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If we were meant to just drink breastmilk from our mothers as babies, then why do we drink the milk of other animals (Cows, Goats, etc) and use their milk in recipes? Why not just continue drinking breastmilk and use that in recipes instead? I drink cow's milk but it got me curious.
Because humans are parasites meant to consume everything on this planet one way or another.
Is this kingofcarrotflowers slipping in subliminal milk references again ?
That's actually a very interesting question, but I suppose if you wanted to drink a glass of milk, it would be hard to extract that from a person on a regular basis. It's harder for women to lactate when they don't have their own child (usually a problem when adopting babies or younger children.)
Also there's a question of ethics; there can't be a factory of women producing milk for cartons to be sold, but there can be a dairy for cows and goats that naturally produce large amounts of milk.
And I guess different milks taste different? I know the taste between goat milk and cow milk has a very distinct difference. So maybe breastmilk doesnt go well in recipes for cooking...
This is all just assumption, but very interesting question, OP.
EDIT: On your question of WHY we drink milk, it's very nutritious and stimulates growth, which is vital in young children.
I guess as time goes on, we don't really need that boost anymore. But it still is good for reinforcing bones to help prevent Osteogenesis imperfecta and other such disorders.
Yeah, but young children don't really need to drink cow or goat milk if they have breast milk for long enough in infancy.
I'ts interested me for a long time that societies without milk producing animals - eg the Australian Aboriginals - lived long healthy lives before white invasion - maybe because kids had breastmilk for quite a few years and they also walked around the country a lot.
Many Asian societies which have only recently begun to use dairy products also survived ok without animal milk.
A lot of the information given out about dairy products emanates from the dairy producers - not that I have anything against farmers, some of my best friends etc - but it's in their interests to have us believe we need dairy products to be healthy
I agree with this comment, but to add to it.
Drinking human milk can be incredibly dangerous.
Any communicable diseases that are person has will almost always be present in breast milk, and while this is true of animal milk as well, there are only a handful of diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, where as human to human transmission is a given.
Also, any substances (nicotine, alcohol, drugs, medications) ingested will be present in breast milk as well. Compared to animals, which are usually administered antibiotics and possibly hormones, humans, on average, ingest exponentially more medications...not to mention, cows don't chain smoke Marlboros and drink beers.
Also, in most countries, animal milk is treated with antibiotics and/or homogenized, and there are procedures to adjust that fat content to make milk more healthy. This can't be said for human milk. Not to mention that fact that it's unethical to put humans on antibiotics, just cause.
That's very true. Thanks for adding!
I guess the good thing about breastmilk for infants are the antibodies that are transmitted via feeding as well. This is called passive immunity. I never thought about it the other way round, with the mother being ill/ has bad habits that are detrimental to the child's health, and so that can be transferred via breastmilk. Very interesting!
I wasn't lobbying for anything. I was just stating simple scientific facts about why drinking human milk from an unknown source is dangerous. I am neither for or against animal milk; I'm perfectly happy with soy or almond milk...although...if you want to get nit picky, soy farming has done a great deal of irreparable damage to the environment in certain parts of the world.
Not true that cows and goats "naturally produce large amounts of milk": naturally they produce the right amount for their own progeny, but are bred and medically dosed to produce huge amounts of milk and in the process their lives are shortened.
Glad to be able to inform you and others!
I don't know much about the commercial goat milk industry, but I forgot to mention that in the dairy cow industry calves are taken away from their mothers soon after birth so that none of that wonderful milk gets "wasted" on calves, and it all can go to feed humans. The cows bellow and bellow for their calves for days, it's dreadful to hear. The calves are fed on artificially boosted formula and are then either killed for meat or if female, grown up to lead the same existence as their mothers. Some are raised in very confined conditions to produce veal.
Did any other Australians on this site, or maybe even people in other countries if any of our news gets there, notice that last week our very own Gina Reinhart, the richest woman in the world, is about to use her personal "charity", the Hope Foundation, to establish large dairy organisations to supply dairy based baby formula to China? Not very charitable to the cows and their calves or to the babies of China, whose mothers are presumably able to produce what is really "natural" for babies ........
Sometimes the mind just boggles and boggles and boggles ......
Its probably not necessary or even good to drink milk but we have been doing it for years in Western culture and its hard to stop.
I don't drink milk but I like some dairy products unfortunately sometimes when I eat dairy I get red itchy spots 1-3 days later. So, I generally avoid it unless I really want some ice cream or cheese.
it has something to do with the consumption of coffee and cereal I think.
It has to do with nutrients. Since humans can't digest grass, they used cows as a proxy to get the nutrients. The cow can break down the cellulose into nutrients, and pass it on to the milk.
OK missimformed morons, listen up.
A toddler's digestive system is designed to drink cow's milk because of it's unique health benifits. When we become grow older we are supposed to become lactose intollerant, however in Britain and Europe we had developed the dairy industry so our bodies addapted to lactose.
So in the modern world we can enjoy both the delicious taste and unique health benifits of cows milk.
If you are lactose intollerant you just have to drink UHT milk
Don't argue with me I am right.
Because it's tradition.
That's about it, really. We don't need dairy products, they've just become part of our culinary culture.
Yeah we can get calcium and protein from milk, but you can get plenty of calcium from dark green veg (kale, spinach), and protein from chicken and eggs (or for vegetarians, tofu and almonds).
Even though I consume milk, I think we'd all be better off if we consumed less of the dairy products available. Less land wasted on cows grazing, a reduction in greenhouse gases, fewer reactions to lactose intolerance... We'd probably all benefit from going vegetarian, too - but I'm not willing to take that step.
Here are some things I remember about Milk's history,
The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe. The genetic change that enabled early Europeans to drink milk without getting sick has been mapped to dairying farmers who lived around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe. Most adults worldwide do not produce the enzyme lactase and so are unable to digest the milk sugar lactose. However, most Europeans continue to produce lactase throughout their life, a characteristic known as lactase persistence. It is believed the consumption of Cow's Milk, specifically, started around the Dark/ Middle Ages. At the time major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society. They were: demographic collapse, political instabilities and religious upheavals. Not to mention a devastating series of famines and plagues, beginning with the Great Famine of 1315–17 and especially the Black Death of 1348. Lastly, milk can compensate for the lack of sunlight and synthesis of vitamin D in skin at more northern latitudes, since vitamin D is required for calcium absorption and milk provides a good dietary source of both nutrients. Milk provides a calorie- and protein-rich food source, comes in a relatively constant supply compared to the boom-and-bust of seasonal crops, and would have been less contaminated than water supplies. Truth is, "Naturally" only human babies could stomach Mother's breast milk and even then only for a few months. Back in the Dizz-ay, Lactase literally had to be "integrated" into the human gut due to a lack of consistent nutritional sustenance. That's roughly all I recall. . . . Ha. You have been knowledge-d!
Yr post looked very interesting but I don't think I'm the only one who just can't wade through such a long paragraph!
One statement which jumped out was about "naturally" human babies can only stomach breastmilk for a few months - that is just ridiculous! Continuing to breastfeed up to 4 or 5 or even 6 used to be common because if the child is demand fed this goes some way to prevent another pregnancy.
I do not believe milk itself would have been healthy centuries ago because of the lack of refrigeration, which is probably how cheese and yoghurt were discovered/invented.
I'm with you Kitty. When I was in boarding school in France, they served us coffee at breakfast with fresh, whole milk in it. The unhomogenized milk would curdle and big chunks would form; yuck!
I swore when I got out of that school, I'd never drink milk again. One the other hand we did get wine (watered down) at lunch and dinner, so it wasn't all bad.
When I was farming years ago we milked our own jersey cows and the first time I drank unpasteurised unhomogenized milk warm, virtually straight from the cow, I loved it and I still miss it!
I'm not denying pasteurisation has saved lives when milk is produced in huge quantities for commercial consumption but our cows were healthy and so were we.
I grew up on unhomogenized milk in bottles with the cream at the top and milk has never been the same since they started mixing the cream through the milk so I can't taste it.
I don't drink much milk now and never at home since I switched to soymilk at menopause, but if I had access to natural milk I'd probably drink it occasionally
Gross is right. Nope, no milk from the day I left that school. My mom hated it because she couldn't just give me cereal at breakfast. I still won't eat a dish (like mac & cheese if I know it has milk in it, but ice cream (very cold & hard) and cheese are OK. But no milk, cream, buttermilk (yuck, yuck, yuck), cottage cheese; no way.
It was France; wine in school. I won a bottle at a fair when I was like 7 and my dad and I sat on a bench and drank some together, in public. Things are different in other places.
Can't argue with that :)
A lot of people don't like milk.
Can't stand the taste, smell or texture.
yas, it tastes so bad and my stomach feels weird after I drink it, I've actually puked a few times after drinking it when I was younger
I know the feel.
I puke or get extremely nauseous after drinking it on account of the lactose intolerance. So whenever I do have something with milk in it I just get absolutely disgusted.
Which is strange, considering I used to drink a lot of milk when I was younger, as children usually need milk in infancy.