To think that cows milk is so bad… yet tastes so good

[Escapefromhell]

I need to give up dairy for my health (and the dairy industry is pretty vile when you look at it). All fine, except I have milk on coffee. Good coffee is one of the crucial things in life. AIBU to think with all the technological advances humanity has made, someone would have come up with a milk replacement that tastes good in coffee without adding a load of sugar. I know there are worse problems in the world.

AIBU to think that all cow milk replacements can only be described as ‘sadness water’?

Other animal milk is available, goats, sheep, camel, mare's milk.

If horse racing does downhill perhaps they can switch to mare's milk.

Only ever tried goats milk and it had a very strong taste

I actually prefer plant “milks” - I don’t like the taste of cows milk at all. I still eat cheese and yogurt though.

I drink a lot of tea with ordinary semi-skimmed milk, or sometimes skimmed milk. Tea without milk is unpleasant and gives me a stomach ache. All the non dairy milks I've tried taste unpleasant. Oat milk is not as bad as some but is far too sweet. I hate sugar in tea. Black coffee is not as bad.
If milk is so bad, why are people wasting money trying lots of different milks which are expensive and taste odd - just drink your tea and coffee black.

I've given up cows milk but find the whole situation a bit depressing.
I don't like any of the alternative milks except in cooking and I need 2-3 coffees a day or I get bad headaches. I used to drink 15 a day but have whittled it down to 3.
I have those black and for the rest of the day I drink Rooibos chamomile and honey which is acceptable.
I really miss milk. Some of the alternatives are incredibly fattening.

Scroll down to read about milk alternatives

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191123-what-milk-is-best-cows-dairy-free-alternative

Dog milk 😝😂 we probably would given half the chance!

There are farms in the uk that produce high welfare dairy products- they keep cows with their calves and have much lower levels of medication, etc. look up the ethical dairy near Dumfries for example. They sell their cheese online.

Cows milk is the best and the dairy industry is bloody brilliant in the UK. Also I hope you’ve thoroughly researched the full
environmental impacts of all the sadness milk replacements

Why do you need to stop drinking cow's milk for your health? Do you specifically have an issue with lactose or another component of cow's milk? If not whole milk is far, far healthier than any of the plant based substitutes. The latter of which are ultra processed foods and people can drink them if they like them but they might as well have a McFlurry for all that they are doing for their health. Milk is a nutrient dense whole food, complete with branch chain amino acids that mean your body can actually absorb the nutrients.

As for the dairy industry, in the UK, it's about as good as it gets and fuck all like the utter propaganda we're getting from the industrial scale processed food companies who produce the significantly more profitable UPFs like oat/soya/almond drinks. The same goes for the environmental impact. Because what's really happening here is that production of those UPFs is very, very cheap compared to pasture farming and the profit margins are very significant. Just like sugar, margarine and even cigarettes were all once promoted as healthy choices, the same is happening with these UPFs now. Milk is a healthy choice for those of us with lactase tolerance. And not drinking any milk or 'milk' is the healthiest choice for the rest of us.

I think it is very difficult to unpick the evidence regarding health, as so many studies are funded by people with an agenda. The diets of people living in blue zones tend to be very low in dairy, which makes me lean towards thinking it isn't brilliant to consume it in large quantities.

Regarding hormones, I think people are concerned about the naturally occurring hormones in milk (growth hormones intended for growing calves) - a quick google suggests that we don't have the receptors for these hormones and so they are harmless to humans. But again, we need to watch who is saying this - lots of studies are funded by the dairy industry. I think that animal rights people have an agenda too, and will skew the evidence to suit them. I suppose all you can do is try to read between the lines, notice how you personally feel when you consume dairy and make your decision based on that.

@WithyouFromDuskTilDawn this graph gives you everything you need to know about environmental impact of milk vs non dairy alternatives.

apologies above was meant for @Hyppogriff not @WithyouFromDuskTilDawn

I worked on a dairy farm as a student and I don’t agree it’s as “good as it can be”, generally welfare is reasonable on the average dairy farm. I’m really a big fan of The Ethical Dairy farm and similar- they keep the cows with their calves until 6 months and have much higher welfare standards. I think it’s right to be respectful to animals if we want to drink their milk and farm them.

I disagree too re plant milks - the environmental footprint is variable and there’s no evidence that soya milk is any worse for you than cows milk. Ultimately cows milk is tailored for cows not people.

Could be there for quite a while if we decided to go with Yorkshire terriers or Chihuahuas…. 😁

It really doesn't. See that water use for the dairy? 93% of that is rain that happens while cows exist. It's completely incidental and it's inclusion in the 'evidence' shows that it's propaganda and nothing more.

The land use? An awful lot of pasture land is not arable and ruminating livestock is the best use of that land. I think there are a lot of questions about that in parts of Europe, but world wide, it's extremely dishonest use of data.

The emissions. That's the methane in cow burps and farts. Sounds bad but the methane hangs low in the atmosphere, comes down in rain within ten years, and is in the grass the cows eat, which is why it's in their bodily emissions. It's pretty much zero sum cyclical and is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the real issue of C02 emissions.

If you drink almond milk, you definitely shouldn’t drink the Californian stuff which is environmentally harmful, as you say. But in Europe the majority of almond milk sold is produced in Europe- you actually have to seek out the US stuff- so the environmental impact is far lower and use of pesticides more strictly controlled. European almond milk is better for the environment than cow’s milk on every measure.

I'm not keen on any of the milk alternatives: soy,oat,almond.

For all those thinking they are saving the planet with their sadness milk

Is it all U.K. produced with U.K. ingredients?

Do you consume ONLY sadness alternatives for all cheese/yogurt/butter?

Are those figures uk figures? Or based on US herds that never graze outdoors?

Agree. I made the mistake of using it for my overnight oats once and it was hideous. Totally ruined my breakfast.

Minging in coffee too. Horrible aftertaste on the tongue.

If we are going to worry about animal ethics, we also need to be honest about the deaths of animals in crop farming, which are far from insignificant. I get why people don't want to eat animals or dairy in terms of animal husbandry. It would be far, far better for the environment and animal welfare if we as a planet, focussed on radically improving the Indian dairy industry which, afaik, is the biggest on the planet in terms of herd size, by some margin, but massively unproductive in terms of food produced from that herd.

Improving Indian dairy farming, along with doing everything we can to eliminate as much food waste as possible are by far and away the number 1 and 2 things we can do to improve animal welfare and the environmental impact of global food production. Yet they are neither done nor campaigned for very much, apart from an occasional sop to the food waste issue. And that's because neither issue is going to lead to massive profits.

Whereas milk makes me very queasy - guess sone of this is just what you are used to

Is sadness milk a typo/autocorrect or is it a sneering at people who choose not to drink cows milk thing?

No the thought of the suffering of those calves and cows make the milk taste gross to me.

Italy barista is FULL of rapeseed oil 😂

And....acidity regulator....lovely eh!