The truth about MILK

A few years ago I bought and read a popular book called "Skinny Bitch" "a no-nonsense, tough love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and look fabulous". I love this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who 1. Isn't offended easily and 2. Wants to get health smart and skinny.

As we have been unpacking I found this book and started reading it again. What a great reminder of things that I have forgotten! Granted, this book is a tad extreme for me. One chapter encourages you to be a vegetarian, and I have to skip this-because their reasoning is so right, but I just know that's not something I could do!! Maybe one day I can work into that. For now I have to take babysteps, or I'll fail miserably!

Today I wanted to post on a specific chapter I read last night that I think is information everyone should know. Milk does a body good. True or false?

You see the ads in every magazine and the commercials on tv. We have all been ingrained to know that milk is healthy, we all need milk! Isn't it amazing how much we read and believe without any studying or research? I know I do this all the time. Well take a seat because you might be shocked when I tell you that the answer is...FALSE!

Think about this: when we have babies, we breastfeed them until they are a certain age. And then we stop, right? And that goes for cows and all other mammals on earth. They produce milk only when they give birth, they feed their young, and then they stop. In the book they address the fact that we are the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species. Why? Because the multi-million dollar dairy industry has convinced us that we need milk to have strong bones.

If you actually look at statistics, Yale researchers found that countries with the highest dairy and meat intakes also suffer the highest amount of osteoporosis rates. What?! I had never once doubted the ads that tell me milk makes strong bones. I have always pushed myself to drink more milk, even though I've never loved the stuff. (Until I got prego, imagine that...) I just "knew" that if I didn't drink my 2 glasses of milk everyday my bones would be brittle and break. Everyone knows that, right??

The truth is, we can get adequate calcium from leafy greens, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and beans. And another plus? All these foods come without the steroids, hormones and antibiotics found in dairy. This is something I've been a huge fanatic on lately. Watch the documentary "Food Inc.", you will seriously die. All of the hormones and steroids that are being pumped into the animals we eat via meat and dairy, it's disgusting. It will totally give you a new perspective on watching what you eat!

Farmers pump their cows up with tons of steroids and hormones so that they will produce much more milk then they are designed to produce. Do you think that farmers in this business milk their cows every morning by hand, just like a movie? No way-they hook their animals up to machines that pumps the milk all day long. Their udders get swollen and infected from the machines, but do they stop pumping? No way! (Infection=puss and open sores. Yummy.) Sure they pasteurize the stuff, but that just adds to the fact because pasteurization kills all the enzymes and natural antibiotics that would make our bones healthy in the first place!

Have you ever tried Soy Milk? When I was single I bought soy milk because I could drink it in the mornings before the gym and I wouldn't get side aches. I remember the first time I tried it and I was so worried it would be disgusting, but I loved the stuff!

If you eat a lot of cereal, like me, try soy milk instead of regular milk. Then try cutting milk out of your diet-no more drinking the stuff! Eat your veggies, nuts and beans. No calcium pills, no milk. And try to get the "milk=healthy bones" out of your mind, because it's just not true.

If you are interested, I recommend picking up a copy of the book and reading it. If you aren't, stay tuned and I will post more from the book on my blog!