Milk Machos (Cow Milk)

Member Name: MALU

Product:	Cow Milk
Date:	11/09/06 (596 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tastes good, is healthy

Disadvantages: the majority of the world population can't drink it

Do you pour cow’s milk over your cereals, drink tea or coffee with milk, put whipped cream on your cheese cake and eat yoghurt, curd and cheese? If so, then I know that you’re a human being, if the amount of milk you drink daily surpasses one cup and you’re older than five years, then I know that you belong to the white race. How’s that?

The female ability to produce milk is one of the defining characteristics of mammals, humans, like other mammals, consume milk during their infancy, their own mother’s milk or the milk of another mammal of the same species. No rule without exceptions, though, I once noticed cross-species lactation in a zoological garden, a baby monkey was sucking at a mountain goat’s tits. Only human beings consume the milk of other species regularly, domesticated animals like cows, sheep, goats, yaks, water buffalo, horses and camels depending where in the world they live (I’ll stick to cow’s milk in the following text). But other than animals they also do this after the end of infancy or at least the members of the white race do.

Researchers believe that the first adult milk drinkers lived in the southern Ural mountains about 6000 years ago, a chance genetic mutation allowing also adult human beings to digest lactose, milk sugar, with the help of the enzyme lactase happened at that time, the gene then spread all over Europe with the peoples’ wanderings, it was of evolutionary advantage for the ones living in the cold north to be able to feed on milk even as adults.

The production of the enzyme lactase declines in non-white people normally after the age of five meaning that lactose tolerant adults are a small minority among the world’s population. Lactose intolerant adults (also members of the white race can have this characteristic) can drink about one cup of milk a day, more can lead to excess gas production or diarrhea. (Of course, there are also people completely allergic to milk no matter which race they belong to)

The ability to digest milk as an adult does not mean, however, that all white adults do so with pleasure, the consumption of milk depends also on cultural factors. In Germany one of the best known ad slogans is “Milch macht müde Männer munter” (~ Milk wakes tired men up), at the moment there’s campaign showing famous sports people with a glass of milk in their hands and the sentence “Milch ist meine Stärke (~ Milk is my fave thing/strength/power [the word has different meanings]). Can you imagine such a campaign in, say, Russia? Can you imagine the male hero in a Russian film drinking a glass of milk before going to bed as can be seen in some American movies?

Italians - men and women - associate milk with breakfast, *only* tourists drink cappuccino in the afternoon, Italians don’t, they drink pitch-black espresso! And I’ve never seen Italians spreading butter on a slice of bread, they use butter mainly as an alternative to sauce when eating pasta, it’s called ‘in bianco’ (in white), they eat pasta like that when they’re ill believing it will do them good. Yoghurt is now entering Italy slowly from the north southwards. We can conclude that with the exception of cheese dairy products are mainly an Anglo-Germanic thing.

What is milk at all? Simply put it’s *an emulsion of butterfat globules within a water-based fluid*, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are found within the milk fat portion of the milk, the carbohydrate lactose gives the milk its sweet taste and contributes about 40% of cow’s milk calories. In raw cow’s milk there are also white blood cells, mammary-gland cells, various bacteria and a large number of active enzymes.

I know some health-conscious people who think it best to get milk directly from a dairy farm, if they could, they’d drink straight from a cow’s udder. A vet told me, however, that pasteurization hasn’t been invented for nothing, it means that milk is heated for a short time killing harmful bacteria which can cause tuberculosis, salmonella, diphteria and polio. Pasteurized milk must be stored cold and be consumed quickly. Only if milk is heated at ultra-high temperature (UHT), it can be stored unrefrigerated.

Another process is homogenization, fresh milk has the tendency to separate into a high-fat cream layer on top of a larger, low-fat layer, with homogenized milk the layers don’t separate, the taste is creamier, the milk is whiter and more resistant to developing off flavours.

What about organic milk? You are what you eat, a recent research has proven that this is also true for cows. Cows eating fresh, juicy grass and especially red clover produce milk that has 68% more omega 3 fatty acids which have been linked to reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. It has been said that dairy products in general help prevent osteoporosis, but new studies suggest that the consumption of milk increases the risk of bone fractures, others see a correlation between too much milk and prostrate cancer, who to believe?

I’m a milk maid, I can’t see myself living in a country in which adults don’t drink milk or eat cheese. If I had to, I’d probably stalk women with prams and the moment they looked away, I’d snatch the infant’s bottle to get my daily dose!

Summary: a recommended drink for children and white adults