Cultures throughout history got along perfectly fine without consuming milk of another species as do vegans and others today.
Diary as a topic for me and my work with families is a big one. To give you a quick overview of my beliefs backed by scientific evidence I’m about to go into a tirade.
When I was breastfeeding my daughter I couldn’t get my head around transitioning her off my breast and onto that of another species or something created in a lab. It just didn’t make logical sense. I have been eating healthy and clean since I was a child, it’s how I was raised and as a child I had milk, my mom wasn’t aware then of what we know now. There is categorically no reason whatsoever now, or ever to consume the milk of a cow or any other animal for our health or nutrition.
Just as our breast milk proteins change to support the growth spurts of our babies and increase and decrease in nutrients essential to the stage they are at, the milk of a cow is chock full of growth hormones and proteins essential to that calf growing into a full blown steer, otherwise they wouldn’t be there.
Let’s start with simple biology. Babies need milk to ensure that your child receives enough fat which is essential for proper brain development. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until the age of two. Breastmilk has the right balance of fat and nutrients and it’s also the only type of milk that is bioavailable meaning our bodies better absorb and use the nutrients. This is species specific.
The proteins in cow’s milk are foreign to our system and while the one reason we believe we “need it” is for calcium. Let’s get one thing clear: calcium is a mineral found in the soil. So the cow’s milk has calcium because they eat grass. What I’m saying is that you are drinking the milk of another species because she is supposed to be a middle man. Really?
So that calcium that we think we are getting can’t even enter our cells without a chelating agent. Cow’s milk actually robs our bones of calcium, animal proteins produce acid when they’re broken down, and calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer, so you can see where this is going, right? In order to neutralize and flush out the acids, our bodies have to use calcium from our own stores because every glass of a foreign milk protein is leaching calcium from our bones. There are thousands of medical studies that have found that people who consume the most cow’s milk have significantly higher fracture rates than those who drink little to none.
Right, what about cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream etc? They add in a heap of saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.
Often times we find that babies and children have a lactose intolerance or a milk allergy and doctors are prescribing medications to assist in the digestion of it. Why?
There are a variety of plant based alternatives such as rice, soy, almond, oat, hemp and coconut
So what did I use? Coconut. Why? It has the highest fat content amongst the others. Today my daughter chooses almond milk and I prefer oat.
See this chart for the milk comparisons:
How much?
In this next image we will see the amount of calcium and vitamin D needed by age. Remember, we can get vitamins and minerals from our diet, not just milk however as you could see in the last image all of the plant based milks were able to provide exactly what your kids need.
Further, there are an abundance of peer reviewed medical research articles pointing at cow’s milk to blame for childhood obesity and Type 1 diabetes.
The next time you’re out shopping with your kids ask them which alternative they are interested in trying and get started today!