Milk: Is It Good or Bad?

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

Is milk good or bad?  Who the hell knows?  Not me.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have an opinion either way, and really don’t have a passion on the issue. Lots of people certainly seem to, and although I’m not exactly sure when it happened, somewhere along the line milk apparently became this hugely divisive issue with people on both sides of the fence who passionately believe they are on the right side. They all have studies and data to back up what they believe and contradict the studies and data of the other side.

You’ve got the anti-milk side saying it’s full of pus, that we’re the only species that drinks the milk of another species, that we’re the only species that drink it after infancy, that it will cause you to be overrun with mucus, it’s an allergen and an inflammatory agent, and all sorts of other nastiness.

Then you’ve got the pro-milk folks who say that not only should we drink it daily, but we should drink the full fat, raw variety milk because it is full of beneficial fats, enzymes, nutrients, etc.  The say the commercially pasteurized, homogenized stuff in your local dairy aisle is crap because the cows have been filled with antibiotics and other shit, pasteurization kills off the beneficial enzymes, etc. But to them the stuff straight from the udder is nirvana.

Then you’ve got the government who, thanks to millions in lobbying dollars from the dairy industry, says that we should drink three or four glasses of that pasteurized, homogenized, low-fat or skim milk per day and sends the FDA and USDA to raid the farmers selling raw milk as if they were dealing meth out of their barns.

So who’s right?

Well, I can’t say for sure, but I will say it isn’t the government.  The USDA is one of the biggest collections of corrupt government assbags out there (which says a lot), and their policies and decision making procedures are basically bought and sold by large corporate agri-businesses and lobbying groups like the Dairy Council. But I digress…

I’m sure each of these groups firmly believes in their position.  But just because you believe something doesn’t mean it’s correct.  Lots of people firmly believed the world was flat for a long time too. 

But, obviously both sides can’t be correct.  So where does that leave us fence-sitters?

Well, as for me, I don’t drink milk.  That’s probably a recent development in the past five or six years or so.  The reason?  No, it doesn’t cause me to be plugged up with mucus, and I don’t really give a shit that we’re the only species that drinks the milk of another species.  As a species, we do about a million things that no other species on the planet does. No other species wears underwear either, but that’s not a freaking reason to give up my boxer briefs.

I simply like almond ‘milk’ better than cow’s milk, and since I mainly drink water anyway, I don’t drink that much of it.  I still eat cheese (real cheese. Fat free or reduced fat cheese sucks. Want a treat? Try Manchego. Spanish awesomeness.)  I’ll occasionally have yogurt (the whole milk kind, with the cream at the top. Yeah baby, that is good.)  And at birthday parties I may finish the last two bites of my daughter’s ice cream because I know she won’t. And I’m pretty sure none of that bothers me.

So, what should you do?

Well, I believe it’s kind of simple. If milk or dairy gives you problems, stay away from it.  I mean, duhhh, if you’re lactose intolerant, lay off the freaking cow juice. If you have allergic or inflammatory reactions to it, don’t drink it.

If, on the other hand, it doesn’t bother you, and you like it, then enjoy it. 

If you’re not sure, stay away from it for a week, see how you feel, then decide. Simple, no? 

I’m not saying I’m more right than the pro-, raw-, or anti-milk crowds, I’m just saying what I believe. You believe what you want.

I’ll leave you with this video from comedian Lewis Black as he discusses milk.  Warning, this video is NSFW as he swears way more than I do, so if you’re easily offended by that sort of thing (what the hell are you doing here?), then don’t watch.  But it’s really f’g funny.

~Dave

No related posts.