Nutritional benefits of cows milk

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Jim. You explained it very well. I agree with what you just said. Thanks for explaining it so well.

 

Kristina

 

In a message dated 1/18/05 5:48:33 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, writes:

Message: 8 Tue, 18 Jan 2005 15:15:18 -0500 (EST) Jim Sinclair <jisinclaRe: Re: Nutritional benefits of milkOn Thu, 13 Jan 2005, fraggle wrote:> i think i can make the argument that milk is NOT part of a healthy> diet...> just cuz someone drinks milk and is healthy, doesn't make milk a healthy> part of that dietTrue, as far as that goes. It does indicate that milk is not severelytoxic, in that it is possible to drink significant quantities of milk andstill be healthy, whereas it is not possible to drink similar quantitiesof cyanide and still be healthy. But the fact that many healthy peopledrink milk is not in itself evidence that milk is contributing anything totheir health. It could just be going in and through the body without doinganything at all.The evidence for non-human milk being potentially a part of a healthyhuman diet is in many many many years of human experience and nutritionresearch indicating that there *are* nutrients in cow or goat milk thathumans need, and that humans *are* capable of obtaining and using thosenutrients by drinking the milk.Is that the only way, or the best way for humans to obtain thosenutrients? I think not.Are there nutritional drawbacks that go along with the nutritionalbenefits of drinking other animals' milk? Yes.Do I drink it, or think other people ought to drink it? No.But intellectual honesty requires me to acknowledge that very manyhumans in very many places throughout very many years of human historyhave been drinking milk, and deriving significant parts of theirnutritional requirements from it, and suffering minimal ill effects totheir own health.I didn't become vegan because I thought milk was bad for me. I becamevegan because I thought my drinking milk was bad for cows.> there are some folks who eat big macs fer every meal, and seem perfectly> healthy..you want to say big macs are part of a healthy diet?For *every* meal? I'd question how healthy they really are, and how longthey'll stay that way. (Thinking about the "Supersize Me" movie--prettydramatic health effects in a pretty short time.) But can eating Big Macs*occasionally* be part of a healthy diet? I'd guess probably yes, as longas the person doesn't eat them--or equally fat- and cholesterol-loadedfoods--too often. Again, the unavoidable fact is that humans *can* makeuse of the protein in meat. Again, I do not believe that is the only wayor the best way to get protein, and I don't get my protein that way, and Idon't recommend that anyone else do it either. But, again, I have toacknowledge that humans throughout history--and even pre-history--haveused meat to obtain nutrients required for their health.> i've known folks who shot up heroin everyday..you would think *junkie*,> right?> but..they seemed fine, seemed healthy, kept a steady job, didnt steal,> didn't get *cotton flu* er anything like that> so, can we say heroin is part of a healthy lifestyle??No, but you are comparing apples and hang gliders. Humans evolved asomnivores, subsisting on vegetation, meat, and eggs even before they werehuman, and probably starting to make use of animal milk pretty quicklyafter they started domesticating cows, goats, and sheep. The fact thatdescendents of early herding peoples have developed the ability to digestlactose suggests that there was a considerable survival advantage forthose early herders who were able to drink milk. If that mutation did notconfer a survival advantage, then the incidence of the mutation would besimilar in all peoples from all parts of the world.Humans did not evolve using heroin or hang gliders. Humans are aninventive species and have learned to create many new things forrecreational purposes, including heroin and hang gliders. But I don't knowof any evidence that propensities for using heroin or for hang glidingconfer a survival advantage that gets passed on to the next generation.With some combination of caution and luck, it's possible for some peopleto engage in some amount of heroin use or hang gliding without apparentill effects in the short term. But if you do it often enough, andespecially if you start to get careless about it, it's likely to end up asurvival DISadvantage. Even if you happen to stay lucky all your life(like the occasional smoker who lives to be 100 in good health), I don'tthink there are any health needs that get met by heroin use or by hanggliding. At best, if you're careful and lucky, you have some chance ofgetting away with doing them and not coming to serious harm. That's notthe same thing as deriving health benefits from them.Humans have evolved with the capacity to obtain our required nutrientsfrom many different sources, including the milk of other animals. Now,being omnivores, and also having the ability to do technological thingslike synthesize vitamin B12, we are able to survive and be healthy*without* consuming milk or other animal products. But for humans it's achoice. We can create healthy diets both with and without milk, just as wecan create healthy diets both with and without apples.That's all I'm saying. We have a choice. That makes it an ethical matter,not a health requirement.Jim Sinclair jisincla