Wednesday, June 27, 2012

To milk or not to milk

My peanut has been teething pretty badly this week, which means there is a lot of hand and blanket chewing, LOTS of nursing, and very little rest (for mom). On any given day I wear her a few hours a day. This week I've been carrying, nursing, or wearing her non-stop. One of the bonuses is that I get constant "breaks" from my household work and a chance to sit or lay down. What's even better is that the ipad allows me to browse the net and type while holding a sleeping baby, because God forbid I put her down. In the words of Isaac: "Mommy, Andea is crying," as if I can't hear her :) There is only so much cooking I can get done in a day (yes I realize I post a lot about my cooking, but that's my life right now), so I get to thinking about random things. Today I've been thinking a lot about milk (no pun intended). I've been adviced by my health care practitioner, friends, and a multitude or articles, books, and videos to stop drinking milk. I am not a calf by any measure. I rarely drink fresh milk anymore but I hate the idea of giving up my yogurt or occasional treat of pizza with real cheese. Yes, I have an emotional attachment to milk, there I said it. My grandparents were cheese makers and milk was always a staple in my household. When we ran out of water there was always milk to be had. So thinking of milk in a negative fashion really bothers me, even if my consumption is limited. Every book and health article I read tells me to cut out milk from my diet, and I realize there may be some benefits to this, but the "facts" behind their arguments are lacking at best. Some can get very contentious and emotional. I watched a clip on You Tube yesterday called "Your milk on drugs." I was hoping this one would finally convince me that milk is in fact poison and I would be discouraged from consuming it but it didn't. The backing arguments focused on the increased use of artificial growth hormones and their effects on human health, the main one of which is the propensity for cancer cells to multiply more rapidly than normal when exposed to the hormones. I get that. But it was also mentioned on the video that organic milk does not contain these. Other arguments were that milk contains pus, that it causes humans to keep growing the same way calves do, and that casein, the protein in milk, glues itself onto our internal organs causing havoc. I've spent a significant amount of time today researching these arguments and I have yet to find a good, scientifically backed article that is convincing. So, is it really wrong to drink milk or eat cheese? Or is it just like everything else, good in moderation (assuming its organic of course). Thoughts?

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