I am astonished to hear some of you speak ill of milk. You suggest milk is the wallpaper of beverages. Here in my part of the Heartland, milk is a staple. For all I know the milk in my glass came from those cows around the corner across from the library.
Here’s what else is nearby: Big Momma Monsanto is five miles from my workplace. I think bovine somatotropin growth hormone is TASTY, especially the Posilac Monsanto makes.
(In 1984 I went to college with a tester for the BigMo. She ate pounds of beef and ice cream, ALL chock full of bovine somatotropin growth hormone. She had a lot of extra bacon once. I don’t know how they doctored the bacon.)
Believe me, my love of rBST(Saint Louisans didn’t even have to look that up) is not just because I’m from here. Case in point: I hate Budweiser.
But I thought, maybe there’s some other problem with milk. I Binged “what is wrong with milk,” and ignored the suggestion “What is wrong with Seal’s face” to hunt down the answer.
I found many articles blasting milk. “Side effects for adults using dairy products heart disease, arthritis, allergies, sinusitis, leukemia, lymphoma and cancer.” Not MS. (That’s from Nutrasweet.) Not Lupus. (That’s what’s wrong with Seal’s face.)
After I Binged “What do DOCTORS say is wrong with milk” I found an article that says (paraphrased):
Cows are given hormones. Doesn’t that make their milk unhealthy?
Not unless you’re injecting the milk. rBGH milk contain a hormone that’s been linked to cancer: IGF. rBGH and IGF must be injected to have any effect because the process of digestion destroys these “protein” hormones.
(To be fair, I’ve bashed hormones in milk when speculating why girls these days start their periods at nine or ten. I must have been wrong.)
What about antibiotics?
No one really knows. Some scientists argue that milk from cows given antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance in humans, but this finding has never been proved.
I heard that milk can contain a lot of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Is it safe? The safety of milk depends on who’s interpreting the data. While milk-bashing is popular among consumer groups, the government (with the support of the American Dairy Council) has tried to foster a pure image for the sacred cow.
If you’re uneasy, you can purchase antibiotic-free (and typically hormone-free, as well) milk from specialty grocers, such as Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, or select USDA-certified organic milk, which is available at most supermarkets.
What was that then? At lunch Anne from work was praising non-ultra-pasturized-grass-fed-free-range milk from Whole Foods, but she said “it’s ridiculously overpriced.” Sold! So, now it’s a countdown to see how long before I get to Whole Foods and do a side-by-side 2% milk taste test.
Bedsides, what do people eat with chocolate, if not milk?
21 responses to “In Defense of Milk”
How about the pus? Did the reports say anything about the pus that gets in milk because of mastitis caused by the hormones? Hm?
Becs – Pus? I call it white blood cells. My lymphocytes are at 0.20,as opposed to 7. I could use some. Besides, that’s why the cows are on antibiotics, right?
Becs – But, Gary says there is organic milk at the grocery, and a taste test is in the future. If pus tastes bad, I’m on organic. If it tastes like steak fat, well, I love pus.
black coffee.
You need to buy a cow. I was raised on raw, unpasteurized milk, straight out of the teat and through the strainer. It was creamy and delicious. As an adult I can only drink milk if it is chocolate. I attribute it to having had the real thing that bears no resemblance to what you can buy in the store. There are studies showing that drinking milk can delay the onset of adult diabetes (DMII). That may be why, with your (by your descriptions here) sedentary lifestyle, you don’t have that as an issue.
Drink that milk baby, and with pride!
I hate milk. I won’t drink any version of it. Water and Diet Coke are it for me, and why would you need something with chocolate? It’s fine on its own. If I happen to be thirsty while eating it, either of my beverage choices work just fine.
I’ll stand by you in defense of milk as well as steak fat! There are some things I NEED to have milk with…chocolate cake, cookies of almost any type, and a big plate of spaghetti all require a nice tall glass of milk. With a peanut butter sandwich, I need some chocolate in there too (nestle’s quick is my preference there).I look forward to the results of your taste test!
I’ll take Budweiser over rBST any day. Just don’t ask me to drink Bud Select.Whole milk is good. % milks suck.And, Becs, pus? That’s what the pasturization is for. It kills the bacteria.
Magpie – pah! Another stomach acid tasting food.Zayrina-That sounds like heaven. Where is a dairy farm by here? I need raw cheese and milk.Caroline – No! Diet Coke and chocolate would make one taste not as sweet. I’m going to force you to drink milk at lunch. See you next Tuesday!Kristie – That is genius. Chocolate milk with peanut butter. Hot Mom – Ugh – DEAD Pus? Worse than pus.
I have issues with the pus and I don’t care of it’s pasteurized. That’s why we drink hormone free milk. I know some people scoff at me but I grew up on a farm. I know what udder mastitis looks like. I have also seen some white funk on horse penis that had to be scooped out by hand, hard yellow pus that had to be pulled out of chicken feet and once I cracked open an egg into the frying pan that had a half developed chick in it. Surprisingly I am not a vegetarian.
BTW, I just finished a mug of cocoa made from milk instead of water. I have only recently tried this, surprisingly. It may be my undoing (ha, blame it on milk) but I don’t think I can have cocoa made any other way now.
I drink milk, too — a lot less than I used to, though. I used to go through a gallon every three or four days.
As Kristie says, for me, certain foods just aren’t right without a glass of milk: cookies, cake, anything with peanut butter.
Kristie, you lost me with the spaghetti, but I can kinda imagine how good that combo is, because milk is crucial to my erstwhile favorite lunch: a sandwich of sliced chicken breast, Muenster, butter, and pepper on good white bread, a pile of salty potato chips, and a BIG glass of ice-cold milk. (I haven’t had it in ages because I never have any of that stuff in the house: white bread, chicken, chips. It sounds bland, I know, but if each item is high-quality, it is so simple and wholesome and delicious.)
bought a gallon from a coop once.
SIX FRICKIN DOLLARS.
never again!
Pasteurization will take care of the pus (what very little there may be).
It’s better than Budweiser with Chili.
Like the Queen, I’m a Midwesterner, raised on it and still love it. I drink the lactose free and fat free version of it because it agrees with my digestive system better, tastes better, has a longer shelf life, and I can give it to my cat.
I do not like milk. According to my mom, I never did which is why she made sure I had a lot of cheese and yogurt when I was little. I have milk on my cereal the few times a year I have it – which is why I keep milk in aseptic packaging in the cabinet.With chocolate, you should try beer. The lighter the chocolate, the lighter the beer. (white chocolate doesn’t count, clearly it’s not chocolate) Chocolate cake is fan-freaking-tastic with darker beers.The information is brought to you by my 87 year old father who passed this on to me 15 years ago on my birthday.
I will puke on you.
Rayleen – Okay, YOU started to sway me toward organic, because milk pus and PENIS pus will forever be linked in my mind. Elsa – Toasted white bread? Then you’ve got me.Mrs Hall – Yeah … see, that’s a plus in my sick mind.Benchmark – That suggests your cat can’t drink regular milk. That’s a sad cat. Amy in StL – well, okay then, but beer always tastes like flowers to me. Flowers and chocolate? Huh. If you say so. Caroline – Really? Even if you have chocolate with it?
It’s not that I think that milk is unhealthy, it’s that I think than non-chocolaty milk tastes kind of gross and non-beverage like. Hell, I think of chocolate milk of cocoa as a food, not a drink.
I have coffee or tea with chocolate. I mix both of them with milk or cream, but I just don’t drink straight milk.
Even then. Puke. Milk reminds me of two things:1) In elementary school, more than once we were served expired milk. I wondered a few years ago if I had imagined this, but my sister assured me she was turned off of milk forever for the same reason. All milk immediately tastes spoiled to me ever since.2) In college, the asshole I was dating snuck white Russians into the library where I was *gasp* studying instead of attending his fraternity party. This made him not only an asshole, but one who didn’t know me well enough to know that milk-based drinks were not the way to my heart.I. Will. Puke.
Sigh.Caroline, I once had three gallons of so-spoiled-it’s-mostly-solid milk poured over my head. I puked.Still. White Russians. Liquid crack.
Tami – Maybe slowly increase the milk in the coffee or tea until one day you realize you are drinking milk?Caroline – Gary said the nuns make him drink milk with a fly in it. He still drinks milk.Hot Mom – Oh, I hate White Russians. It’s like ruined milk.