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Pumping Iron, Dumping Milk
PETA stands behind Schwarzenegger’s words of wisdom and hopes Arnold will have a “total recall” of his lactose-intolerant statement. Milk is for babies—hairy, 400-pound babies with four stomachs, that is. Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do—to nourish their own babies! Would you nurse from a dog or a pig? Then why drink from a cow’s udder? Since Arnold revealed his anti-dairy sentiments, studies have shown that cow’s milk is unhealthy for human infants. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s premier “baby doctor,” apologized in his last book for ever having recommended cow’s milk for human infants and wrote that cow’s milk must be kept away from human infants, who should stick to their own mother’s milk. Collateral Damage Since cows must be pregnant to give milk, calves are considered a “byproduct” of the industry. Wailing calves are taken away from distraught mothers a day or two after birth so that their milk can be shipped to our supermarkets instead of nourishing the calves. Female calves may be slaughtered immediately or raised to be future dairy cows. Farmers chain most male calves inside cramped, dark crates for four to six months, then out they are prodded, wobbling on the legs they have never walked on, to be slaughtered and dismembered, their flesh sold for veal chops. Adult dairy cows typically live on filthy lots devoid of even a single blade of grass. Cows are fed a steady diet of hormones, causing their udders to become painful and so heavy that they sometimes drag on the ground, resulting in infections. When the cows become worn out from such overuse, farmers prod them off to slaughter. By this time, many are sick or lame. A cow’s normal life expectancy is 18 to 25 years, yet most dairy cows are killed before their 5th birthday. Be a Kindergarten Cop—Keep Milk Out of the Mouths of (Human) Babes Cows aren’t the only ones who suffer because of the dairy industry. Cow’s milk is the number one source of allergies in children, and research links consumption of dairy products, including cow’s milk, to colic (stomach cramps), chronic ear infections, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1 or “juvenile-onset” diabetes), acne, obesity, flatulence, constipation, and a variety of other ailments. According to Michael Klaper, M.D., nutritional expert and author of Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet: “Human children have no nutritional requirements for cow’s milk, and grow up healthy and strong without it.” Terminate Your Milk Habit Doctors and nutritionists now recommend that we all stop drinking milk because it’s been linked to heart disease, allergies, some cancers, and even osteoporosis, the bone-weakening disease that we used to think it would prevent. Dairy products contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are often contaminated with cows’ blood, pus, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. For more information on kicking the dairy habit, check out MilkSucks.com. |
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