Is cow's milk good for us or not? (Cow Milk)

Member Name: lellagrace

Product:	Cow Milk
Date:	02/09/06 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Generations have been brought up on the stuff

Disadvantages: Modern research questions the health benefits

Cows' milk is obtained from the mammary glands of female cows, nature’s way of providing nourishment for their calves. The milk is produced when the cow has become pregnant and given birth to its calf.

Nowadays a dairy cow will produce approximately ten times as much milk as is required for her calf, producing anything up to 50 litres of milk each day. In order to do this the cow is kept in a cycle of pregnancy/calving.

There are arguments as to whether it is a good idea or not. Keeping the cows in lactation, even in organic dairy farming, just to produce milk for the human food chain is a debatable point.

As humans, we are the only species to drink the milk of another animal. The consumption of milk was not as popular before the mid 19th century, when pasteurisation was discovered and it is still advised that we do not drink unpasteurised milk.

Although, I would argue, that anyone who has ever seen a cow milked in the old fashioned way, handmilked, the milk squirting into a bucket would not necessarily agree with this. A glass of warm milk, straight from the cow, cannot be compared to anything else. Is it dangerous to health? Well, perhaps nowadays we would say it is, but I would like to bet generations of farmers and their families thrived on drinking milk straight from their own cow.

Arguments FOR and AGAINST


There are many arguments for and against drinking cow’s milk. There is no doubt that cow’s milk is full of calcium, which promotes healthy bone growth. It also contains vitamins B12 and riboflavin.

In a report out a few years ago, researchers believed that lives lost each year though bleeding ulcers, caused by common drugs such as aspirin, could be prevented by the milk supplement colostrums. But this has been argued not to be the case.

In addition, it has been argued that cow’s milk can trigger allergies, including lactose intolerance, and increase the chances of heart disease and osteporosis.

Scientific studies have also shown milk can cause diabetes, especially in children who have been drinking cow’s milk since they were very young.

Other studies argue that drinking cow’s milk can cause, or prevent, different kinds of cancers.

For the generations of us who were brought up on cow’s milk, this research may raise concerns. After all, the government provided free milk for all schoolchildren until several years ago, in the belief that it promoted good health.

Yet there are others, even Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who believe in a milk-exclusion diet for curing ailments such as diarrhoea, skin complaints and painful joints. Indeed anyone who has suffered from a nasty stomach bug may have been advised by their doctor not to take any milk products until the complaint is better. And for children suffering with infantile eczema cow's milk has been found to aggravate the condition.

Personally, I feel we should look at all the research available and then make up our own minds.

Some people may choose not to drink milk because of their views on how it is produced, cows being kept in a constant state of lactation is not ideal.

Others may prefer to moderate their intake of dairy products purely for the health benefits which have been proven. Semi skimmed milk is better for us than full cream milk, for example, but to those of us who have had the occasional treat of a drink of full cream milk from a Jersey cow, is there any harm in this?

Perhaps we should take note of the old saying “everything in moderation”.

Summary: Everything in moderation