I'm not that big. Geoff isn't big. Is it any surprise that our child is small? Sawyer had his nine month check up, weighing in at just over 13 pounds. They told me it was time to give him some formula. I cried.
Before I go on, let me clarify. I understand the 'breast is best' and parents who choose to give their baby formula at times recieve dirty looks, are ashamed for others to see the formula in the cart, hear the breast feeding nazis calling formula the "F" word. I think that if a parent made a decision for their child based on what is best for that family, then I support you. Just because I have very strong views against dairy and formula does not mean that I condemn others for using it. If you want to use formula to feed your baby, whatever the reason, do it!
Moving on.
I hate dairy. I not so jokingly call it the devil. Why am I going to feed my child some chemical mixture based on a cows milk when it's the last thing I want in my body? I understand if I was not able to produce milk, but I can, and he drinks. Here, the doctors are not only advising me to feed my child something I don't agree with, they also want to see us in a month to check our progress. These are the times I wish I lived back in L.A. They've got some serous non-dairy, non-formula doctors there. On the flip side, I want my child to grow.
Dairy. The only thing meant to drink the milk from a cow is her own calf. We are the only species that not only continues to drink milk after we are weaned but we decide to drink it from another species all together. You want milk, fine, suck your mothers boob. Maybe squeeze it right into your cereal? Freeze it, add some chocolate and spoon over your warm pie. Sound gross? It's more natural! Not even a cow will go back to milk after it is weaned, why do we?! The only thing that milk is suppose to do is take a small calf and turn it into a few hundred pound cow in a matter of months. MONTHS! This is why the claims that consuming dairy will keep you at a healthy weight make me laugh, every time. Do you know what protein you are ingesting? Do you know what growth hormones you are drinking? Do you realize the amount of pus you consume with each dairy product?!?! Yeah, I said it, PUS! Drink up friends.
Thanks to the popular growth hormone, BVM, a cow went from producing about 2,000 pounds of milk per year to numbers up to 50,000 pounds per year! If you take a look at the insides of a non-hormone injected cow and an average dairy cow these days, the hormone ridden dairy cow's internal organs are up twice the size as the non-hormone cow who weighs the same. As with any lactating female, the hormone ends up in the milk. Do you wonder why ten year olds are getting their periods? Do you wonder why our kids are so much bigger? Do you wonder why my baby who is breastfed from a non-dairy mommy is not on the average growth charts based on mostly formula fed babies?! Do you think this annoys me? This growth hormone causes a marked growth (50-70%) of mastitis. That is nipple infection. These cows continue to be milked. That blood and pus end up in your milk after heated to an insane temperature (homogenization) in which they say, kills the bad things so you don't get sick. It's still in there people, just heated!!! AND, yes, you still get sick.
Did you know that all cows milk contains blood? They are just asked to keep it under a certain limit. Blood is another word for white blood cells. White blood cells is another world for pus. I love this letter regarding pus.
"WHAT IS NORMAL MILK?"
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a milk ordinance governing milk safety. USDA does not allow milk containing 750 million or more pus cells per liter to be shipped across state borders. That should be good news to milk drinkers.
Last year, the average liter of milk in America contained only 323 million pus cells, according to Hoard's Dairyman, the dairy industry magazine. Author Jim Dickrell reports that the level of pus cells has been rising ever since farmers began using Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. Before approval (February 1994), the average pus cell count in milk was under 300 million cells per liter. By 1996, that average count had reached 307 million. In 1997, the average count was 313 million, and by 1998, the number had reached 318 million.
Researchers working for the National Mastitis Council define normal and abnormal milk based on the number of pus cells. According to Dickrell's story, the concentration of pus cells in "normal milk" is almost always less than 100 million cells per liter.
The number of pus cells in milk is an indicator of the state of health of the mammary glands and udders in cows. Stressed and infected cows have cell counts above 100 million. What does that say for the average milk in America? Not very healthy, even by dairy industry standards.
According to this article:
"When cell counts in milk exceed 200 (million per liter), the odds favor that the [udder] is infected or is recovering from infection."
The dairy magazine reports:
"Abnormal milk will be discolored and have flakes, clots or other gross alterations in appearance."
Gross is certainly an appropriate word to describe pus-filled milk with clots. This analyses of mastitis researchers reveals:
"At 400 (million) cells per liter, some 35% of cows will be infected."
This means that approximately one-third of the cows being milked at any one time in America are stressed and infected. Milk from these cows contains large amounts of bacteria, virus, and pus. As a consequence, farmers must treat their herds with increased amounts of antibiotics.
Pam Ruegg, a University of Wisconsin mastitis researcher, examined more than one million records, and concluded that the higher the herd's pus cell count, the greater the risk of antibiotic residues in milk.
Her results were published in the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Dairy Science.
What about calcium you ask? Calcium in the adult body is meant to take the body from an acidic level and make it neutral. Dairy is so acidic, you body actually pulls calcium from your system to make your body neutral. Think about it, U.S. is one of the worlds leading dairy consuming countries and also one of the worlds leaders in osteoporosis and other bone dwindling diseases. The key to fighting these degenerative diseases is not how much calcium you consume, but how much calcium you prevent from leaving your bones. That means, no dairy. You can get the same amount of calcium ounce for ounce in broccoli. You get calcium in green leafy vegetables, not to mention calcium fortified OJ and more. These calcium sources are easily absorbed by the body and do not pull calcium from your bones. "Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood which can be neutralized by calcium mobilized from the skeleton." (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995;61,4) Also, Harvard studies continue to show the a link between animal protein and dairy consumptions and broken bones.
It gets better. Lets talk about the cows milk protein Casein. Casein is actually used to make the strongest wood glue on the market. Your furniture, held together with a little milk protein. The label on your beer, milk protein. What does that do to your body? It creates a string like mucus. Runny nose? Have to clear your throat? Get rid of dairy. I dare you to stop all dairy for two weeks. Nothing. Not a single ounce. Have a whopping bowl full of ice cream after your two week stint and feel the mucus in your throat form soon after. It never fails. Go ahead, try it. What is that mucus in our body doing? It is making us sick, really sick.
"At least 50% of all children in the United States are allergic to cow's milk, many undiagnosed. Dairy products are the leading cause of food allergy, often revealed by diarrhea, constipation, and fatigue. Many cases of asthma and sinus infections are reported to be relieved and even eliminated by cutting out dairy." (Natural Health, July, 1994, Nathaniel Mead, MD)
Former Chairman of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, Frank Oski, M.D. even has a book called Don't Drink Your Milk which blames every second health problem kids suffer on hormone-ridden commercial milk. Sixty percent of ear infections in kids under six years of age are milk-induced, and milk consumption is the number one cause of iron-deficiency anemia in infants today according to the American Association of Pediatrics.
Dairy is linked to colds,congestion, constipation, allergies, rashes, ear infections, bed wetting, bone disease, ovarian cancer, early maturity, irritable bowel and so much more. Is milk worth it?
Milk contains frequent contaminants from pesticides to drugs. About a third of milk products have been shown to be contaminated with antibiotic traces. The vitamin D content of milk has been poorly regulated. Recent testing of 42 milk samples found only 12% within the expected range of vitamin D content. Testing of 10 samples of infant formula revealed seven with more than twice the vitamin D content reported on the label, one of which had more than four times the label amount. (11) Vitamin D is toxic in overdose. I don't want my kid on formula!!!
Why are we constantly told by media it is good for us? Did you know that the government pays for the excess storage of dairy. That is anything that is not bought is bought paid for by our tax dollars. Want to keep the deficit down? Want to keep pharmaceuticals in business? Drink up! When hippy movement was in it's high point, people were realizing what was good and what was not so good for their bodies. Milk consumption went down. They actually sent out some people to research milk and start a nation wide campaign. A few came back saying they did not realize how horrible dairy was and they were going to discontinue dairy consumption. The others wanted a pay check. Got Milk? Despite all the evidence surrounding the health risks of dairy, our schools still require milk to be given away with their school lunch. It's horrifying.
I just don't get it, is pus really that good? I don't want to mix dried pus with warm water and give it to my child. Yeah, he is off the growth chart, but he has enough wet diapers, he hits all his milestones, he has NEVER been sick. He has NEVER had a temperature and he has NEVER had dairy. Don't make me start.
I have so much to say on this topic and so little time to give it the post it deserves. This is all for now. but you can bet that I will be on here, presenting more information, studies, and tons more. People ask why milk has been my number one enemy. I feel like it has such a false security. You are told so many lies. Most people can generally agree that a lot of sugar is not good for us. We can generally agree that our bodies were not meant to consume meat, but not many people talk about Dairy. I've been against dairy since 1999 and then seemed like a crazy person. There is more information against it and the subject is more widespread than ever before, but it's not enough. I'm also frustrated that the doctors are telling me what I don't want to hear. Give him formula, make him grow. YEAH, he'll grow, but not the way his body was meant to. (I'm doing a sad face right now.)
Milk does a body bad.
