Got Milk?

Pretty much my whole life I have always thought that milk was necessary for me to be healthy.  Have you ever wondered why there is so much advertising on milk?  Pretty much every famous person has had a got milk picture at some point.  It is a major money making industry. 

"The highest rates of osteoporosis are seen in countries where people eat the most dairy food."

Marion Nestles book, "What to Eat."

- Since the 1970s U.S dairy producers have reduced the number of dairy farms from 650,000 to 90,000


-Average number of cows per farm increased from 20 to 100


-The dairy industry has doubled the amount of milk obtained per cow


The only way to get cows to produce more milk is to use hormones and antibiotics.  The more milk a cow produces the greater chance the cow will get an infection and it will need to be injected with antibiotics.




Reasons why we may not need calcium from milk!


-bones are not just made of calcium, there are many other components
-calcium balance depends on getting enough of every one of the nutrients involved in building bones not just calcium
-The amount of calcium you have in your body and the strength of your bones depends much more on everything else you are eating and how active you are other than how much calcium you take in.
-Calcium is in so many foods: fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts
-In other parts of the World where milk is not part of peoples diets there is less osteoporosis


The next time you buy milk look at the label and read the amount of fat and sugar in your milk.  Even skim milk has 12 grams of sugar.




Key points!
-We may not need as much calcium from milk, we can get calcium from plenty of other foods.
-Cows are injected with hormones and then treated with antibiotics that are harmful to cows and possibly humans


The best milk options in my opinion

Personally I drink unsweetened almond milk.  It only has 40 calories and 0 grams of sugar.   I just don't use milk that much so it really isn't an issue for me.


All of my information is from Marion Nestles book, What to Eat It is a great book that covers everything about what we should be eating and what is harmful and what is the most safe.  I saw it on amazon used for 25 cents.  What a great buy!  She has published a couple of books and always backs her books up with a ton of research.