To be considering ditching cows milk?

[incognitomum]

I've been hearing so many bad things about it lately and after drinking it, mainly in hot drinks, I'm thinking of giving it up.

Stories of pus in the milk has put me off. Plus the whole way the dairy industry is.

I need to find a decent alternative for coffee though as struggle taking it without milk.

Oat milk was the one for me.
Definitely the closest in taste.
Depends on taste.
Most are about £1 a litre on asda, buy one of each and see what works best for you.
I've tried almond, soya, oat and coconut, oat won the taste test, but my husband likes them all.

We've ditched it. Changed to oatly barista for hot drinks and plain oatly for everything else. We made the change for health and environmental reasons, bit actually prefer the oat milk taste over dairy. Just don't switch to almond milk or soya due to environmental reasons.

Oatly barista is the best. If you like a creamy milk then this would be the one!

What’s wrong with Almond milk henny?

@Jilted the farming procedures used to grow them are contributing to deforestation. I assume that’s what’s being referred to. May be more I don’t know.

I drink oat milk. Cows milk now makes me ill

I think almond milk is bad for the environment as huge swathes of rainforest have been cleared to grow almonds?

I like coconut milk. Plus the longlife stuff tastes the same so you never have a problem of running out.
Almond milk uses up a huge amount of energy and nuts to make a tiny amount of milk.

Almond splits in tea.

If you are going dairy free then you will need to make sure you are getting enough vitamin D, calcium and iodine.

Are you just giving up milk or going going completely dairy free? Milk is added to lots of products.

Ah I did not know that. I can’t have cow’s milk at all and almond is the one I prefer. Will try oat milk again now I know that.

Milk is added to lots of products. virtually bloody everything...

There is no pus in milk, it's quite simply not allowed. Red Tractor quality standards are incredibly high in the UK. Every single batch of milk is tested before it leaves the farm, any milk not meeting quality standards would be dumped, never mind the fact the farmer would heavily fined by their milk buyer. Most non milk alternatives are bad for the environment due to the amount of water used in their production, air miles and packaging.

I reckon the tastiest and most environmentally friendly way to enjoy your breakfast shreadies is to find a local supplier that provides non homogenised milk in glass bottles, organic if you can get it. Your milk will be 4% butterfat, 3% protein, 4.2% lactose and the rest is water. Enjoy!

In the UK, as you can only buy fresh milk from UK dairy farms, zero rainforests will have been ‘chopped down’ for the milk to be produced. Almonds however contribute significantly to global warming as they are grown in parts of the world (California for example) where they experience regular water shortages and droughts, and water is directed to grow them unnaturally.

regarding the ‘pus’ comment, if a cow gets mastitis (because like all animals, including humans! occasionally they may get ill), the cow will be removed from the herd and cared for separately- this is part of the farm assurance scheme that UK farmers HAVE to sign up to in order to sell their milk- the red tractor logo on the carton tells you this.

Our farmers work incredibly hard and work to incredibly strict assurance schemes and rules in the UK- this is NOT the same in other parts of the world so please don’t stop consuming UK food because you question its production practices only to start consuming plant based products that have decimated other parts of the world and have a much bigger cost to the environment and society.

I gave up years ago. There are so many links to health issues that I don’t think it’s worth it for us.
When we gave up, ds and dds eczema cleared up and my adult acne cleared up. My dn’s wheeziness at night calmed down after he stopped having milk too.

I feel similarly so have been drinking Oatly instead. Now feel a bit icky about cows milk. Changed because I can’t deal with calves being taken away immediately from their mums, it’s horrible. Anyway, I don’t miss cows milk at all.

I reckon the tastiest and most environmentally friendly way to enjoy your breakfast shreadies is to find a local supplier that provides non homogenised milk in glass bottles, organic if you can get it. Your milk will be 4% butterfat, 3% protein, 4.2% lactose and the rest is water. Enjoy!

This is what I get for my family

I understand you might have more reasons for giving up dairy but I just want to clear up the pus issue. There is not pus in milk.

Pus is dead white blood cells, dead skins and bacteria - like you sometimes get on a wound.

One of the many measures of the quality of milk is somatic cells, which occur in all milk. Higher levels of somatic cells indicate that the cow is fighting an infection, and when that happens, she is treated and her milk is not sold for human consumption.

The other tests include the levels of butterfat and protein, and the bactoscan which makes sure the milking equipment and refrigeration is all working, and most importantly the antibiotic test which ensures that if milk from a treated cow accidentally ends up in the tank, the milk will be discarded. There are severe penalties for the farmer if this ever happens.

If there is anything else I can answer about the dairy industry as a whole please ask.

Oatly barista. Only thing that goes with
Coffee for me

This is a useful article for understanding more about the different milks www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/28/what-plant-milk-should-i-drink-almond-killing-bees-aoe

I don’t eat any dairy, I don’t really use milk substitutes unless I really have to, such as pancake batter. When I do I use oat milk as it’s the milk with the lowest environmental impact.

A friend of mine makes her own oat milk. I might try it.

Some alternative milks have palm oil in, so that might be something to watch out for if you're concerned about the environmental angle.

This reminds me of something I heard on the radio the other day. An environmental expert was talking about reducing plastic usage and she said that it's important that people don't just reject plastic and start replacing those products with eg bamboo because we don't know what the effect on the environment would be. Everything has an environmental impact and reducing consumption is the most important thing.

So I would stick with fresh local cows milk if you enjoy it. Alternatives are not necessarily better for you or the environment. Just try to reduce your consumption if possible.

I ditched milk many years ago due to being made aware that only calves should drink cows milk. I use oat milk when needed in cooking, but rarely, living without dairy is very easy. The dairy industry is awful for the animals and environment and using glass bottles for milk products is also bad for the environment

I'm drinking organic cow's milk at the moment but strongly considering switching to oat once I'm no longer pregnant.

It's the removing the calf so early and then killing it for meat that gets me. I'm vegetarian and feel hypocritical in supporting the industry.

There’s no pus in milk. It’s vegan propaganda. I will continue to support our farmers.