In Wake Of Melamine-Tainted Milk Scandal, Peta Releases Top 10 Reasons Not To Drink Milk
Melamine Isn't the Only Thing That Milk-Drinkers Need to Worry About, Group Warns
Auckland — In light of the melamine-tainted milk scandal, which has killed at least four babies and sickened 53,000
others, PETA is reminding milk-drinkers that cow's milk is also loaded with cholesterol, fat and other contaminants –
including cow's blood and pus, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics – which, over time, can be just as dangerous as
ingesting melamine.
PETA points out that eating fat- and cholesterol-laden dairy products can lead to serious health problems – including
heart disease, obesity and diabetes – which can send milk-drinkers to an early grave. And since more than 75 per cent of
the world's population is lactose-intolerant, putting on a milk moustache can mean suffering painful abdominal cramps,
bloating and diarrhoea.
The following are PETA's top 10 reasons not to drink milk:
1) Cows are not milk machines. After years being kept constantly pregnant and being forced to produce about 10 times
more milk than they naturally would, dairy cows are slaughtered.
2) "Moo" is not your first language. Human babies don't say "goo goo moo moo", so why treat them like calves? Humans are
the only animals who drink breast milk after infancy and the only animals who drink milk from a different species. It
makes as much sense for people to drink cow's milk as it would for dogs to drink giraffe's milk!
3) Cookies and cramps don't mix. Studies show that more than 75 per cent of the world's population is
lactose-intolerant. Can you say "abdominal cramps, bloating and diarrhea"?
4) Dairy is pusitively scary. There's more in that glass of milk than you think. Dairy products are commonly
contaminated with blood, pus, pesticides and antibiotics.
5) There's veal in your cereal. Milk fuels the cruel veal industry. Considered by-products of the dairy industry, male
calves are dragged away to veal crates when they are just hours old.
6) Milk is bad to the bone. Contrary to a popular milky myth, studies strongly implicate dairy foods in causing, rather
than preventing, osteoporosis, because their high protein content leaches calcium from the body.
7) Milk does the planet bad. Bad for mother cows, milk production is also bad for Mother Earth. It's a major source of
water pollution: just one dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day – as much as two dozen people could produce –
but with no toilets, sewers or treatment plants.
8) The white stuff isn't the right stuff. Milk is formulated to meet the nutritional needs of calves, who have four
stomachs and gain an average of 115 kilograms in their first six months of life. It's mad for humans to chug moo-juice!
9) No grain means lots of pain. Every glass of milk takes a meal away from hungry people. Crops which could be used to
feed the hungry are instead used to feed dairy cows. It takes a huge amount of grain cycled through cows to produce a
very small amount of milk.
10) A milk moustache is a real heartbreaker. Devoid of fibre and complex carbohydrates but loaded with saturated fat and
cholesterol, dairy products have been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and certain types
of cancer.
"All cow's milk – whether it's poisoned with melamine or not – is an unhealthy mix of contaminants, cholesterol and
fat", says PETA director Jason Baker. "The best bet for people who care about their health is to switch to healthy and
humane soya, rice or almond milk and give dairy products the boot."
For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.
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