# Why the hate for dairy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285 "2025-04-21T02:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/21 "2025-04-21T12:23:12Z")
If milk’s good enough for Wally and the Beav, then by golly, it’s good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/22 "2025-04-21T12:27:51Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I do seem to recall Michael Pollan saying something about “no other species drinks another species’ milk,” These people never put a bowl of milk in front of an animal, huh? Lots of animals will happily drink random milk, they just don’t have the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/23 "2025-04-21T12:31:47Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Lots of animals will happily drink random milk, they just don’t have the chance. When I was a kid on the farm, we hand-milked one cow for our own use. Our cats would eagerly sit next to the cow during milking, waiting for a ‘squirt’ of ultra-fresh milk. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/24 "2025-04-21T12:32:57Z")
No other species talks. Perhaps humans should all stop talking because that’s Nature’s way? Hmm. Now that I think about it, that might be an improvement if about 85% of humanity just. shut. up. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/25 "2025-04-21T12:33:25Z")
I used to live in Wisconsin. It’s many Dairies produce much milk. And the country air is so fresh. Visit Wisconsin, and smell their Dairy Air. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/26 "2025-04-21T12:38:20Z")
Cats love milk, and I give my cats milk occasionally for a treat. But, most cats are lactose intolerant, so it shouldn’t be given too often. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/27 "2025-04-21T12:42:14Z")
No argument there. But the implication is that drinking milk is “unnatural” and shunned by the beasts of the world. That obviously isn’t the case. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/28 "2025-04-21T12:45:37Z")
I drink a _ **lot** _ of milk, though only the fat-free / lactose-free stuff. If milk were bad for human consumption, I would be in bad shape. But I’m fine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/29 "2025-04-21T13:01:43Z")
OK - makes sense. Thanks. (Not sure what the exact quote was - if it distinguished between behavior “in the wild” and in domestication.) Tho I’ve thought a lot of what Pollan writes makes sense, I acknowledge his words are not necessarily the end-all. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/30 "2025-04-21T13:32:57Z")
The anti-milk folks are also pro-butter and demonize margarine. It’s all the same crowd. When you question their belief, they _ **always** _, without fail, resort to a conspiracy theory: Them: “Butter is healthier than margarine! Margarine is molecule away from being plastic!” Me: “Then why does the American Heart Association recommend margarine over butter?” Them: “Because they _want_ you to be sick! There’s no profit to be made in healthy people!” 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/31 "2025-04-21T13:36:22Z")
I think what Pollan means is that it required a mutation in human beings to be able to consume significant quantities of dairy as adults. So it’s not “natural” in that it’s not what normally happens in mammals or even most humans. But if you do have that mutation it is a food option for you. It’s just not _necessary_ as Western European/North American culture has implied for quite some time. Not one adult human _requires_ milk, even if some have no problem digesting it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/32 "2025-04-21T13:40:10Z")
A major emphasis among anti-dairy advocates is that dairy food cause inflammation. [Research to date](https://www.eatingwell.com/article/2056066/heres-what-a-dietitian-says-about-dairy-causing-inflammation/) does [not](http://uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/gastrointestinal-articles/what-foods-cause-or-reduce-inflammation) establish this, in spite of claims like those of Amy Myers, the “functional medicine” doc whose article is linked to above (immediate red flags on her website include recommendations for fixing one’s “leaky gut”, offering “Candida support” and having an online store to hawk supplements. She’s also antivaccine, because of course she is). A good rule of thumb is to be highly wary of any promotions of Superfoods or clickbaity warnings about The One Food (or Multiple Foods) You Must Avoid. Eating a balanced diet with calorie limitation is so bo-oring, so we must hunt for extreme solutions. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/33 "2025-04-21T13:40:22Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > There are all sorts of crazy food ideas. Remember when eggs were bad for you? Soy feminizes men (and maybe turns frogs gay, I don’t know). Gluten is terrible for you for some reason even if you don’t have Celiac. I remember a Top Ten list from David Letterman’s show back in the 80s where the topic was “Top Ten News Headlines For The Year 2000” and one of the items was “Oat Bran: The Silent Killer”. 😅 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/34 "2025-04-21T14:13:06Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Eating a balanced diet with calorie limitation is so bo-oring, so we must hunt for extreme solutions. Bringing up Michael Pollan again, in the _Omnivore’s Dilemma_ he writes that perhaps the best course of action is to follow the advice of his grandmother. “Eat a little bit of everything. Mostly plants.” We do always seem to be looking for magical solutions. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/35 "2025-04-21T14:14:45Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Eating a balanced diet with calorie limitation is so bo-oring, so we must hunt for extreme solutions. I think you probably meant something about like > Eating a balanced diet with calorie limitation is so ~~bo-oring~~ difficult to monetize, so we must hunt for extreme solutions. Unrelated to the above … Here’s another tell: If the website mentions “inflammation”, simply click away; it’s pushing the woo _du jour_. Is inflammation a real biological thing? You bet. So are toxins. But the kind of inflammation or toxins mentioned in breathless prose on pushy websites are not the real kind; they’re the woo kind. Which are the reechest kind. For them and their BS product $ale$. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/36 "2025-04-21T14:39:44Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Visit Wisconsin, and smell their Dairy Air. Thank you for that! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/37 "2025-04-21T14:42:34Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Gluten is terrible for you for some reason even if you don’t have Celiac. I think this is related. It is a fact that, for some people, gluten is bad. It is a fact that, for some people, dairy is bad. But people as a whole aren’t very good with fine nuance, and so a lot of people take that and convert it to “Gluten and dairy must therefore be bad for everyone”. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/38 "2025-04-21T14:47:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But people as a whole aren’t very good with fine nuance, and so a lot of people take that and convert it to “Gluten and dairy must therefore be bad for everyone”. I also suspect that there is an element of “sometimes my gut is upset, and I hear a lot about how people are allergic to gluten (or dairy), so that must be it!” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/39 "2025-04-21T14:57:22Z")
The same way gluten is tied to glycemic starch; dairy is tied to LDL cholesterol. Sugar and fat. People like to believe they can just eliminate/reduce certain elements of those classes of food and still eat the other things with sugar and fat with impunity. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285/40 "2025-04-21T14:58:14Z")
Just wait until you find out what they doo with their Cheese. 🫣 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-dairy/1017285.md?page=3)