Well, I don’t. But why do we as a society think that feeding human children cow milk, way beyond weaning age, is a good thing?
Do we feed children cow milk instead of rat/monkey/raccoon milk only because cows are docile and profitable?
I’ve recently stopped drinking milk, as I find it weird as an adult human to be drinking milk meant for a baby cow. I’ve read a lot of pros and cons (mostly cons) about non-infant humans drinking milk from a different species.
Anyway, I’m up too late and thinking too much. later.
My godfather is Chinese, and has always felt that cheese is the most disgusting thing on the face of the earth. On an intellectual level, I fully agree with him. But I need protein. He’s lived in this country for 40 some odd years and refused to touch cheese for the first 20. But assimilation always conquers, and now he just complains how gross it is.
We are the only creatures that consume the milk produced by another animal, we are also the only creatures that consume milk at ALL into adulthood. But it is the most naturally nutrional beverage out there.
If you’re not drinking milk, be sure you’re getting your minerals (not just calcium, but vitimans, too.) from some other source.
Of course, I can’t keep a carton of milk fresh in my refridgerator. The closest thing I have is creamer.
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
Actually, water is the most natural beverage out there. It is the only fluid that humans need after the age of weaning. Nutrients can all be gotten from food. Vitamin D comes from the sun. (As your grandfather could have told you, many people in the world never drink animal milk.) In our society with eating built around a food pyramid :rolleyes:, a person needs to actually learn about what nutrients are in food to make wise eating choices. The information is available out there.
Y’know, I’ve heard this before, and I never quite understood why it was supposed to be surprising. Shit, we’re the only creatures who eat Oreos, chew gum, and smoke tobacco. We’re the only creatures who wear clothes. We’re the only creatures who drink single malt scotch. We do a LOT of things different than other animals. Why is it so surprising that we drink milk?
There’s a theory that the different bloodtypes, O, A, and B (I’ll get back to AB), evolved to accomodate different types of diets.
One is for mainly carnivorous, one is for agrarian, and one is for dairy. These diets worked fine until the various groups started cross-breeding. AB’s arose, whose best diet was a strange cross of whatever A’s and B’s usually ate.
SR didn’t say it’s the most natural beverage. she said it’s the most naturally nutritious beverage. BIG difference. Milk is much more nutritious than water, as water has zero calories, zero fat, zero everything except hydrogen and oxygen (unless you live in new jersey, where we get all kinds of extra bonuses in the water, like industrial waste). Water is the only beverage we need in adulthood, provided we get our minerals elsewhere. Like SR said in the first place. But to answer your point, how many people do you know who eat a completely healthy diet, and get all the minerals, etc. that they need from food?
One thing she forgot to mention is that we are the only animals that need vitamin supplements because we don’t eat the way we were designed to eat.
Joe Cool
There are no dangerous weapons.
Only dangerous Men.
SoHoMom: You do not get calcium, riboflavin and other B group vitamins, protein, and sometimes vitamin A from water. As a vegetarian, I am well aware of the ridiculous reliance on the food chain. As someone who is lucky to SEE the sun during the day, I need vitamin D from a nutritional source.
And as for cultures surviving without milk, my GODfather is a 6’3" Chinese man. His family was from an upper eschelon in Chinese society. My mother asked him once why he was so tall, when the majority of Asians are small people, and he said “What do you expect when you feed people rice for a couple thousand years? You expect them to thrive? My family had milk and meat for the last couple hundred, hence: I’m tall.”
It is a dangerous thing to assume that people don’t know what they are talking about. Some of us have “actually learned” what nutrients are in food. If I didn’t, my iron levels would drop, and I’d have serious problems. Don’t assume ignorance.
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
I always thought drinking milk was a weird thing too…
as a dietitian, i realize how healthy it is, and how it contains so many nutrients. Still doesnt help me get over the weirdness of it. I also have a problem with eggs, not sure why, but I’m thinking its similar to the milk weirdness thing. Although I eat meat with no problem…
“I am so smart, I am so smart, s-m-r-t, i mean s-m-a-r-t”
SwimmingRiddles, I apologize. Somewhere between my reading and my typing, I changed the person to whom you were referring. I was AGREEING with you that someone that doesn’t use milk needs nutrients from other sources.
You guys are forgetting the most important function of milk. What goes better with chocolate chip cookies (especially those fresh from the oven) or brownies (same fresh from oven) as a nice cold glass of milk.
Personally, I love milk. My wife will only drink it with breakfast or cookies. I can drink milk with those, but also with about anything else and even just as a drink.
Why do we use cow’s milk? I would guess it is due to the fact that most other mammals are not as large and therefore do not produce as much milk as cow’s do. So it is more economical to use cows.
As a vegetarian I rely on dairy products. That said,
I read an advertisement in a health publication extolling the virtues of bovine colostrum as an immune booster in humans.
If you think drinking milk is weird, imagine drinking (or otherwise ingesting) milk that is specifically designed to boost the immune systems of newborn calves, protecting them from bovine diseases.
Ummm, thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be getting cowpox or mastitis any time soon.
There are other countries that use sheep & goat milk, so it isn’t just cows. If you think about it is quite bizarre, I can’t live without milk. Tea just isn’t the same with rice or soy milk. I love eggs but who wants to think about eating something that comes out of a chicken’s ass?
I’d like to know how many people drink cow’s milk but think that breastfeeding is wierd/yucky.
Hmm. I don’t find eating eggs weird, yet I still find drinking the milk of another species kind of creepy. I was at the store tonight and bought some soy milk. It was the first time I’ve had it. It doesn’t really taste like cow milk, but the consistency is the same. I almost kind of prefer the flavor of soy, too. I’ll have to try it with cereal, and various other recipes though.
In a way some carnivores drink milk. I have seen nature shows where a lion, tiger, hyena will kill a nursing bull or other animal. They DO EAT the milk still in her utter. In fact they eat just about everything, including her lips now that is weird.