Did you know that people who consume a lot of milk have a higher rate of osteoporosis? “How might this be?” you ask yourself, “isn’t milk supposed to make our bones strong and healthy with all of the calcium D it contains?”. That’s the myth that most people grew up to believe, but the truth is: milk is not as good for the health as many people seem to believe and that is why I believe that humans should stop drinking cow milk. Although the consumption of cow milk is in decline, it shouldn’t even have been a thing in the first place. Humans are the only animals who not only drink milk into their adulthood but also drink another animals milk.
Apart from the obvious moral reasons, milk is not the best place for people to get their nutrients (like many people think it is). Let’s go back to about 10,000 bce, when humans initiated drinking cow milk. People started drinking milk for the first time in central Europe. Previously, it was thought that “natural selection favoured milk drinkers only in more northern regions” because of their greater need for vitamin D in their diet.
People living in most parts of the world make vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin, but in northern latitudes there isn’t enough sunlight to do this for most of the year (University of college london). People started to drink milk in order to get the vitamin D necessary for their health due to a lack of sun back then, i doubt their milk was pasteurized but now it definitely is and during that process all of the nutrients that people believe they are getting out of milk (like vitamin D) are taken out. The reason I believe that humans should not drink cow milk is because it simply was not made for humans, it was made for baby cows to drink and grown (just like the milk we drink when we are babies from our mothers).
There are also many negatives side effects associated with drinking milk. People’s main argument as to why they consume milk is the claim that it has many nutrients necessary for the human body but it’s been proven that once the milk is pasteurized and homogenized all the nutrients are gone. Claire Sibonney is trying to dispel certain myths about drinking milk like the fact that it strengthens our bones in order to raise important questions about the value of drinking milk in our culture although she does believe that we shouldn’t cut milk out completely. Thomas Campbell asserts that Americans who drink milk are more likely to have bone fractures and a higher mortality rate.
Certain diseases are found more often in people who drink milk. Campbell supports his claims about American milk drinking habits with findings and statistics from studies conducted that show all the risk of drinking milk such as diabetes, sclerosis, cancer, acne etc.. Another reason why humans should not drink milk is because it actually contributes to the increases greenhouses gases which are harmful to the environment.
The dairy industry negatively impacts the environment because it increases the amount greenhouse gases as a result of manure, feed production, and milk processing that come from cows.In her article about the effects of milk on the environment, Lucy Siegle says that in the comparing the ratios of global warming potential to primary energy consumed, “producing a cow comes in about 50% higher than a pig or chicken. And the methane cows emit remains in the atmosphere 21-23 times more effectively than CO2.” Essentially, cows are the main reason for pollution and a step to help reduce it could be cutting out milk as a start.
