There are a lot of controversies surrounding milk. First we used to have just two classifications of people depending on food habits - veg & non-veg. But now we also have vegans, eggitarians etc. Not having milk or dairy products comes under the vegan diet. Since I have never come across anyone who encourages you not to have milk & dairy, this course (Nutrition Re-education by Dr Vijaya Venkat) came as a surprise, and a pleasant one (since i never really liked milk)!!
Well, they say that:
Well, they say that:
- Milk is not a perfect food, it lacks Vitamin C, fibre and iron
- It is an animal product just like eggs, chicken & meat
- The enzyme renin which helps to digest milk is present only in children upto 3-4 yrs age. The only milk humans can digest is their own
- Milk combines poorly with all foods. On reaching the stomach, it coagulates to form curds. The curds gathers around other food particles in the stomach preventing gastric juices from digesting them. The results are gas, constipation, etc.
- Dairy products actually increase calcium loss from the body due to its acidic nature
- Environmental contaminants like pesticides are concentrated in milk. It also contains hormones and antibiotics fed to the cows for higher production
- Moreover, we are the only species that consumes milk even after we are weaned
- We are also taking away from the new born calves their mother's milk when they are allowed to suckle only for the first 3 days
- Today milk is very much a processed product (tamasic by yogic definition). It is pasteurized, homogenized, sterilized. All this impairs its value.
These and a host of other reasons for going off dairy.
We at our level can make judgement & take a call for ourselves.
10 comments:
Never knew all this information about milk. Like most people, I thought it can only give positive results.thanks
Nice work Salomi. I liked the pictures. Yes, I like the different take on milk too... I think the problem for many of us is that we are so moralistic about the food we take! ( I am a veggie too) that it can come as a surprise that vegetarian food like milk can also be cruel, by denying a calf its due!! An eye-opener...
ya, but naturopathy considers only vegan diet as vegetarian. but everyone to their own i feel.
Hey Salomi,
Congratulations on the website. You are doing a great job by making people aware on certain health issues. I think not only in terms of religious beliefs but also for health reasons the consumption of milk should be curtailed. I would suggest buttermilk or curd as a better option. What do you think?
kunal, buttermilk & curd are also made from milk. but the point is in just being aware of what u r eating & why? i m soon going to blog about nutrition, healthy substitutes etc in detail. thanks
1.Tradition requires that only after the calf is adequately fed, the left over milk be used for human consumption, although human greed has taken over. It is said that the cow gives extra milk for man out of her love for humanity(I cannot prove it scientifically tho :-) ), but man taken all/most of it - the intelligent(?) creature that he is.
2. Many ayurvedic medicines(for curing and the convalescent) have been suggested to be taken with milk(on empty stomach).
3. All produce from the cow has been described to be of immense value - ghee(tonic form the brain)urine(anti-carcinogenic, acidity...), gober(purifies air, anti-radiation..)..etc.
Is it then that all these benefits would be realized if cattle are reared in a natural, non-greedy manner..?
This leads to thinking that the modern day rearing methods viz., high-yielding varieties(for differences between Desi and hi-gh yielding see here http://ramachandrapuramath.org/Projects/English/kamadudghaeng.htm), hormonal injection, cruelty at milching and most important from ecological and the cow's physiological point of view - pesticides(as earlier pointed),vanishing of forests and grazelands(to produce milk full of herbs & nutrients)...etc, would accrue to us the benefits milk has long been reverred.
Just a random thought on these lines.Could the commercialization of the age be a limiting factor for milk ?
yes Joy, i think you have taken a very good view of the whole MILK scenario and the debate still continues. what i feel here is that man is the only animal which is drinking the milk of another animal. should i call it intelligence or going away-from-the-natural-instinct-of-living i m not sure. because not only in this but human civilization has moved far far away from the natural rhythms and is affecting all the living species in this world. the science of food combining also plays a role here which says milk if to be had should be had alone / plain, ie without any accompaniments. well much said but i guess we can take a mid way.
Science author Carl Sagan wrote in his book Cosmos that there exist two kinds of evolution - evolution by natural selection and that by artificial selection.
Artificial selection is something by which predominantly the human species contribute towards the development of certain kinds of species with certain kind of attributes.
Domesticated cow, domesticated dogs are results of such kind of artificial selection. As a result, domesticated cow produces much more milk than can be consumed by one calf or three calves. Hence the theory that human beings deprive of rightful owner in order to consume milk might not be entirely true. :).
thanks for telling me this. i was entirely unaware of the theory of two kinds of evolution. yes i agree it might be true & if it is, i am relieved. i will surely go thru this book.
all these info 's great!!
Post a Comment