Would you let your children drink chemicals that have been shown to increase their risk for cancer? How about just once in a while? How about 3 times a day?
Non organic-milk producing cows in the USA are given an artificial hormone that has been banned in other countries and by the World Health Organization because it ends up in the milk that our kids drink and increases their risk of cancer.
Mayhem: needless or willful damage or violence
I think this sums up what is being done to the milk in this country. Many of us grew up drinking 3 or more large glasses of milk a day. We were taught it was good for us, in fact so good that we were not allowed to leave the table until we had at least finished our milk. This video more than calls into question that outdated idea.
Although today many people find they are sensitive to the sugars and proteins in milk and don't drink it, many still do. We started drinking less milk at our house and we changed over to organic milk, butter and sometimes cheese, as the news reports of the unnatural hormones added to milk and their damaging effects seeped into our consciousness.
Ask Your Physician
My husband actually took the lead on this. In the course of his practice, he recommends that teens suffering with acne not drink milk because it has high levels of natural hormones which can negatively effect the already rapidly changing hormone profile of a teenager and aggravate acne. (It is from a mammary gland after all.) The hormone levels of milk sold today have even higher levels of unnatural hormones, genetically engineered hormones called rBGH that the companies who sell you the milk don't have to label it. This really is an outrage.
This to me is a dark subject, but an important one. I usually reserve my video portion to show case videos from Studio4kids.tv and on several occasions as I did the last several months from Studio4Learning.tv I think these are bright spots in parenting information. But I refuse to shy away from such an important issue as our milk supply. It effects all children and adults who drink it.
But Doesn't "Milk Do A Body Good?"
If you cannot afford organic milk, and lots of families can't, you might be interested in knowing that there is great disagreement about how good for a body milk really is anyway. It's looking more and more as if the marketing of milk is really more important than the drinking of milk. Certainly many cultures around the world do fine without it.
If milk were such a good source of calcium why do we see ever increasing rates of osteoporosis among women and men? 1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men, as of 2005. And just the other day I heard that the statistic for osteoporosis in men was 1 in 4! In 1983 it was 1 in 7 women and virtually unheard of in men. These people grew up drinking milk 3or 4 times a day and that was the milk without hormones added. Obviously there is more to healthy bones than drinking milk.
The biggest offering toward bone building in milk is calcium and Vitamin D.( which is a supplement and found in the form of D2, a less desirable form). Milk contains no magnesium and magnesium is the second most prevalent mineral needed.
Building bone is like baking a cake: it takes more ingredients than just flour. That may be the largest ingredient, but flour alone does not a cake make. Nor can you make bone with just calcium. It also takes magnesium, boron, vitamin K, vitamin D, & phosphorous. It also take the right hormone combinations at the right time. ( and to be honest, probably other things that have yet to be identified) Many people in this country are deficient in magnesium and vitamin D3. If you are missing some of the necessary elements to build bone, either bone won't be built fast enough or it won't be built properly. That's why the doctor looks at bone density. Experimenting on our children with artificial hormones is a risk I am not willing to take.
Other Options for Strong Bones
Other sources of calcium are fortified foods such as bread & orange juice. I like serving the orange juice fortified with calcium because the citric acid helps with the bio-availability of the calcium. Almonds, greens of all sorts, salmon, soy grains like quinoa & chia are also good sources of calcium. And supplements. Make sure your supplements have a good mix of the things I mentioned.
A ratio of calcium to magnesium should be a minimum of 2:1 some sources think we should have even more magnesium than that.
One more immediate reason you may not want your kids drinking milk, besides the risk of cancer ( if that isn't enough): it can be the culprit and aggravating factor behind many earaches. As it turns out many children are sensitive to milk and milk products. The proteins and sugars can cause inflammation in some people which causes fluid to build up behind the eardrum and like stagnant water becomes a setup for infection. If your child suffers from multiple earache consider a food allergy or sensitivity. Wheat and milk are often the most likely culprits.
If you must give them milk opt for organic. And don't forget about organic yogurts, cheese, butter, and ice cream or at least diary products that don't use the r-BHG. These concentrated sources of milk also concentrate the hormones in milk making them as big or bigger of a problem if you use a lot of them to get milk into your child.
So you can stop worrying about whether your child is drinking enough milk, and start worrying about what sort of franken-chemicals are in the milk you are giving your child.
The hormone that Monsanto has been adding to the milk rBGH has been banned by Europe & Canada. There is a growing list of physician organizations, concerned parents, schools, hospitals who are alarmed at this nation wide hazardous experiment.
Make your dollars count. Don't by conventional milk and ask your school not to serve it either. If your school is uncooperative, as I have found they can often be, (see my lice article) educate your child not to drink the school's milk or send them to school with their own drink.
Moms, you are the gate keeper to your family's health.
In a world of large corporations with lots of money-- children, health and safety often get the short end of the stick. Vote with your dollars We are making a difference.
To your health & your child's,
Barb