REWIND: Milk is liquid snot: "Milk consumption may not only be unhelpful, it might also be detrimental."

Earlier today I posted at Facebook:

I believe that drinking milk is an aesthetic and culinary outrage on a par with Bud Light and McDonald's. Moreover, drinking milk is a conspiracy foisted on us by the multinational diary lobby. Apart from all that, I also dislike milk intensely, though you can make it into cheese or ice cream and I'm golden. Last night I had a dream in which I was drinking milk and commenting about how perfectly it paired with a dish. Now I'm scared to set foot outside the house. Booze is the preferred antidote to this condition, although probably not White Russians at a time like this.

After thinking about it, it occurred to me (as it usually does) that we'd all been here before, and indeed we have ... most recently in 2014 (below). The photo above was taken in Indianapolis in 2012.

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To me, it's always been aesthetic.

Milk is little more than liquid snot, and to drink it by the glass has struck me as revolting for over thirty years. It's just a bonus to be "un-American" by rejecting milk in liquid form, although I've returned to eating cereal with almond milk as moistening agent.

I adore cheese, cream-based sauces, dairy-laden desserts and Milk Stout; obviously, I can tolerate lactose, but drink it from a glass?

That's just wrong.

Yuck.

Got Milk? Might Not Be Doing You Much Good, by Aaron E. Carroll (NYT)

Almost no one will dispute that when a baby is born, breast milk is the best nutrition a mother can provide. All mammals nurse their young, and breast milk benefits a newborn infant in ways above and beyond nutrition. In fact, until 1 to 2 years of age, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, the Institute of Medicine and more promote breast-feeding as optimal.

Unfortunately, breast-feeding until that age is often difficult, if not impossible, because mothers have to return to work, and children go off to preschool or day care. So we often replace human milk with the milk of cows or other animals. But at a certain point, we have to acknowledge that we are the only mammals on the planet that continue to consume milk after childhood, often in great amounts.

More and more evidence is surfacing, however, that milk consumption may not only be unhelpful, it might also be detrimental. This is in spite of the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture and other organizations advocate that even adults should drink at least three cups a day.

How much lactose really is in cheese?

I'm borrowing the link from Judy Schad, as this is an important issue in the Confidential household. The missus is lactose intolerant, and several years ago, Will Eaves (formerly of Lotsa Pasta) informed us that many cheeses would do no harm, as explained below.

Knowing this has opened possibilities for her. She's still not a prolific cheese-eater like me. If not for the language, I could be a Frenchman insofar as cheese is concerned. However, it makes dining easier.

Got lactose? (Janet Fletcher's Planet Cheese)

... But here’s what many lactose-intolerant people don’t know: When milk is coagulated for cheese, 98 percent of the lactose is removed with the whey. And in all but a few cheeses—high-salt ones like feta—the remaining lactose is quickly consumed by bacteria in the cheese.

“I can confidently say that bacteria-ripened, surface-ripened or mold-ripened cheeses that are not known for an intense salty flavor (think feta) will not present a problem for lactose-intolerant consumers,” Jeff told me. “By the time these cheeses reach store shelves, residual lactose will have been fermented by the microbes in the cheese.”

Drink milk? By the glass? You're joking, right?

Lactose intolerance is a good place for the writer Bittman to begin refuting the hegemony of milk, as well as noting that no other animals insist on drinking milk taken from other animals following the period immediately after birth.

To me, it's always been aesthetic. Milk is little more than liquid snot, and to drink it by the glass has struck me as revolting for over thirty years. It's just a bonus to be "un-American" by rejecting milk in liquid form, although I've returned to eating cereal with soy milk as moistening agent.

I adore cheese, cream-based sauces, dairy-laden desserts and Milk Stout; obviously, I can tolerate lactose, but drink it from a glass?

That's just wrong. Yuck.

Got Milk? You Don’t Need It, by Mark Bittman (Opinionator; New York Times)

... Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is a mere three cups daily — still 1½ pounds by weight — for every man, woman and child over age 9. This in a country where as many as 50 million people are lactose intolerant, including 90 percent of all Asian-Americans and 75 percent of all African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Jews. The myplate.gov site helpfully suggests that those people drink lactose-free beverages. (To its credit, it now counts soy milk as “dairy.”)

There’s no mention of water, which is truly nature’s perfect beverage; the site simply encourages us to switch to low-fat milk. But, says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Sugar — in the form of lactose — contributes about 55 percent of skim milk’s calories, giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda” ...