The pros and cons of milk

Amanda Mitchell17 said:On a different note, I’ve noticed that nobody seems to have brought up the impact of those hormones used to drive milk production in cows on our own bodies...

Exactly. To be clear, my doctor actually put me on a dairy-free diet specifically because of those hormone levels; I deal with uterine fibroids, which are estrogen-dependent tumors, so women facing similar issues are often advised to cut out dairy entirely. However, this really only applies to the mass-produced, industrial milk you find in a typical grocery store.

rustyridge said:I’ve come across theories suggesting that excessive milk consumption actually leaches calcium from our bones, potentially serving as a primary driver for osteoporosis since dairy intake has become so widespread in the modern American diet.

That happens to be one of those standard arguments people use when they're trying to deconstruct the necessity of dairy, though I can't say for certain how much weight it actually carries. It seems the idea stems from a perceived link between high animal protein intake and calcium depletion—the notion being that the sheer amount of protein found in milk triggers bone loss—but current evidence suggests that connection is largely a fallacy.

As for Vitamin B12, there isn't any to be found in plant-based foods; as far as we know, it simply doesn't exist in the plant kingdom.

Look, I’m not actually anti-milk or anything. I can drink it just fine and it doesn't mess with my system at all. My issue is really more about how they mass-produce it and the whole way those animals are treated...
I also feel like those articles claiming everyone should quit dairy are being way over the top. Obviously, if you have an actual allergy, you've gotta stay away from it. And yeah, doctors usually suggest waiting a bit before introducing it to little kids, too.

It’s really about how we treat animals.

Honestly, seeing this bothers me way more than all those chemicals found in mass-produced processed food.

I mean, once I saw what the chickens actually look like—the ones providing those "delicious" chicken breasts you see at the local Kroger—it changed everything. They're pumped full of hormones just to bloat their breasts, and they end up stumbling around on wet concrete floors because they can barely walk under their own weight. They're practically featherless 🙂

My solution? I’d much rather pay double or even quadruple the price for my own chicken if it means seeing a bird that actually had a normal body, looked up at the sky, and spent its days roaming through grass.

I can tell you right now, I wouldn't touch a single piece of meat if it was produced in that kind of inhumane way.

For me and my budget, that just means eating less meat overall—but when I do eat it, I want it to be quality stuff.

I haven't seen those photos, and honestly, I'm probably better off for it. I’m not really a big meat eater, so I don't spend much time thinking about it. If I ever do have some, it’s usually just whatever my family brings out from our farm back home.
My heart breaks for the animals, but I feel even worse for people out there who are actually starving and can't afford to eat.

Betty Bennett10 said:Vitamin B12 isn't actually found in plant-based foods—as far as anyone knows, there just isn't any B12 in anything grown from plants.

I don't think that's quite right!
It can be found in spirulina, though I suppose people argue about whether our bodies can actually absorb it properly, and I'm certainly not an expert on the science, but my bottle of spirulina specifically claims to contain a bioavailable form of B12.

Betty Bennett10 said:That isn't quite right.
It actually exists within Spirulina, though there is a constant, exhausting debate where some claim it’s unusable while others insist it works; I can't say for certain myself, but the label on my own bottle of Spirulina specifically states that the B12 is in a bioavailable form.

As I was saying—it remains an uncertainty, or more accurately, there simply isn't a reliable plant-based source for Vitamin B12. I have come across claims that B12 is present in Spirulina, and then further claims that it's only found in Nutrex Spirulina due to a specific processing method, yet I've also read that any B12 derived from Spirulina is ultimately unabsorbable.