Why we Are Getting Sick From Consuming Dairy Products

In my personal opinion, which happens to also be the opinion of many well-respected health experts, it is only this young calf (pictured left),who should be consuming cows milk.  After all do we humans have a four-chambered stomach and chew the cud like our bovine friends? This is a major reason as to why we are getting sick from consuming dairy products.

Western medical experts are now starting to agree with alternative health practitioners about the health hazards of consuming dairy products.

Illnesses Linked To Dairy Consumption

Cows milk is actually very unhealthy for us and can potentially cause, and the list it long;

• iron deficiency/anemia,
• allergies,
• diarrhea,
• heart disease,
• colic,
• cramps,
• gastrointestinal bleeding,
• sinusitis,
• skin rashes,
• acne,
• increased frequency of colds and flus,
• arthritis,
• diabetes,
• ear infections,
• osteoporosis,
• asthma,
• autoimmune diseases and more!

• Dairy consumption may also be linked to lung cancer, multiple sclerosis and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  Not great news for those of you who love your dairy products.

Lactose Intolerance, Anything But Comfortable!

Does drinking cows milk or consuming other dairy products make you feel nauseous, bloated, gassy and often send you running for the loo?  If you answered yes, then there is a good chance you are actually suffering from Lactose Intolerance and these unpleasant symptoms are due to your body  negatively reacting to the lactose present in cows milk and the various products made from cows milk.

Lactose Intolerance along with other food intolerances, affect millions of people around the world.

While I was growing up back in the 70’s, our  parents would tell us to finish our milk so that we can grow up to be big and strong! If only they new back then what we knew now – that milk, meaning cows milk, is just not compatible with the human digestive system, but it takes a lot of work for our bodies to be able to process the stuff!

I know that growing up my sister and I used to get physically nauseous after our glass of morning cows milk!  The human body is pretty good at letting us know if something isn’t compatible with it.

Cows Milk Causing Anemia

Babies who predominately consume cows milk are often diagnosed with anemia, this is because cows milk actually stops the body absorbing iron from other iron rich foods,  plus cows milk can also cause the intestines to loose blood read the facts in this report by Medicine Plus for the National Institutes of Health.

Here is also another medical report from Pub Med On Cows Milks and Anemia in Infants.

Frank Oski, M.D., author of Don’t Drink Your Milk! was the Director of the Department of Pediatrics of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, gives a very convincing and powerful argument about why dairy is just so unhealthy and especially for babies and children.  This article here about how unhealthy milk drinking is breaks down into lay-mans terms Dr Oski’s report

Here is another article from the prestigious Harvard University about Calcium and where we should be getting it from and milk is definitely not high up on their list as a good Calcium source.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Dairy Products do Not Promote Bone Health.

Here is another interesting article NOT MILK by Dr. Kradjian, that goes into an in-depth explanation about how milk affects the human body.

Dairy Factory Farms What You Need To Know

So you now know that cows milk is not the healthy white drink the Dairy Industry would have you believe it is,  but do you know much about the Dairy Factory Farming problem?

The Dairy Factory Farming business, is a less than ethical, multi-billion dollar industry, that over-stimulate, over milk, over impregnate and over medicate their dairy cows. These practices are extremely inhumane and causes the lactating cows a lot of stress, pain and disease; e.g infection, mastitis, tumors etc.

Only a cow that has recently gone through a pregnancy will lactate (produce milk).  This then means that there are countless helpless, newborn calves being torn from their mothers side and their mothers milk (which was designed by nature for them only), so that we humans can have both the milk and the meat! The sound of wailing a mother cow makes when her newborn is torn away from her side, is heart-wrenching.

These now motherless calves, are either fattened up quickly, under terrible conditions, to provide humans with veal, or alternatively they are kept alive so that they can grow up and produce more dairy and meat for us.

To find our more read read the Dairy Cows Fact Sheet from Animals Australia .

Pus Cells In Our Milk

The unpalatable fact is that we are usually drinking plenty of pus cells also when we choose to drink the milk that comes from these Factory Farmed Dairy Cows. Read this report How Many Pus Cells Are In Your Milk by Food Matters.

Also read the in-depth and factual report published by The  Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation aptly named, White Lies.  This is the report that celebrity vegetarian, Heather Mills, (Paul McCartney’s ex) has been  passionately advocating, as it proves just how sabotaging cows milk is to our health.

Here is an extract from White Lies – Mastitis may be referred to as sub-clinical (no symptoms) or clinical whereby symptoms include swelling, pain, hardness, milk clots or discoloured milk. The cow responds to the infection by generating white blood cells (somatic cells) which migrate to the affected area in an effort to combat the infection. These cells, along with cellular debris and necrotic (dead) tissue, are a component of pus and are excreted into the milk.  The number of somatic cells in the milk (the somatic cell count) provides an indication of the level of infection present. The somatic cell count usually forms part of a payment structure to farmers with defined thresholds of concentration determining the qualification for bonus payments or penalty charges (Berry et al., 2003). In the European Union the somatic cell limit is a maximum of 400,000 cells per ml in bulk milk (Dairy Products (Hygiene) Regulations, 1995). This means that milk containing 400 million pus cells per litre can be sold legally for human consumption. So one teaspoonful of milk could contain up to two million pus cells! It could be even worse, as concerns have been raised about the efficiency of cell counting techniques (Berry et al., 2003).

Calcium Alternatives To Cows Milk

I can already hear you all saying, but where do we get our Calcium from?  Don’t worry, we humans can get all the Calcium we need from the following foods and as opposed to dairy milk, they won’t leach iron from your body.

Here is a list of foods and drinks that contain Calcium. For extra health benefits and safety, be sure to pick organic varieties of the following.

Calcium Rich Non-Dairy Food List

• Non-Dairy Milk Alternatives – Calcium Fortified Soy, Oat, Rice, Hemp and Quinoa Milks, Yoghurts and Cheeses

• Seeds – Hemp Seeds,  Chia Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Tahini which is made from Sesame Seeds, Whole Flax-seed not the oil or Milled Flax-seed

• Chocolate – Raw Cacao the basis of all chocolate in its pure form

• Vegetables – Beans and Pulses, Soy Beans, Soy Nuts, Broccoli, Kale, Tofu, Mustard Greens, Tempeh, Mustard Greens, Okra

• Fruit and Nuts – Dried Figs and Brazil Nuts, which are very high in Calcium, Almonds and Almond Butter

• Seaweed – Kelp (make sure not harvested from the oceans around Japan or the Pacific Ocean between Japan and the West Coast of the USA). I trust Power Super Food Seaweed Products.

• Black Strap Molasses is one of the highest sources of non-dairy Calcium around.

Here is a breakdown of the amount of calcium per serve of the above foods.

About.com has a is a great guide to dairy-free, high Calcium cooking.

Some more good information on foods that contain Calcium:

Hemp Seed Health Benefits & Hemp Milk Recipe

Chia Seeds Health Benefits

Raw Cacao Health Benefits- Healthy Chocolate

Check out my selection of healthy, dairy-free, vegan recipes here.

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Also some of my other articles you may find interesting are:

Eating Meat The Unhealthy Truth

How To Live A Cruelty Free Lifestyle Checklist

Animal Testing Do Your Part To Stop It