Ditch Dairy. Ditch it today.
The only reason people think they should drink milk is because of the vastly popular Got Milk ad campaign. What is fascinating about those advertisements is that not one dairy provider is behind it convincing you to buy their product. The ad is simply "milk" not a supplier. So who is telling us to buy milk? The California Milk Processor Board (CMPD) began the got milk? campaign in 1993 to attack the soy industry and increase milk sales. the CMPD is actually a non-profit marketing company for the California Department of Food and Agriculture which is a cabinet-level agency in the California government which primarily promotes the agriculture industry. According to the California Milk Advisory Board, California produces 20% of America's dairy. And from an internet search that brought me to Perdue University's website I learned that there are 60,000 dairy farms in the USA! How can we house that many cows? Factories.
Factory farming is a cruel and unusual way to harvest animals for ingredients. I say "harvest" because that is exactly what we are doing. We treat them as if they are nothing more than mere grain. These animals are treated in the most inhumane ways. Mercy for Animals has been instrumental in documenting some of the foul treatment of these cattle and have had some successes in shutting down these horrific practices and exposing the truth about factory farming. [Please do follow them on twitter and sign up for their newsletter to stay up-to-date and to learn more about how you can help.]
Also it takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk. California has 20% of USA's dairy farms. Drought much?
How do cows produce milk?
The Dairy industry is a slaughter industry. First, the cows are artificially inseminated, or forcibly raped and then they give birth. Once the dairy cow's life is expended, she is then slaughtered because she can no longer produce a calf in order to produce milk. When the cow can produce a calf she will give birth in 274 days (that's a long time to wait on her precious baby) With the birth her baby the calf is immediately stripped away and usually (videos as proof) the babies are kicked, prodded, dragged, and tossed into trucks that transport them to small pens in which they wait out what brief fleeting moments of life they have left until they are slaughtered for veal.
Why do the babies get taken? Well to give Americans milk of course and the babies can't drink the milk that belongs to the people because they need it to build strong bones!
But DOES dairy actually give humans strong bones?
Dairy is nature’s perfect food — but only if you’re a calf.
- Dr. Mark Hyman
Derek Tresize: Vegan Body Builder ^^^
Many studies suggest that dairy actually has been linked to osteoporosis, breast cancer, prostate cancer, eczema, diabetes, weight gain, early onset of periods in young females and hypertension. Diseases are primarily caused from the Bovine chemical IGF-1 (The China Study, 2005). Not to mention a baby calf is meant to grow from 90 pounds at birth to over 1,000 pounds around two-years later, where as a human is meant to grow from around 6 pounds at birth to around one-hundred to two-hundred pounds 20 years later! (Tony Robbins) The best balance of effective nutrients in milk for a human child is that from his or her own mother's breast and only as a child. Humans can get along without cow's milk just like they can get along without giraffe or lion's milk. It makes sense.
Dairy actually does not have calcium. One study tested the blood of 25,000 individuals and those who drank three to five glasses of milk a day had the lowest levels of calcium. Another study followed 75,000 women for 12 years and found no positive effects from milk consumption. The best way to get calcium is by eating green plants.
Marzia Prince: Vegan Fitness Model
If you're looking for vitamin D, then get the hell outside and let the mid-day sun grace your exposed skin. Done.
Next, casein, which is a protein found in all milk is consumed but only about 50% of it is actually digested. The partially digested proteins find themselves in the bloodstream and cause irritation to the tissues creating susceptibility to allergens. The liver then has to work overtime to try to clean out these proteins and no one likes working overtime for no reward, come on now! Our own bodies will tirelessly try to fight these foreign milk proteins and the immune cells of the body will mistakenly attack our own cells that have a similar make-up to the milk protein and consequently our bodies is attacking itself which opens the door for the dreaded, hated, cousin to come in and eat all our food and their name is CANCER.
Also, adults do not have Lactase to break down Lactose and therefore undigested milk sugars find themselves in the depths of our colon and then we're stuck farting because we now have gas and that is unfun because that also can cause bloating, nausea and diarrhea and suspicious stares from strangers and you can't blame it on your dog.
If all this doesn't bother you and you're crying, saying "but I've always had milk and I'm fine and it tastes good, and ice cream and well.. cheese." First thing is: get rid of the idea that just because you've always consumed something that it is normal and right for you to continue consuming it. Think of it like parabens. Now that we know how bad the chemical preservative is, we no longer want our skin care products to include parabens so we don't buy them. We are switching to things that are labeled BPA free and eliminating high fructose corn syrup, etc. all because we don't want to consume it anymore.
The dairy industry in 5 minutes:
It's simple: once we learn something is bad we no longer want to consume it, therefore, now we know dairy is bad, we know how horrible the cows are treated that we can easily JUST SAY NO and move on.
It may be hard at first to eliminate cheese because in fact cheese is addicting much like cigarettes. According to a study at the University of Michigan, cheese has that little bugger of an ingredient called casein, which again is in all milk products, and when consumed and [partially] digested it releases an opiate called casomorphins. So you're addicted. You're welcome. This message is sponsored by the ass holes who want you sick so you can spend money on pharmaceuticals.
Anyway, sit tight, your cravings WILL pass my friend. They did for me. Even when I knew about all the cruelty, I was trying to convince myself that it was okay to sneak cheese now and again and I remember being vegan a few weeks and I went into Chipotle and ordered a burrito with cheese. Needless to say I was so disgusted with myself and the taste and the idea of the sad cows I actually threw up and couldn't finish the food. That was the last I've ever had of it.
Here I am at the Gentle Barn with a little by-product of the dairy industry. A baby cow that was going to be veal. But now he is safe, alive and well.
Vegan Alternatives
If you're not ready to move on to other whole, plant-based foods there are plenty of non-dairy, vegan alternatives if you still think you need to consume cheese, butter, and milk:
Chao and Follow Your Heart cheeses are my favorite and they're best melted.
Califia almond milk: I think it is the best tasting but every store has a variety of milks: Almond, hemp, rice, cashew, and coconut. I avoid soy milk.
Earth Balance: This company has great butter alternatives for toast and baking. Apparently their palm oil is sustainable, but I am working on discovering that truth.
Nada Moo, Steve's, and So Delicious: Have great ice cream alternatives. Although I prefer making nana nice cream myself (healthy heaping amounts of delectable fruit)
So you can still have what you love, just not from a cow, and not anything that includes dairy. Be wary because tons of companies put whey and dairy in a bunch of products where it's not even needed: chips, bread, crackers, and salad dressing. So be mindful and read labels. It will usually say in bold "contains: MILK" after the ingredient list.
**Remember: Some of the "experts" who write the PRO milk articles and who helped create the awful food pyramid we follow, actually work for the US Department of agriculture. So there ya go.
Ditch dairy and watch your waist slim and you face glow.
