What's wrong with raw cow milk?

[Noix_coco]

Hello all

I thought cow milk was very bad for humans, but then I saw that on Raw Food Media:
http://rawfoodmedia.com/documentaries/raw_milk.htm

So I'm quite confused! Any objective point of view?

Helene

[Doe]

Hi Helene,

There is a wealth of info at www.notmilk.com (http://www.notmilk.com/) as a starter.

Teri

[codajess]

There's nothing wrong with it. You're just not a calf.

[goodbeets]

My kids drink raw cows milk, sometimes mixed with nut milk. Their bodies respond to it a whole heck of a lot better than they did to pasturized, homogenized milk.

[wyjoz]

No known animal - except us humans - drink another animals milk and no animal drinks any milk after being weaned. So why do we need it? Get calcium from greens as in Green Smoothies !

[Rawkinlocs]

I think humans can, have and will justify just about anything they want or feel they need to consume. But I also think the bottom line of the whole thing is pretty much summed up in what codajess said...it's for calves, not humans. Human breast milk is for us...cow's milk is for calves....goats milk for (goat) kids, etc.

You may also wish to take a look at this thread: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24377&highlight=milk

[Random Violin Guy]

I like the way this comic says it.

http://www.newstarget.com/cartoons/cows_milk_600.jpg

Really though, this would be even more natural than what really happens. Milk was meant to go from mother to child without ever seeing the light of day. Instead, cows are milked by machines and go through pasteurization and all that crap. And in the end it's marketed to humans (how absurd!) as an essential part of the diet in the food pyramid. "Drink up, or you'll never get enough calcium, and you'll get osteoperosis, and blah, blah, blah." Like Teri said, there's more info than you'd ever want to know on http://www.notmilk.com/

[Nutz Over RAW]

Hee hee!!! ILOVE IT!!!

[wyjoz]

LOVE THIS ! A picture is worth a thousand words ! Yea!

[Nimmanu]

You know, raw cow's milk doesn't give you much calcium anyway. Milk has to be fortified with calcium and vitamin D...

And yeah, basically, I would ask you this. If I sat my breastmilk down in front of you, would you drink it?

The majority of people would not only say no, but they would tack "eww" on, to boot.

Yet, my human milk is far more perfectly proportioned for human bodies.

Cow's milk actually contains TOO MUCH protien for human infants. This is why "formula" rather than simply giving them cow's milk. All that protien can damage their kidneys forever.

So... it's detrimental to infants, it's made for cows, and most people wouldn't DREAM of drinking human breastmilk- but don't think a thing of drinking cow's milk. *shrug* Odd.

[Ariannah]

Objectively, it's not a human food. One look at all the problems people have with dairy consumption, even though people ignore it because of all the "calcium emergency" hype, and it should be enough to make people run the other way screaming.

John Robbins rejected his family fortune (His father and uncle founded Baskin-Robbins ice cream) on this principle alone.

If people were meant to be drinking milk past early childhood, they'd still be sucking at their own mothers breasts. It's through conditioning and powerful (I'm talking billions of dollars in spending) advertising dollars that we've grown up believing we need "a milk", or something "milky" in our diet.

Bananas are my milk :)

[RowanC]

Well maybe.. but many of the things we eat weren't originally human food either. The corn you all love so much didn't look anything like what you're eating, nor did the tomatoes or the apples or the oranges or the tangerines or the lettuce. Tomatoes and eggplant and potatoes, of the nightshade family, were considered poison for MOST of history! These have all been "improved" by human interference.

For me it's more about the way the animals are being treated than that the milk is bad for you. If you purchase it from responsible, organic farms who treat their stock with respect and kindness, then I'd say go for it.

Personally, I do eat raw milk cheese on occasion.
I also drink coffee.
But 80 to 90% of my daily diet is raw, organic fruits and veggies.

For as many studies that say cow's milk is bad for you, there are studies that say RAW cow's milk is not harmful but helpful. People have used cows for food from the time they began to domesticate them and in Africa, certain tribes depend on them for survival.

If you're avoiding animal products for moral or ethical reasons, just do it.
If you're avoiding animal products for health reasons, just do it.

But all this propoganda is discouraging and frankly, I think a lot of it is hooey, just someone's fundamentalist, obsessive opinion. The cartoons are not funny at all to me. They're demeaning and not a good way to convince me otherwise. Give me scientific FACT, not demeaning cartoons, to prove your point. And don't just give me ONE study, but a series of controlled studies that have the same outcome. Then I'll perk up and listen.

Some of it is true, yes.

BUT EACH PERSON MUST CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES.
WE ARE NOT CLONES.
EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT.

And finally, this is a vegan site, so please don't condone animal products as food.

[Revvell]

... I think a lot of it is hooey, just someone's fundamentalist, obsessive opinion.....


Well, this person's "fundamentalist, obsessive opinion..." (whatever THAT means) is that other than the critter milk was made for it should not go into another's body.

For me, and this is NOT opinion, it is experiential, when I gave up drinking milk (yes, I drank Altadena raw milk) AND eating wheat products, asthma cleared up, sinuses cleared up, attitude changed, painful periods ended ~ and that was just the beginning.

IF milk really supplied what the PROPAGANDA claims it does then please explain to me how and why so many milk-drinking women, including my mother, come to fall and break their hips? How is it so many milk-drinking women have osteoporosis? How is it so many people, myself included, have had so many issues with their teeth? How is it in so many countries, where milk is not available, people do not have these issues?

I, for one, choose not to drink milk or ingest dairy products. I do however, choose to play with the food I DO eat/drink. :D

Revvell

[Ariannah]

Well maybe.. but many of the things we eat weren't originally human food either. The corn you all love so much didn't look anything like what you're eating, nor did the tomatoes or the apples or the oranges or the tangerines or the lettuce. Tomatoes and eggplant and potatoes, of the nightshade family, were considered poison for MOST of history! These have all been "improved" by human interference.

Well, they are the closest we can get. And I'd rather have optimal. I don't eat corn. And yeah, the animals are treated badly, reason number 1, but cow milk period isn't designed for human physiology, but our bodies are designed to eat our "humanly-interfered with" plant matter.
I just do the best with what is available. I can't go back in time thousands of years and get "original" plant food, no matter how many deloreans I climb into.

This is just my own personal opinion. And it influences how I eat. The fact that plant food has been tampered with by man, doesn't change that for me.

[RowanC]

Well, I don't know the answers, Revell... a lot of it can be blood type or genetics.

My grandmother is over 90. She drinks milk 3 times a day and always has. She has never broken a bone. She lives alone and drives her car everywhere. Her license was just renewed last year.

My mother is over 70. She did break her ankle once, but it was no different than a skier breaking a bone as she stepped off a high place and twisted it. She smokes like a smokestack and is healthy as a horse! Go figure!

Many people of Swedish and German descent have no problems with milk.
Some people have no problem with wheat and some, like me, do.
My youngest son can't drink processed milk but raw milk is fine for him.
I have a friend whose baby was failing to thrive on breastmilk and when the doctor prescribed raw milk, the baby began to thrive.

I just don't see that there's one answer for every single human.

I'm happy that you've found the answers for yourself.

Propaganda, by definition, is information spread to support one's cause. The PROPAGANDA I'm speaking of is the idea that EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON EARTH MUST react the same way, eat the same things, and have the same ideas about it. I just don't buy that... it's horsefeathers.

Again, much of a person's reaction to what is or is not toxic is genetic, hormonal, or environmental.

I can eat all the peanuts I want, but an allergic person might DIE if they eat one! So should we outlaw peanuts? :eek:

[Revvell]

I can eat all the peanuts I want, but an allergic person might DIE if they eat one! So should we outlaw peanuts? :eek:

*confused look* Is someone talking about outlawing anything here?

Revvell

[Bechtel]

Wait a minute. This is a vegan forum. People were banned when they even were hinting quetions regarding animal products consumptions. Here one of the "active" members is eating cheese and "promoting" dairy products by telling how good they were for her grandmother. And nobody is saying a word. :eek:
Personally I gave up on any dairy 7 month ago (raw fooding for almost 4 years, but did drink kefir) and very happy I did.
Shame on you Rowan.