What About Milk? Copyright © PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)   This article is from the PETA site and can be found here: http://www.goveg.com/vegkit/eatfrlife.html

“There’s no reason to drink cow’s milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, not humans, and we should all stop drinking it today.” —Dr. Frank A. Oski, former director of pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University

No species naturally drinks milk beyond infancy, and no species would naturally drink the milk of a different species. Cow’s milk is designed for baby cows, who have four stomachs, double their weight in 47 days, and weigh 800 pounds within a year. For humans, milk has been linked to heart disease, some types of cancer, diabetes, and even osteoporosis, the very disease that the dairy industry claims it is supposed to prevent! The high animal-protein content of milk actually causes calcium to be leached from the body. Industrialized Western nations, which are the biggest consumers of milk, have the highest rates of osteoporosis, while regions of the world where dairy products are practically unheard of, such as China and Japan, are virtually osteoporosis-free. Milk is also loaded with fat and cholesterol and contains an ever-increasing variety of pesticides and antibiotics that are fed to cows. You can get all the calcium you need from the plant world—tofu, broccoli, figs, beans, grain, and calcium-fortified orange juice are all good sources. Serving up just one egg for breakfast each morning can raise your cholesterol level by as much as 10 points! The human body makes all the cholesterol it needs, and when extra cholesterol is eaten, only 100 mg per day can be eliminated—the rest begins clogging the arteries. Women who eat eggs daily triple their risk of breast cancer. Eggs are a primary source of salmonella, which sickens millions and causes up to 3,800 food-related deaths in the U.S. each year.

Cholesterol Calories Fat Saturated Fat Milk 34 159 8 grams 4.9 grams Eggs 274 79 5.6 grams 1.7 grams

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” —Albert Einstein

What about Milk? 

copyright © Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine PCRM
http://www.pcrm.org/health/VSK/VSK6.html

Iron-Deficiency: Milk is very low in iron. To get the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of 15 mg of iron, an infant would have to drink more than 31 quarts of milk each day. Milk also causes blood loss from the intestinal tract, depleting the body’s iron.

Diabetes: Of 142 diabetic children tested in a recent study, 100 percent had high levels of an antibody to a cow’s milk protein. It is believed that these antibodies destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

Calcium: Green leafy vegetables such as kale are as good or better than milk as calcium sources.

Fat Content: Other than skim varieties, dairy products are high in fat, as a percentage of total calories:

Contaminants: Milk is frequently contaminated with antibiotics and excess vitamin D. Of 42 milk samples recently tested, only 12 percent were within the expected range of vitamin D content. Of ten samples of infant formula, seven had more than twice the vitamin D content reported on the label, and one had more than four times the label amount.

Lactose: Many people of Asian and African heritage are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which then causes diarrhea and gas. The lactose sugar, when it is digested, releases galactose, a simple sugar which is linked to ovarian cancer and cataracts.

Allergies: Milk is one of the most common causes of food allergy. Often the symptoms are subtle and may not be attributed to milk for some time.

Colic: Milk proteins can cause colic, a digestive upset that bothers one in five infants. Milk-drinking mothers can also pass cow’s milk proteins to their breast-feeding infants.