A glass of Milk

IS MILK REALLY GOOD FOR YOU?

Recent remarks by certain animal lovers in the national press branding milk as non-vegetarian has made traditional vegetarians see red. This is because a bulk of Indian vegetarians follow a 'lactovegetarian' diet, that is, they consume milk products of animals while abstaining from their flesh. Indeed, cow's milk has been hallowed ever since baby Krishna risked his mother's ire to steal butter, cream and curd—an image immortalized by the medieval Indian saint-poet Surdas in his 'maiya mori, main nahin makhan khayo' (mother, I did not steal the butter).

The rationale on which the anti-milk propaganda is based ranges from the lack of the milk-digesting enzyme (lactase) in 80 per cent of adult humans to the cruelty inflicted on cows by the dairy industry. Milch cows are constantly kept pregnant and injected twice a day with oxytocin, a hormone that causes uterine contractions akin to labor pains. Most live only a fraction of their normal life span of 20 years and are literally milked to death.

Those who hold up health benefits as the reason to consume milk are in for a shock. Not only is milk responsible for blocking the absorption of iron, only 30 per cent of the calcium it contains is absorbable by the human body. In other words, milk may be chock-full of calcium but as it cannot be easily assimilated, it ends up as kidney stones.

Weight-watchers beware! Milk is the fat-food to shun, for it is meant to increase the calf's body-weight up to four times within a month. Instead, soy milk is an ideal substitute, rich as it is in proteins and vitamins. It has 50 per cent protein by weight compared to cow milk protein, which has only 3 per cent.

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