The Dairy Truth

It's long been the hailed as a miracle ingredient to help us get stronger and healthier, but today's milk may not be all that it is cracked up to be

We've all heard the common saying - drink milk or you won't have strong bones or teeth.

Every household has heard this piece of advice from elders at some point in their lives. I remember reading that if one doesn't consume milk or dairy, they will get osteroporosis later in life. Isn't it ironic then that most elderly people we know, even those who drank copious amounts of milk when younger, still suffer from conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis?

The truth is that it is not about your calcium intake, but whether this calcium is absorbed properly.

Let me put this in a simpler format: our bodies are alkaline, while milk and dairy are acid-yielding substances. This acid actually has the potential to leach the calcium from our bones - so instead of stocking up on calcium, the opposite might be happening.

Milk is a natural secretion of a cow. When their calves are taken away at birth, they release stress hormones which are passed on into the milk we drink. This can then disrupt our existing hormonal balance. And that isn't even counting the number of growth hormones and antibiotics that are pumped into these cows for industrial dairy farming. It's no wonder that, today, we are plagued with a number of health conditions that all seem to be on the rise. Obesity, PCOS, hypothyroidism, breast cancer, infertility and more are increasingly common as is hitting puberty early.

There was a time when we all benefited from drinking milk. But that was also a time when cows were allowed to roam free in greener pastures while eating organic hay and weren't artificially impregnated. The calf got enough milk and so did the household. But, today, there are countless documentaries on the truths of dairy farming which are quite alarming.

Keeping this in mind, here are some non-dairy calcium alternatives that are absorbed well by our bodies in case you want to consider weaning yourself off milk. A variety of these will be greatly beneficial to you:
1) Green beans
2) Spinach
3) Broccoli
4) Okra
5) Bok Choy
6) Chinese Cabbage
7) Kale
8) Tofu
9) Soy milk and other nut-based milks
10) Black strap molasses
11) Sesame seeds
12) Tahini
I leave you all with one observation to ponder over: Why don't we ever get that thick layer of cream of the surface of fresh milk upon boiling it these days?