Did you know that milk naturally has traces of morphine in it? Morphine, codeine and other opiates are naturally produced in
cows's livers and end up in their milk. All milk contains casein, a protein that breaks apart during digestion and releases opiates. These opiates exist so that newborns will want to nurse, it actually ensures a bond between mothers and their young.
I have been reading this diet book called Skinny Bitch. I have never read a diet book before and started reading it in the bookstore because I couldn't understand how a diet book could be on the New York Times best seller list. I found the book to be somewhat hilarious (though, as the title suggests it's got some terrible language in it) and bought it. The guy at the checkout counter was like, "hey do you know that this book is all about becoming a vegan" and i was like "
pshh,
veganism the stupidest thing ever."
After reading about all the meat processing plants and all of the pesticides,
disease and crap that is in meat I decided that I would probably never eat meat again. I did it for 2 years without any motivation that I can remember, so now that I actually have a reason it should be a breeze.
I mean all of those stupid billboards up in California that read "pets are people too" always made me really really angry. Mostly because I over generalize that the people who says that kind of stuff are generally pro choice too- which I am not. Anyway, the way that animals are being treated in these meat processing plants is not the way that I believe God intended for us to govern them. I have decided that I cannot be both pro life and a carnivore. The only time I could justify eating meat is if I knew that the animal being slaughtered had been treated humanely and fed completely naturally. i.e. Uncle Andy's sheep.
Someday my body (Lord willing) is going to be the temporary home for a child and right now there is so much crap in it that I can't even conceive of the idea of having a child (though I am sure all of my eggs are no better off than I am).
So as I've been reading this book I have been thinking that there is no possible way that I could give milk up, and I am still not convinced that I could - I mean, I truly am addicted to dairy, especially cheese. But this book is quite convincing that dairy is just as bad as meat. Cows being given steroids so that they produce more than a 100 pounds of milk a day (when they should really only be producing 10 pounds) and being sucked dry and having terrible oozing sores on their udders so that blood and puss mixes with the milk requiring it to be pasteurized which destroys beneficial enzymes and makes calcium less available. Plus if the cows are sick the antibiotics that they are given goes right into their milk production and hence our bodies. Also another study shows that consuming high amounts of dairy blocks iron absorption which leads to iron deficiency - which I am pretty sure I suffer from.
Conclusion - I might really be addicted to milk and need to drink less milk and find some that is truly organic (none of the USDA certified stuff is really legit).
Mom, I think you might enjoy reading this book