If you’re looking to make a small change to your diet and a big change to the world, ditching dairy is one of the most effective (and easy!) options. Here are just a handful of reasons why this seemingly innocuous choice is one of the profound ways to change your world and the way you live in it.
Dairy is filled with hormones and antibiotics
The mass consumption and production of dairy make milk-producing cows particularly prone to stress and disease. Heightened stress in cows causes mastitis – inflammation of the udders – which hinders milk production. In order to combat this, cows are given synthetic hormones and antibiotics, such as the recombinant bovine growth hormone, to increase milk flow. These potentially harmful chemicals are commonly present in all non-organic milk that you and your children drink.
Dairy production might be the cruelest of all animal farming
Day-old calves are pulled from their mothers. While female calves are brutally slaughtered or kept in battery farms to produce milk, male calves are chained in tiny stalls, unable to move in order to be raised for tender veal. Once a cow’s milk production declines, they are commonly slaughtered at 5 to 6 years of age (though their normal life span exceeds 20 years).
Dumping dairy could prevent cancer
Numerous studies have shown a distinct correlation between dairy intake and several hormone-related cancers. Undeniable ties have been made between milk consumption and both ovarian and prostate cancers. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University and author of The China Study, says casein – the protein found in cow’s milk – is one of the most significant cancer promoters ever discovered.
You may be lactose intolerant
It has been suggested that almost 70% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. People who are intolerant to dairy’s lactose may display symptoms like nausea, bloating and stomach pain. This may seem like a bizarrely high percentage but the statistic is indicative of a pretty simple fact: Human breast milk is for humans, while cow’s milk is for cows.
