Times of India Article (Milk ­ its impact on Health, Cruelty, and Pollution)

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Times of India Article (Milk ­ its impact on Health, Cruelty, and

Pollution)

 

The Times of India

Encounter

Tuesday 11 April 2000

: By Pritish Nandy

(Edited and formatted for American readers)

 

Milk ­ its impact on Health, Cruelty, and Pollution

 

Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the ‘five white poisons’. She has

stirred a hornet's nest with her campaign against milk. Even hardcore

veggies have attacked Maneka Gandhi and religious leaders have openly

come out to contradict her. Curiously, on her side now is global

research and modern science, of which she has been a long-term critic.

They are the ones who are defending her now.

 

You have come out very strongly against milk. Why are you so hostile to

it?

 

There are three reasons.

 

* People’s health is compromised by drinking milk

* Cruelty and

* Pollutants in milk

 

Would you like to explain why you think milk is unhealthy?

 

There is this belief that milk is a complete food and an important

source of protein, iron and calcium.

 

* Milk has no iron, however it also blocks its absorption.

* The ability of the body to absorb calcium from milk is barely 32%.

Whereas the body can absorb, 65% from cabbage and 69% from

cauliflower.

* Milk has less protein than some vegetable.

 

Even if we assume it contains more protein, it would be useless for

human beings. Because human beings require only 4 to 5 percent of their

daily calorie intake in proteins and the daily consumption of Indian

bread (Chapattis) and potatoes would give more protein than the

requirements.

 

So milk is not the best food in the world as it has been touted for

generations?

 

Milk is very difficult to digest particularly for Asian and African. Why

do I not eat plastic? The reason is; I have no enzyme to digest it. We

do not have lactose in our body and so we cannot digest lactose. If we

cannot digest milk, how do we get any of its ingredients?

 

Apart from this, milk has something called the IGF-1. All cancer studies

show that when IGF-1 rises in the body one gets cancer. All the IGF-1 in

milk stays in the body, making you prone to cancer. It is also a very

strong asthma causer. In fact, asthma patients are recommended to avoid

milk and milk products.

 

The problem with doctors in India is that they learn no nutrition in

medical colleges. So they have a limited knowledge of food. Their

knowledge of nutrition comes from the same source as yours and mine:

Grandmothers and teachers. Add to this the confusion caused by our local

religious leaders, particularly the ones who espouse vegetarianism.

 

What is specifically wrong in milk? What is specifically harmful?

 

The calcium contained in milk actually becomes a health hazard as

undigested portions of it are deposited in the urinary system and become

kidney stones. Another condition that milk aggravates rather than

alleviates is osteoporosis or bone loss. Studies have shown that it is

excess protein rather than lack of calcium that causes osteoporosis. So

the more milk you drink, the more you are prone to osteoporosis.

Countries like Sweden that have the highest milk consumption also have

the highest incidence of this.

 

Another misconception is that milk helps ulcers. Ulcers are caused by

the corrosion of the stomach lining. When you drink milk it gives you

immediate pain relief. But that is only temporary. Milk actually causes

acidity and further destroys the stomach lining.

 

Also, ulcer patients who are treated with dairy products, are found to

be 2 to 6 times more prone to heart attacks. This seems only logical

because milk is designed to be the food on which a calf increases its

body weight 4 times over in one month! It is so naturally high in fat

that it leads to obesity, the cause of all modern disease. Ayurveda

actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons.

 

Indians have been drinking milk for centuries. All of them did not fall

sick.

 

It depends on what you call illness. Most people disregard arthritis,

osteoporosis, asthma, headaches, and indigestion as normal for the body

and cancer as an act of God.

 

By looking at milk as evil, are we not turning our back on our tradition

and culture?

 

For thousands of years people thought the sun went around the earth.

Copernicus was the first person who said it did not. There was a huge

backlash against him. The Indian tradition also had sati (cremating

widow with husband’s dead body) and thugee and opium eating. Should they

be legal now?

 

I have written a book on Hindu names for which I had to read every

single Hindu scripture (sastra). Nowhere is there any milk drinking

mentioned. There is ghee (liquid butter) mentioned and that too for

havans (fire). Unfortunately our memories are short and the things we

are most adamant about are those we know the least about. Dr Spock was

the guru for child nutrition, now apologizes for having advocated milk

and says that children must be kept away from it.

 

Dr Kurien has described the dairy industry as the gentle industry. You

claim it is just the opposite?

 

The dairy industry is not gentle. The fact that supplies cater to demand

makes the cow the ultimate victim. It may have been gentle when each

household had its own cow and treated it as a member of the family. This

is no longer true.

 

How is milk produced now in India?

 

The cow is forced into yearly pregnancies. After giving birth she is

milked for 10 months but will be artificially inseminated during her

third month so that she is milked even when she is pregnant. The

demanded of production of milk is more than her body can give. So she

starts breaking down body tissue to produce milk. The result is an

illness called ketosis.

 

Most of the day the cow is tied up in a narrow stall usually wallowing

in her own excrement. She gets mastitis because the hands that milk her

are rough and usually unclean. She gets rumen acidosis from bad food and

lameness. She is kept alive with antibiotics and hormones. Each year 20

per cent of these dairy cows are sent illegally by truck and train to

slaughter houses. Or they are starved to death by letting them loose in

the cities.

 

It is no secret that the slaughter house in Goa was constructed by Amul

Dairy. No cow lives out her normal life cycle. She is milked, made sick

and then killed. Even worse happens to her child. The male calves are

tied up and starved to death. Or sent to the slaughter houses. It is not

by chance that a calf is no longer called bachda in India. It is called

katra, which means one who is to be killed. Even Dr Kurien admits that

in Mumbai every year 80,000 calves are forcibly put to death.

 

But milkmen (doodhwalas) love their cows. They live off them.

 

Have you seen how cows are milked?

 

In the villages they practice phukan, a method of milking a cow. A stick

is poked into the cow's uterus and wiggled, causing her intense pain.

Villagers believe this leads to more milk.

 

In the cities they are given two injections of oxytocin every day to

make the milk come faster. This gives her labor pains twice a day. Her

uterus develops sores and makes her sterile prematurely. Oxytocin is

banned for use on animals but it is sold in every cigarette shop around

a dairy. Every illiterate milkman knows the word. In human beings,

oxytocin causes hormonal imbalances, weak eyesight, miscarriages, and

cancer.

 

Recently, Gujarat started raiding dairies for oxytocin. In one day, they

found 350,000 ampoules in just Ahmedabad!

 

You mentioned pollution in milk. What does that mean?

 

The ICMR did research on milk for 7 years and took thousands of samples

from across India. What did they find?

 

Large amounts of DDT, poisonous pesticides called HCH. Under the food

adulteration act only 0.01 mg/kg is allowed of HCH. They found 5.7 mg as

an average!

 

They found arsenic, cadmium and lead. This causes kidney damage, heart

disease, brain damage and cancer.

 

Their findings were based on 50,000 samples and the report was released

at a press conference. What did Dr Kurien and the Operation Flood people

have to say? More samples should have been taken!

 

Other things put in your milk is sewage water, vegetable oil, and liquid

soap. In some cases earthworms are put in because they excrete slime

which increases the density of the milk!

 

You have said that drinking milk is drinking the cow's blood?

 

Milk and blood come from the same source; the body cells of the cow.

Every time you drink a glass of milk, remember it comes from a sad,

suffering mother whose own child was killed before her eyes and who

herself will be killed when she dries up.

 

Won't the stoppage of milk lead to thousands being unemployed?

 

A large number of people are dependent on smuggling, thievery, begging,

drug pushing, gun running and terrorism. Do we buy their products to

help them?

 

What is the substitute for milk?

 

What is the substitute to a placebo? Anything else such as Soya bean

milk, all green vegetables, and lentils (dal). My son has never drunk

milk in his life. He is 6 feet and has never been sick a single day!