Milk has long been claimed as the go-to source of calcium, but as it turns out, milk is actually bad for you. Calcium from animal milk is not absorbed as well as that from plant based sources like spinach, kale, turnips, and collard greens and it can be accompanied by a number of health problems. Much of the world’s population cannot adequately digest milk due to lactose intolerance, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhoea. You might not be diagnosed as lactose intolerant, but around 3/4 of us actually lack the enzyme to properly digest milk, and suffer digestively from the stuff.
Dairy cows are either kept on sex hormones or pregnant for their entire lives in order to lactate for humans year-round, when you consume dairy, you’re also taking in a significant amount of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. An increased exposure to estrogen increases the risk of cancer, and dairy accounts for 60-80% of estrogens consumed by humans today. These hormones might also be to blame for the rise of “man boobs”.
Dairy is nature’s perfect food — but only if you’re a calf. It is hard to think why we should continue to consume the lactation fluid that exists in nature to nourish and rapidly grow calves. Cows milk is baby calf growth fluid, and whether it is used to make yogurt, cheese or ice cream it still serves the same purpose and that it is to grow a baby calf as quickly as possibly.
Clearly, you’re probably better off trying one of the many other milk alternatives out there. So if you want to do yourself, and those poor cows a favour, it’s certainly worth trying to cut back on your dairy consumption. Who knows, you might just feel a whole lot better.