest and when they were exposed to it a lot of them had intolerance to it, probably due to no exposure to it whatsoever.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

People do realize that milk straight from the cow taste vastly different from the milk you pull out of your fridge, right? Aside from it being warm, I am also told it taste kinda "beefy" (friend currently working in a very rural area and has milked cows for the school she teaches at). So it is kinda natural that unprocessed human breast milk would taste nasty. Though there are some places where you can buy ice cream made from breast milk (milk is processed to the quality of stuff found in hospitals)!

Also, why we do not regularly consume breast milk? Think about what lactation means and how the dairy industry works...Think about it. Now think about how we would have to do for humans to produce that much milk. Small amounts would be humanely possible but for large amounts that come anywhere near the cow milk/dairy industry would raise highly ethical questions.

Heck, people question the ethics of the dairy industry itself but that is a whole other topic for discussion.

[noxious.sunshine]

Also... My poor back couldn't sustain this. I would wind up needing surgery... Oh wait. I already do. Just not for my back.

[Mirage]

From a philosophical perspective, I think it's unnatural that humans consume milk after infancy as we are the only other mammal to do so on the planet. But I really don't give a trout, people can do what they want.

We're the only mammal that does it because we're the only mammal that can do it. I'm sure cats would farm the trout out of cows too if they had opposable thumbs and lactose tolerance .

Then again, I don't really buy most "it's not natural" arguments. Our bodies evolved to tolerate lactose (well, some of us), and therefore milk is a perfectly natural source of nutrition for those individuals that have tolerance for it. If we can extract nutrition from something without getting sick in the process, I think it's as natural for us to consume as it can get.

I can drink like several liters of milk in an hour before my body starts having problems creating enough lactase enzymes .

As a side note about the pasteurization idiocy earlier, I've met people who thought homogenization also killed off nutritions in milk. That is some crazy stuff to believe if you ask me.

As someone who grew up on a dairy farm, I can tell you that unprocessed cow milk tastes nearly exactly the same as the whole milk you buy in stores, when at the same temperature. As for warm milk, that's not really my thing, but there are people who like really hot milk, like just boiling it and then putting it in a cup for consumption. It probably depends on what you're used to.

[Shorty]

As a side note about the pasteurization idiocy earlier, I've met people who thought homogenization also killed off nutritions in milk. That is some crazy stuff to believe if you ask me.

My mom and I were just arguing about this the other day. Here is a post I made in staff:

I am lactose-intolerant and so is my mother. She's been buying organic cow's milk straight from the cow - not homogenized or processed or anything. It comes in jars. Jars. Jars. I told her I can't drink it because - and she knows this, because she is as well - I am lactose intolerant.

Cue her trying to tell me that I'm intolerant of all of the chemicals and hormones that are in the milk from being processed and not the milk itself.

Cue me telling her that no, human beings are not evolved to drink milk all their lives, that my body is especially not tolerant of it and that it's not natural because no other living creature still drinks milk after infancy.

Cue her telling me to not try to educate her about this stuff because she works for a homeopathic doctor and thus knows all.

I still drink milk (lattes) even though it makes me sick and I suck it up and I don't give a trout about people drinking milk. But I fail to see how drinking totally pure and non-processed or homogenized milk will be better for me as a lactose intolerant person, which is what her stupid point was.

[Mirage]

On a positive note, you can still eat most solid cheeses, because almost all lactose is consumed in the cheesification process and you're often just left with trace amounts of lactose.

[Shorty]

Cheese I'm fine with, mostly, unless it's an outrageous amount.

[Mirage]

The fresher the cheese is, the more lactose it'll usually have. But maybe you already know this, seeing as you have lactose intolerance and probably have done some research already.

It could have been worse though, you could have been allergic to milk proteins. That would make you react to things like butter as well, and all cheeses,even in small amounts.