Milk... Just Drink It

 

If there's one thing I've realized through use of social media, it's that people want to be offended. That even includes myself, as I thrive off of battling false information. However, it will constantly blow my mind that people can turn one thing into something else so absurd. For example: milk. Milk catches a lot of heat for being "bad" when in reality, it is truly one of nature's most perfect foods.

A blog called What Not To Eat: 15 Unhealthiest Foods On The Planet was sent to me, and some of the items listed I can totally agree with; having a candy bar after each meal and several sodas (diet or regular) on a daily basis isn't going to make you live forever. However, #8 is when my face went from normal to a cherry tomato.


8. Cow's Milk

When you drink a glass of milk, you may be consuming more added extras than you bargained for. Non organic livestock are routinely administered antibiotics and growth hormones, traces of which are regularly found in milk. But that isn’t the worst of it.

Due to the sheer volume of milk each animal is expected to produce, many go on to develop udder infections. This means that pus leaches into the milk. In tests, one liter of Californian milk was shown to contain 298 million pus cells.


Oh. My. God. Really, again with the antibiotics and milk pus? LOLZ (a term meant to express anger, sarcasm, and laughter all in one word.... the Y generation is weird). Let me break this down for you, and let you know what's REALLY going on with milk.


"When you drink a glass of milk, you may be consuming more added extras than you bargained for. Non organic livestock are routinely administered antibiotics and growth hormones, traces of which are regularly found in milk. But that isn’t the worst of it."

1. First off, farmers administer antibiotics to help sick cows. Kind of like when your kids/family/friends/whoever you care about is sick and you want to help them... you give them medicine. When cows are administered antibiotics, it is done so that there will be NO traces of the antibiotics in the milk product that you'll be consuming. Just ask the FDA and USDA. It's like, the law guys.
2. Hormones, hey guess what, they're a normal thing. They will be found in milk that has been produced by any cow on this planet (not much research on cows not on planet Earth, unfortunately). Farmers will use hormones to help cows increase their feed/production efficiency, allowing less cows to make more milk, decreasing the carbon footprint (isn't that what you people want?). And in NO way does it change the quality of milk or harm the cattle or human consumer. In fact, you can't even tell in a milk test if there are "added" hormones. That's straight science, yo. And ladies - you'll be drinking the whole farm by the time you match the hormones in that birth control you're taking ;-) #RealityCheck

"Due to the sheer volume of milk each animal is expected to produce, many go on to develop udder infections. This means that pus leaches into the milk. In tests, one liter of Californian milk was shown to contain 298 million pus cells."

1. There will be cows who get sick, and that's just life. One of the biggest concerns for a dairy farmer is that his cows will face a disease called mastitis. Cows udders are cleaned and checked for this disease EVERY TIME they are milked. If there is a case of mastitis, they're milked last after all of the healthy cows and the milk does NOT go into the milk supply. It is obtained separately and then properly disposed of.
2. Before milk is collected and shipped to milk plants, it is tested to meet several health requirements. If the bacteria count is too high, or there is ANYTHING wrong with the milk, it does not make it to a milk processor or to the consumer at all.
3. A farm isn't a factory plant. We can't tell a dairy cow "Hey Bessie, you better up that number of milk cans or you can say bye-bye to line manager!" Dairy cows are provided with the nutrition, comfort and overall care that allows them to produce what THEY are capable of without putting their health in danger. Farmers are humans with hearts, you know.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is.... Nelly drinks milk, and so should you.