Recently, there’s been a significant increase in the number of people going dairy free, etc. While it may just seem like a comical trend or fad, I assure you that it’s not. As someone who hasn’t had dairy in four years, I have researched it enough to know that milk really should be avoided as much as possible and dairy-free diets are serious and valid. Here’s a few reasons why:
1. It’s unnatural
Infants of any species are meant to wean off of their mothers milk at a certain age and transition to solid food. All animals in nature do this and humans were meant to as well, but instead, we drink milk as adolescents and adults. Milk is meant for infants and serves no necessary benefits past that age.
2. It’s unnaturally fattening
Human breast milk is designed to be the perfect food for human infants, giving them all of the vitamins and nutrients needed to gain weight and grow into healthy babies. The purpose of cow’s milk is the same, however, it’s three times higher in protein. Calves drink their mothers’ milk for about 6 months and in that time period gain roughly over 400 pounds. When people drink cow’s milk, they are consuming a product that has the purpose of high weight gain in a short amount of time.
3. It’s difficult to digest:
Cow’s milk is also made up of a different protein that’s difficult for humans to digest and is exemplified in lactose intolerance. 70% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant to some degree meaning they can’t digest cow’s milk properly. Such a high percentage is a clear indicator that humans shouldn’t naturally drink cow’s milk.
4. It contains hormones:
Recombinant bovine growth hormones, rBGH, are injected into cows to increase their milk supply. Hormone injections themselves are wildly unnatural and consequently increase our own hormone levels when we consume milk. Organic milk is not let off the hook when it comes to hormones either because both commercial and organic milk contain an insulin like growth factor, which like hormones, increases cell growth at an unnatural rate.
5. It contains somatic cells:
Somatic cells in milk are white blood cells produced by the cow’s immune system to fight off infection and inflammation in their udders, or in other words, pus. Federal law allows the sale of milk as long as the somatic cell or pus count is less than 750,000 cells per milliliter.
6. It is linked to autoimmune diseases:
Cow’s milk has been studied to cause numerous autoimmune diseases such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. When cow’s milk protein enters the bloodstream through the intestine, it’s seen as a foreign protein to the body similar to a virus or bacteria so the body makes antibodies against it which enter the cerebrospinal fluid and attack brain cells.
7. It is linked to cancer:
High levels of insulin growth factor, IGF (mentioned earlier) significantly increase the risk of cancer. IGF has been found to contribute to the growth of tumors and people with high IGF levels were found to be 2.5 times as likely to get cancer
8. Calcium isn’t just in milk:
Despite what we’ve been told, milk doesn’t make us have strong bones. In countries such as India, Japan, and Peru where calcium intake is less than a third of what it is in the US, the incidence of bone fractures is significantly less than in the US. Calcium is needed to prevent the loss of bone density but when it’s obtained in too high of a concentration as with milk, the body cannot absorb the calcium, rendering it counter effective.
If you consider going dairy-free, do it for the right reasons. Be informed and do it for your health. This way of living is way more than just trendy.
SOURCES:
http://research.ifas.ufl.edu/docs/pdf/featured-discoveries/RD-beefcattle.pdf
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/calcium-full-story/
https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/FSA-4002.pdf
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/04.22/igf1.story.html
http://www.paleoista.com/wp-content/uploads/theme/5f31aef0624f61b10daffbc45f5aad4b.jpg
https://www.fitneass.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Milk-is-bad.jpg
http://www.samuitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/cows-milk.jpg