Milk? It’s Just White Water, and the Carton May Be More Nutritious

“Milk is good for your bones”; “milk is a complete food”; “milk is the best food in the world.” These are among the absolutely unassailable myths of recent generations, who have grown up with abundant breakfasts of cow’s milk and all kinds of cookies. But things are absolutely not like that: here’s why.

The Paleo Diet completely excludes dairy products, as until 10,000 years ago, no living being in the world, including us Homo sapiens, had ever drunk the milk of another animal. In fact, the domestication of animals and subsequent milking began only with the advent of agriculture, about 12,000 years ago, when we transitioned from being nomadic to settled, and thus could also milk cows. About 5,000 years later (at least according to findings in Poland, with vessels used to skim curd), we also began producing cheese.

The funny thing is that, 12,000 years later, still no animal in the world drinks milk. Except us. People think milk is extremely beneficial, including those who get diarrhea after drinking it. When I go grocery shopping, I can hardly see a single cart that doesn’t contain the classic tetra pack of milk and all kinds of cheese. When children vomit cow’s milk and don’t grow, the last thing mothers think of is removing it from their diets, because “the pediatrician said it’s essential.”

People (and all doctors) think that without the calcium in dairy products, their bones would collapse and they would develop osteoporosis, especially women. But almost all women drink milk, eat cheese, and yogurt, so how is it possible that hip fractures have increased by 32% in the last 10 years?

Why don’t the bones of people who are intolerant/allergic to dairy (and therefore don’t consume it) collapse after a few years?

I continually challenge this idolization of milk because it is widely proven that humans have consumed milk for only 12,000 years, which is a drop in the ocean of our evolutionary history, confirmed by the fact that many populations who do not drink it at all (such as those in Asia) are perfectly fine and do not suffer from osteoporosis. In fact, the countries with the highest fracture rates are the United States, New Zealand, and Sweden, precisely the top three nations that consume the most dairy products in the world.

This is the comment from Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and public health at New York University, published in the prestigious journal ” The sciences ” (the official body of mainstream medicine) in the November 2007 issue:

“Curiously, some population groups that consume few dairy products rich in calcium, or follow diets with lower calcium content than recommended by experts, have lower rates of hip fractures (an index of advanced osteoporosis) compared to those who consume large quantities of dairy. The phenomenon has not yet been explained.”

In short, the phenomenon has not yet been explained, but when you take your mother/grandmother with osteoporosis to the doctor, the first thing the doctor prescribes is milk and cheese. If it later turns out that it is actually the dairy products causing the problem, well, that’s your relatives’ problem!

This is the legacy of a millennia-old culture that insists we drink milk, perhaps because it “contributes to regulating healthy muscle development, facilitates the blood clotting process, aids in the development of bones and teeth, and provides the energy necessary for physical activities,” as stated on the official websites of the companies that produce it.

But even if you insist on drinking the overrated beverage, are you sure you are consuming “real” milk? The cows from which it is derived are mostly Dutch Friesian, and to increase production, they are fed so much food that they used to weigh about 450 kg but can now reach up to 700 kg.

Consequently, the rumen (one of the cow’s stomachs) has increased in volume, along with the abdominal cavity and the udder, which are now large and heavy. Calving has become much more difficult because there is less space for the uterus, the calf is obviously larger, but the passage remains the same.

The skeleton cannot support the excessive weight, making the joints more fragile, and their average life expectancy has decreased from 15 to only 6 years. If you don’t care about the health of the cows, know that instead of grass, they are given about 22 kg of dry matter and 130 kg of water per day; grass has very little dry matter, so it’s like the cows are eating 400 kg of grass a day.

Always assuming the soil isn’t contaminated with dioxin. All of this, combined with frequent milking, causes cows to demineralize, and their milk contains almost no nutrients anymore; you can’t get blood from a stone.

Furthermore, the average daily production of a normal cow is about 15-20 liters a day, while the super Dutch Friesian cow can be milked (literally) for over 50 liters a day.

But before this milk reaches our (your…) table, it must be sterilized, which by law must be done twice; once in the country of origin and once upon unloading in the country of arrival. But that’s not all, because it also has to be pasteurized, thereby eliminating the natural bacteria in the milk, which must then be re-added industrially, but all of the same strain.

After all this carnage, the taste of this milk will be almost nil, the aroma non-existent, containing very few vitamins/minerals and industrially cloned bacteria. The Tetra Pak, the characteristic carton that contains it, is probably much more nutritious…

Are You Still Sure Milk Is “The Best Food in the World”?

Are you still sure that milk is “the best food in the world”? If after all this you still haven’t given up because you like it too much, I believe the best solution is raw organic milk, that is, not pasteurized. For example, I like milk (doesn’t seem like it from the article, right?), but I never drink it for the reasons I’ve mentioned. However, sometimes I get “raw” milk from farmers in the countryside with their personal cows; I assure you it’s a completely different thing, with a very different and rich flavor and aroma. Consume it at most once or twice a week. Instead of milk, don’t take anything, but if you really can’t do without it, I recommend unsweetened almond milk (available in organic stores) or excellent coconut water (the one we use is delicious, it’s called PURA).