The Vegan View

I just read the 101 Reasons Not to Feed Children Dairy Products. You made some very harsh links between dairy products and many common illnesses. I am wondering what your sources are for those claims. I was raised on a dairy farm and have consumed dairy products my whole life. I believe they are a necessary staple in a healthy diet. Linking dairy products to cancers, GI problems and acne is not only unture, it is also dangerous. I currently work in the dairy industry and know first hand the time and care given to each and every animal. Millions of dollars are spent every year to inprove cattle comfort on farms. It would be bad business for farmers to mistreat their animals. Please do not judge the way farmers care for their animals until you have delivered a newborn calf at 2:00 in the morning and taken it into your own home to make sure it was warm, dry and had the proper care to start a long healthy life.

[Editor's note: A reply was sent to this reader directing him to Dr. Palmer's statement in her article: "Explanation and research documentation for nearly all of these can be found in Baby Matters, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring for Your Baby but the email was returned, rejected by the sender's server as "No such user." Therefore we are placing the question and statement here in The Vegan View in the hope that the writer will see it and so our community may respond.]

VegFamily readers reply:

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April:
If milk was a neccessary staple of a healthy ADULT diet, my mother would still be breast feeding me...The human body slows production of enzymes neccessary to break-down lactose with age, with the greatest decline (somewhere around an 80% decrease) after weaning. This is because the need for milk in any mamals diet is restricted to infancy. I think it's amazing that with such high percentages of lactose-intolerance in humans, we still see it as neccessary and "natural" to consume dairy past infancy.

Jerri:
I, too, grew up in a family who ranched and farmed, ate and drank dairy products, all kinds of meat, etc. I doubted the reports about how bad for you meat and dairy products are. Then, I became a Seventh-day Adventist and I decided to try out God's original diet because I suffered with allergies and other abdominal health issues. After going dairy free for only one month, my stomach problems disappeared, my allergy problems were significantly reduced and I started to feel better because I also lost weight without really trying!

There are very tender and deeply rooted feelings involved in this issue, and nobody wants to insinuate that every rancher treats his/her animals badly, but the reality is there are people out there who do. And nobody wants to "condemn" those who choose to eat a certain way. But, if you'll check your history, there was a time in Rome when people used to eat and drink from lead plates, goblets, etc. and it was killing them and they didn't even know it. It takes time, sometimes, to make new important and life preserving discoveries...discoveries that will have a significant negative impact on the lifestyles of some people, but it doesn't mean that the data is false. My heart goes out to those who are not wanting to believe what I have found to be the truth. I didn't want to believe it, either, because I LOVED my dairy, and my family who's livelihoods depended on it...still do, but I skip the dairy most of the time, now, because it just makes too much sense.

It is not easy to completely change the way you've been cooking for your entire life, either. But, it was costing me and my family too much in health care. As far as the question about babies who are or are not breast-fed. Human babies were intended to drink human breast milk, not animal breast milk. That's the way God intended it. Others who don't breast feed I think, are missing a blessing and prehaps putting their babies at risk of not being as healthy as they could be, if they can't drink soy and shouldn't drink cow's milk.

However, there are times that we need to do even what might not be best because we have to. Everyone's circumstances are different, and everyone has the right to decide for themselves what is truth, or what is best for them. If I had nothing to eat but cheese, you can be sure I would eat it to survive...but I would pay a price; but, starving to death would be a greater price and totally unacceptable. Many choices in life are a trade-off. That's the great thing, most of us have the freedom to choose.

Cassie:
Honey is the reward for a lifetime of hard work by bees. It is their food that they have made. In order for us to consume honey, it means we must take food from bees. With all the substitues out there, such as agave nectar, it seems absurd to rob something from another being when it's not necessary.

Abigail:
It's unsurprising that someone who has strong links to the dairy industry from childhood and beyond should have such views. Cow's milk is designed specifically for calves, not humans, nor gerbils, cats, pigs or any other animal. Human milk is designed specifically for humans. It would be just as bizarre, and unnatural, for calves to consume human breast milk as it is for us to use cows milk. The only reason many people accept it as a part of normal daily life is because it has been normalised by the dairy industry and promoted by the government.

One last point... I have lived and worked on various farms and have been to agricultural college. Cows, along with most other farm animals, are not always well cared for. Dairy cows in particular are not well treated. Their calves are taken from them after just a few days and they are forced to carry over-filled udders day after day, month after month, for much of their lives. It is a natural instinct for a female mammal to care for her young and to mourn their absence. It is not natural for a lactating female to only have her milk emptied twice a day. Anyone here a mother? Ever have sore, engorged breasts? Had mastitis? Ever lose a child? Anyone who thinks farm animals have it good is deluding themselves.

Vicky:
It doesn?t surprise me that the editors answer to this person bounced! Of course someone who makes money from a dairy product is going to believe it necessary for health. However the science says otherwise and there is plenty of it. My family has lived next to a small dairy farm for some time now and I have at least one long holiday a year with them. I absolutely cannot stand the desperate bellow of mother cows after their calves have been removed; I have heard it go on for days. I have got to the point where part of me doesn?t? want a calf to be born on the farm because the sound is so distressing, but then whatever I am going though is nothing compared to the mother and calf. I am sure our commenter just doesn?t hear the bellowing anymore, they?re probably so sensitized to it they no longer notice it. On a visit last year I had to bury my head in a pillow to weep as I heard calves being loaded up and crying as they did so and all for a glass of milk ? NO THANKS. I now run vegan stalls to educate others.

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