Are English dairy cows fed a lot of hormones that could end up in their milk?

[Trowbridge10]

I'm just reading about additional hormones coming through to us from the meat & milk we consume. Do you think this is really happening & can it affect our health?

Not in the UK. And soya is not good for the environment.

@boltfromtheblueblue @ChocOrange1 it’s just weird! Clothes and shelter serve a purpose (and don’t most animals have some equivalent of a nest?). Drinking the milk of another animal doesn’t serve any purpose and may well be to our detriment. Drinking cow milk is as bizarre as drinking dolphin milk!

@Spanielsarepainless most soya is grown for animal consumption. Other alternatives are also available - oat milk is a good environmental choice.

it’s just weird! Clothes and shelter serve a purpose (and don’t most animals have some equivalent of a nest?). Drinking the milk of another animal doesn’t serve any purpose and may well be to our detriment

Chocolate doesn't serve much purpose. Or alcohol, or a billion other things we consume or do.
And cheese definitely serves a purpose. It makes life better.

Soya is renowned for having high oestrogen like chemicals that can impact young boys in particular if you drink too much - so it’s not the best alternative if it’s hormones you’re worried about

[quote PattyPan]@Spanielsarepainless most soya is grown for animal consumption. Other alternatives are also available - oat milk is a good environmental choice.[/quote]
Have you ever looked into the doings of Oatly?

@boltfromtheblueblue My life is great and I don’t eat cheese I know it’s addictive (literally, due to the casein) but I always feel a bit sorry for people who put so much importance on cheese (or chocolate/alcohol)

@derxa are you talking about Blackstone investing in them? Even if you hate all of the brands you can make your own oat milk really easily

@notalwaysalondoner that’s a myth - soya doesn’t have an impact on hormones

I think it's a wonder of adaptation that some humans are able to digest milk as adults. It was clearly a pivotal foodstuff for some of our ancestors.

No. Growth hormones are banned in the UK beef and dairy industry; so is the use of antibiotics to enhance growth.

Unlike the USA.

No it’s banned under EU regulations that will be adopted by the U.K.

As is excessive antibiotic usage unless an animal is ill.

There are naturally occurring hormones in dairy but none that have an affect on the human body.

"it is now well established that in the human body, isoflavones do not behave like the human hormone oestrogen"

From the british dietetic association

www.bda.uk.com/resource/soya-foods.html

All alpro brand product only use European grown soy and are fortified with calcium, so they're a great alternative to cows milk (though personally I prefer oat).

[quote PattyPan]@Spanielsarepainless most soya is grown for animal consumption. Other alternatives are also available - oat milk is a good environmental choice.[/quote]
Not true. Animals are fed the by-products of soya grown for human consumption actually.

That quote from the BDA was regarding the comment on soy being harmful for boys btw

It's pretty hard to 'eat local' in the U.K. if you don't eat dairy and/or meat, I'd have thought. A lot of our farmland is only suitable for grazing. Probably why Western Europeans evolved to be able to continue to digest lactose past infancy, I suppose.

@littlemisslozza a byproduct of producing soybean oil, not milk

I assumed the growth hormones etc would be denatured in the pasteurization process but admit I have never looked into it.

My view is - why drink the milk of another animal? Humans are the only species which do it
Do you apply that to cheese , yogurt etc as well as all made from milk
Infact many products have milk
Most other animals don't eat chocolate or drink tea either

Have a look at the production of soy milk (as per PP) and have a look at the contents of oat milk - how about drinking water?

My life is great and I don’t eat cheese confused I know it’s addictive (literally, due to the casein) but I always feel a bit sorry for people who put so much importance on cheese (or chocolate/alcohol)

There's no need to feel sorry for us, I assure you. If you don't enjoy some of the best substances life has to offer, that's ok, no need to patronise those of us who do.

To return to your original point, the "we are the only species to drink other mammals milk" is really very silly. There are far better arguments to use. None that will ever make me give up cheese, but still better.

Ha, I feel sorry for those that don’t have cheese and wine in their lives.

Each to their own.

Vegan cheese and wine suits me just fine.

@crumpet

I think that in the UK they are given something which vastly increases their milk yield - which must make for painfully full udders at the least.

This isn’t true. Cow are selectively bred however, so those with low yields won’t be bred from.

Modern dairies allow cows to be milked when they like instead of twice a day. It’s very high tech, they are tagged and machinery can check for a whole range of issues before they’d be apparent to humans.