To a certain extent, it is understandable why many people think that milk is good for them. ‘Mothers milk’ was indeed the first food that we ever received: the loving link and the road to our survival… I, like many can remember my Grandmother saying ‘How would you like a nice cup of milk?’ Again the association of milk with tender loving care. Many of us, such as myself can recall in infant schooldays that care of taxpayer’s money, the milk marketing boards were funded to give us free school milk. We were told that milk was good for you. This, no doubt planted the indoctrination into us for when we grew up…Milk drinking has been regarded as part of our culture.

-With this observation alone, no wonder its popularity has continued. Slick advertising and marketing has further added to the deception: The T.V commercials showing the beautiful people with athletic bodies holding up the white stuff to their lips... I heard some spokesman on a national radio station say that milk is highly nutritious. It’s funny that he just happened to be a director of a dairy company!  Hospitals promote and encourage it. Nutritionists have been known to give it the thumbs up. Where would you get your source of calcium to give you strong bones? They might say...

Having had all these experiences and so much information pumped into us you’d think that we should be having our own personal taker of the stuff in our back gardens. How would we ever manage without our regular supply?

However, having said all that, some people have wizened up. The demand for milk is not what it used to be. The truth of the matter is that milk is not good for you.

Here are my ten reasons why.

1. Milk’s nutritional value is severely reduced through the manufacturing processes of pasteurisation, homogenisation and sterilisation.

2. Milk is full of toxins such as hormones, antibiotics, chemicals, dead white blood cells and pus cells caused by animal treatment.

3. The above has been linked to a range of human illnesses such as heart disease, breast cancer, lymphoma cancer, type-1 diabetes, infections such as asthma, coughs, bowel irritations and allergies...

4. Milk causes a mucous build-up. When mucous forms a lining on the inside wall of the intestine it can harden. This makes it more difficult for food absorption.

5. Because cow’s milk is indeed bovine species specific it can affect a growing infant. When weaned off mother’s milk and on to cow’s milk, a whole range of possible illnesses such as those in point three may result and there are other affects. For example, an infant’s neurological development can be affected because cow’s milk is deficient in many essential fatty acids.

6.  Milk is not the good calcium source it is touted to be. Cows milk calcium is bound to a protein called casein, which makes it much coarser than human milk. This makes absorption that more difficult for cows milk. Also milk is phosphorus rich and this combines with calcium, preventing absorption.

7. Furthermore, the industrial processes in the manufacture of milk: pasteurisation, sterilisation, skimming and homogenisation… make the calcium ever coarser. 

8. Milk gives the body an acidic pH. The body’s normal pH is around 7.4. So, in order for the body to be this healthy slightly alkaline pH, it has to steal calcium away from what would have gone towards contributing to healthy bones and teeth. The stolen calcium is then used to neutralise the acid. 

9. Because of the above point evidence has shown from studies in countries or areas with varying milk intakes that a higher level of milk drinking causes a significant increase in osteoporosis. 

10. Like all dairy products milk is susceptible to microbial contamination. It has been known to involve bacteriological, viral and other parasitical infections.

-I hope this convinces milk drinkers to put a ‘No Milk Today’ sign on their doorstep!

 -Paul Phillips