Is milk really not good for you?

Question

Someone educated was telling me today about how the human body isn't meant to drink milk, as we don't produce the lactase enzynme that can break the lactose don. She sais this explains why there are people suffering with weight problems and that our high dairy diets particularly in the Western world are causing premature aging etc when you compare us to the eastern world.

Is there are a lot of truth to this?

I must admit my stomach tends to feel off after drinking lots of milk.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

As adults wouldn't want fresh breast milk straight from our mothers why would we want it from a COW. As a child, poor child. Momma can't be bothered. The industry? Horrible. Just horrible. Got Misery? Pollution! And I don't know if the USA has much hold of the big reign$ anymore. A drain on us all around, really. People get hooked on milk and cheese(and meat) and then decide they don't have to eat vegetables, grains, fruits, sprouts, nuts, seads, beans, water.  

Answer 2

it is full of female hormones from the cow, plus it is kind of gross if you think about it.

Answer 3

From a nutritionists point of view I have no idea. But, I love milk, have never been fat, look quite young for my age and feel good after drinking milk. I've been known to drink several bottles of the stuff in a day !!

Answer 4

Well hey I never really liked the thought of having steroid filled milk in my tummy but that's just me....

Answer 5

It probably wont kill you if you drink it in moderation. Personally, the thought of drinking puss filled, steroid filled, antibiotic filled, pesticide filled (from cow eating corn using huge amounts of pesticides, not even grass which cows were meant to eat to begin with).

Milk is nothing but FAT. Think 2% milk means 2% of it is fat? Think again....How about 37-40% calories from FAT!!!!

Answer 6

It gives us vital calcium. I've never known anyone to have health problems from drinking milk apart from someone who was allergic to it.

Answer 7

http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/campaigns/w...

Answer 8

It's an interesting study in evolution. In some societies (e.g., American and European) milk and milk products are a long-term part of the diet. In other societies, such as those of the nomadic tribes of central Asia, horse milk and its products are a staple. In those societies, children who grow out of the nursing stage and cease to produce juvenile lactase, the enzyme that all babies have to digest breast milk, begin to produce adult lactase, a similar enzyme that can break down the lactose in cow, sheep, goat, and other milks.

In places like China, on the other hand, where milk products are little used, babies who stop producing the juvenile lactase do not produce the adult form. Thus they can't digest the lactose and get upset stomachs if they try. (This doesn't apply to thoroughly fermented products like cheeses in which the lactic acid bacteria have converted all the lactose into lactic acid.)

The ability to produce adult lactase is inherited, but can disappear from a population in 8-10 generations if milk is not consumed.

For people who are not lactose intolerant, milk and its products are excellent nutrients. They do not produce premature aging, but like anything else eaten in excess, they can make you fat, which isn't so good.

Answer 9

try this

Answer 10

I can say yes because I know some people are lactose intolerant. But the millions if not billions of people who drank, are drinking and will continue to drink milk (from cows, goats,buffaloes,camels, yaks  etc) might dispute you educated friend.

As for causing weight problems, I tend to blame the eater not the food for health and weight problems. And for some of the world's unfortunate, milk IS the only food they ever get on a regular basis. Kinda hard and cruel to tell them to stop, you know?

Answer 11

Every Body Needs Milk -- until weaning, that is.

Think about this for one second.  Why do we drink milk at all?  It is intended for a baby calf.  Do we drink milk because there is real scientific proof that it is good for us, or is it merely the National Dairy Council, a propaganda machine dedicated to selling its product?  Let's take a look.  Human milk has 5% calories as protein, and human babies double their birth weight in 180 days. The percentage of protein in cow's milk is three times as high, 15%. Calves double their birth weight in only 47 days. Cow's milk has enough fat to turn a 45 pound calf into a 400 pound cow.  Milk, or as John McDougall, MD, calls it, "liquid meat,"  is very high in protein, fat, and cholesterol, yet contains no fiber and is low in carbohydrates.  Here is a brief list of the disorders caused by the unnatural consumption of cow's milk and dairy by human beings:

"Gastro-intestinal- canker sores, vomiting, colic, stomach cramps, abdominal distention, intestinal obstruction, bloody stools, colitis, mal-absorption, loss of appetite, growth retardation, diarrhea, constipation, painful defecation, irritation of tongue, lips, and mouth.

"Respiratory- nasal stuffiness, runny nose, otidis media (inner ear trouble), sinusitis, asthma, pulmonary infiltrates.

"Skin- rashes, atopic dermatitis, eczema, seborrhea, hives

"Behavioral- irritability, restlessness, hyperactivity, headache, lethargy, fatigue, allergic-tension fatigue syndrome, muscle pain, mental depression, enuresis (bed wetting, often caused when the bladder tissues become swollen and insensitive to the feeling of fullness).

"Blood-  abnormal blood clotting, IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA (dairy products are the cause of at least50% of childhood iron deficiency anemia and an unknown percentage of anemia found in adults; this condition results from bleeding of the small intestine caused by dairy proteins and is not responsive to iron therapy until milk and other dairy products are eliminated), low-serum proteins, thrombocytopenia (low platelets), and eosinophilia (allergic-related blood cells).

"Other- anaphylatic shock and death, sudden infant death syndrome (crib or cot death)."

Hormones in Milk:

--------------------------------------...

• Pituitary hormones (PRL, GH, TSH, FSH, LH ACTH Oxytocin)

• Steroid hormones (Estradiol, Estriol, Progesterone, Testosterone, 17-Ketosteroids, Corticosterone, Vitamine D)

• Hypothalamic hormones (TRH, LHRH, Somatostatin, PRL-inhibiting factor, PRL-releasing factor, GnRH, GRH)

• Thyroid and Parathyroid hormones (T3, T4, rT3, Calcitonin, Parathormone, PTH peptide)

• gastrointestinal peptides (Vasoactive intestinal peptide, Bombesin, Cholecystokinin, Gastrin, Gastrin inhibitory peptide, Pancreatic peptide, Y peptide, Substance P and Neurotensin)

• Growth Factors (IGF's (I and II), IGF binding proteins, Nerve growth factor, Epidermal growth factor and TGF alpha, TGF beta, Growth Inhibitors MDGI and MAF, and Platelet derived growth factor

• Others... (PGE, PGF2 alpha, cAMP, cGMP, Delta sleep inducing

• peptide, Transferrin, Lactoferrin, Casomorphin and Erythropoietin...

Answer 12

The ability to process lactase is actually a genetic anomoly in humans.

It makes sense.

Ask yourself:

who did nature intend to drink a mother cow's milk???

Answer 13

milk is good for you like ALOT. but the prcessed c**p they serve is filled with chemicals that are bad for you. so if you drink organic milk, you will be a lot healthier then if you drink alot of reguler milk.

Answer 14

Milk is one of the best things you can drink. It is full of many nutrients that are beneficial to our body. I have done a lot of studying  and research over the past several years on the subject, mainly because I have two degrees in Dairy Science.  There has been a lot of misconception about milk and what is in it.  Most people today think organic milk is healthier than non-organic milk.  This is not true, organic milk and non-organic milk is exactly the same. Organic is only saying how it was raised. Organic does not effect the quality. In fact, non-organic milk has less bacteria than organic milk.  This is mainly due to the fact that organic cows are not given antibiotics, therefore they are not able to fight off the illness or disease as well as cows given antibiotics.  Therefore, this increases the bacteria count in the milk, that is why organic milk is ultra-pasteurized. No matter what, it is illegal for milk containing antibiotics to enter the food chain.  The milk from a cow given antibiotics is immediately dumped after the cow is milked and does not enter the bulk tank.  So the milk sitting on the shelves at the store can not contain antibiotics.

Hormones, such as BST, is another subject that people think causes milk to be bad.  A cow naturally produces hormones and BST is one of them.  There is no way of taking it out of the cow.  There are many hormones in milk, but none of them are harmful. This is mainly because our body can not break them down, therefore we can not use them.

Whatever that cow is fed will not effect the quality of the milk at the store, hormones will not hurt you, and there are not any antibiotics in the milk.

So basically milk is milk, whether it is organic or non-organic.  If you are paying the extra bucks for something you think is healthier because it is organic, well you are losing money.  The non-organic milk is exactly like the organic milk.

Yes, there are some people out there who can not drink milk due to health reasons. If you can drink milk, there is no reason for you not too. I think a lot of the prematuring and overweight is due to our lifestyles and what else we eat.  You can not pin point all of those problems to one source.  

Answer 15

Well, I'm doing fine because I drink goats milk and eat goats cheese. Goats milk is not a dairy product so your reasoning has nothing to do with goats milk.

Goats milk is great for your complexion and it is a great source of calcium which you need for strong bones.

Answer 16

We can drink milk and suffer not adverse side-effects (unless you are lactose intolerant).

However, we haven't been drinking other animals milk for very long in our history, and our digestive systems are not completely adapted yet. (We've been eating meat for much longer, for example).

Part of the problem is the chemicals given to the cows which also goes into the milk. (I drink organic milk when I do drink it.)

If one wants to lose weight, a good first step is to cut out dairy. I'm a bodybuilder, and a lot of us do that as the first step in a contest diet. (Usually cottage cheese remains in the diet, however).

The person you were talking to seems to have their information correct, in general.

If she is blaming all weight problems on dairy, she is not correct. However, dairy is a major factor, so she's not entirely wrong either.

Try cutting out dairy, and see what it does for you. (You're not going to suffer a dairy deficiency, and you can get the vitamins elsewhere.)

Answer 17

As a nutrition, you need Calcium to grow when you are becoming taller, you need calcium to keep your bones strong.

Milk is a very good source of Calcium, Protein and Vitamin 12 Lacto Vegetarians,.

Milk is just a convenient way to get the needed nutrients. If you are a Vegan, you are going to drink Soya Milk. The Soya Milk tries to emulate Milk, buy fortifying it with Calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin B-12.

Yes Milk is GOOD for you, child, young adult, adult or a senior person. You need milk.

Answer 18

Your friend is partially right. The enzyme required to break down the complex, sweet lactose should biologically disappear in human beings past the age of 5 - THE LASTEST.

Some cultures extend consumption of breast milk (and of another species, to boot!) well into adulthood, which is a perversion of the point of being a mammal as well as the point of weaning past infancy.

70% of the global population can't digest lactose, and for good reason. However, people who live in a society that consumes dairy regularly, like in Western cultures, make up the 30% whose bodies sustain the ability to digest lactose their whole lives.

Your friend is correct in stating just a small fraction of diseases and chronic conditions that are either aggravated by or even partially caused by dairy consumption.

The basic fact is this: we are mammals. Mammals wean off of breastmilk when they're old enough to move on to a solid diet.

Because we as a species are addicted to exciting flavors and new things, and because casein and other compounds in dairy are intoxicating to our bodies (and dairy is tasty), people consume ANOTHER CREATURE'S milk. Someone way back when was gross enough to try it, and there were people that then proceeded to be even more gross and try to culture and spoil the milk until it became cheese or yogurt or whatever else they wanted it to be.

The final crutch that the dairy industry can possibly stand on is calcium. It's inconvenient for them to really look at the general consensus of medicine, so they sponsor multimillion dollar lobbying efforts, mail samplers and information to doctor's offices, fund and sponsor text books for med schools, support and sponsor reasearch at major universities (to obviously anticipate a favorable result for dairy) and otherwise meddle with medical affairs.

Our bodies are much more adept at utilizing the calcium from plants, not from dairy. Cultures that do not use dairy for their source of calcium (but instead use plant sources) have a MUCH lower rate of hip fracture and osteoporosis than western societies that use dairy for their calcium source. People in the West eat twice as much calcium daily as people that get their calcium from a plant source, and have only a fraction of the health benefits. Animal protein and the mineral balance of cow's milk is optimal to bloat up a baby cow and make it grow as big as possible. In our bodies, those same things interfere with our ability to utilize the calcium in milk.

Overall, milk isn't anywhere near as good for you as people would like to believe. It satisfies a craving, it's tasty, but it makes no sense biologically for us as mammals to keep consuming it all our lives.

Answer 19

After reviewing a lot of raw vegans websites and hearing people talk about diary being not good for us, I ended up believing them too. It makes since, we are humans so why would we drink from another species? l wondered how come we were not drinking milks from the other animals as well. Plus the way they make cows milk for humans consumption is pretty disgusting once you think about it. Other milk alternatives are nut milk or even rice milk. It taste better, you can make it and put whatever it is YOU want, and best of all you know ALL of the ingredients you used!

Answer 20

The facts are mostly true but presented in a distorted way.  Not many people produce the lactase enzyme only about twenty percent of the world population.  But if your ancestors were from Northern Europe, Northern Africa, The Middle East or India there is a high chance that you do.  Lactose tolerance is extremely rare or unknown in other races.  And even if your body produces the enzyme it only does it in limited quantities.  Drinking too much at once will use it up.

Milk is a very concentrated food and it is easy to overindulge causing health problems in same way too much of anything is bad.  And in the places where it is cheap people generally overindulge on all food.

Answer 21

it is good 4 u but not 2 mmuch -x