Weaning from Cheese - Sisupygmies in July 2006 Roll Call

[Guest guest]

I stopped eating meat 33 years ago, and it was also " cold turkey, "

and then I stopped doing eggs and dairy 24 years ago, which was also

cold turkey, but the hardest two things to give up were both dairy

items I got from the Food Bag Co-op in Tacoma (the co-op no longer

exists): A rennetless raw goat milk cheese, that was good melted in

a simple brothy vegetable soup, and a raw freshly milked cream, that

so sweet that it was perfect on organic berries without any

additional sugar. Both farms were operated in an idealistic manner

and took good care of their animals - at least until the inevitable

culling (which is also something that happens in free range egg

production).

 

The attachment to dairy can be very literally an addiction. All

mammalian milk contains some form of casein, and mammalian babies

turn this into casomorphin (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casomorphin). I've seen raccoon mommas

get very brutally harsh with their brood when it's weaning time, but

the youngsters are still desperately trying to pap.

 

All us vegans are proof - as are all the other mammals that stop

doing dairy - that the casomorphin addiction can be broken. It just

takes a will and reinforcing your self in positive ways. Once your

addiction is broken, you'll lose the taste for dairy - it can even

make you sick.

 

The greatest temptation to give in is often when friends or family

offer you something with dairy. Unless it's organic dairy, there is

one repulsion you might use to help you resist the temptation: The

pus. Here in Ashland, Oregon, there was an expert in the dairy

industry - a vegan in his latter days - named Virgil Hulse. He had a

book out titled, " Mad Cows and Milk Gate, " and was an expert medical

advisor to Howard Lyman and Oprah when they were getting sued by

those Texan cattle fascists. In a talk at the Southern Oregon

EarthSave potluck in December 1998 (and he died that following

November from cancer which he attributed to his consumption of dairy

products earlier in his life), he said, " typical milk in a typical

store can be as much as a quarter pus. " In his talk and in his book

he made clear that this pus is not just an icky thing, it's also

very dangerous. His book makes clear that thousands of people die

every year from diseases conveyed by this pus. The bovine leukemia

virus (BLV) - a retro virus like HIV and the bovine equivalent, BIV -

has been tied to childhood leukemia, a top disease killer of

children which has mushroomed in the US as BLV spread to infecting

80% of dairy herds in America, and BLV is conveyed via the pus in

the milk.

 

Cheese is often made with unpasteurized milk, and merely

concentrates the solids - and this means that any pus in the milk is

also concentrated. So cheese can be worse than other forms of dairy.

 

Organic dairies which truly take care of the bovines (some

large " organic " dairies are being criticized for not being so nice)

have way less of a problem with pus in the milk...

 

(This time of year, when the weather can get quite hot, but the

watermelon is cheap, a big hunk of chilled watermelon can be my

whole meal.... And I'm posting from a park....)

 

Peace and love,

Tom

 

 

, " sisupygmies "

<sisupygmies wrote:

>

> Not a newbie but wanted to answer the roll call anyway.

>

> > 1. What is your name?

>

> sisu

>

> > 2. Where are you posting from?

>

> my basement

>

> > 3. Are you a vegetarian, and if so, how do you

> > choose to label your path, if at all?

>

> Been a vegetarian almost 20 years, went 'cold turkey'.

>

> Have been on a vegan diet for 8 days. My cousin and I went vegan

at the same time to support each other. We both have the goal to

stay vegan as long as we can but have planned to add (local free

range) eggs back into our diets at some point. I hope

this 'dabbling' into veganism will allow me to forever eliminate

cheese.

>

> Any words of encouragement from vegans?

>