This headline seems normal now: “This LA teen is suing her school district — and the USDA — to promote nondairy milk” (Source: Grist)
Granted, in this case, this teen is fighting back against government overreach. The dairy lobby got an exclusive contract to sell cow’s milk in the nation’s schools, through the usual route (bribing our representatives).
I notice this on top of a scene in a movie I was watching in which a teenager went upon a rant to her father about the evils of cow’s milk and ended with “Mom always bought me oat milk” with a smug look on her face. (I know this was supposed to make the character irritating . . . it worked.)
Oat milk, soy milk, almond milk . . . there are myriad brands of synthetic milk . . . why? No adult mammal needs milk. If you cannot digest cow’s milk or have some other problem with it, just stop drinking it. There is no need.
And while these “alternatives” to cow’s milk (or goat’s milk, or . . .) are touted as “healthy” alternatives whatever happened to the advice to avoid heavily processed foods? In drought-wracked California, huge amounts of precious water are used to grow almonds to make almond milk, for no good reason. And what happened to the complaint of hormone-like substances in fermented soy products?
This is what capitalism does, it takes a non-need and creates a market around it. Do you have celiac disease? If so, you can’t eat foods that contain grains with gluten in them, or you will pay the consequences. (Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley.) But less than 1% (1 in 133) Americans have celiac disease, so why are so many people demanding gluten-free dishes on restaurant menus and gluten-free products in grocery stores, etc?
Gosh, do you think people want to avoid gluten to feel special, or avoid a possible risk, or . . . other reasons that have nothing to do with having that disease? With people who actually do have the disease, God forbid we ask them to give up pizza! Or that teenagers needing “alternative milk products” would be expected to bring them from home. No, they have to be able to buy them in the school cafeteria!
Uncommon Sense 
I don’t know about all the other folks avoiding gluten, but I found it to be literally life-saving, even though I apparently don’t have celiac or any other genetic markers. However, I have suffered from Crohn’s disease since about 1959, (ie over 60 years) and was repeatedly hospitalized for intense pain and bowel obstruction, underwent for major surgeries including for a perforated small intestine and the nasty internal infection caused by the perforation.
I figured something in my diet was setting me off, so I tried for decades to systematically eliminate things that might be causing me problems. Avoiding meat (for years) made no difference. Ditto with dairy, alcohol, whole-grain foods, raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, spicy foods, and everything else I could think of. I was often put on regimes of steroids, which caused a bunch of mental and physical problems of their own.
Finally, although I thought “gluten-free” was a foolish fad, I tried cutting out gluten, so no wheat, rye or barley.
The difference was dramatic and total. Since then, and unless I eat something by accident containing gluten, I am symptom-free. No hospitalizations, no horrible stomach pain.
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Comment by gfbrandenburg — May 19, 2023 @ 1:36 pm |
I am so glad to hear that! And I do not deny that gluten free diets have changed peoples lives for the better. I just don’t think everybody else needs to pay for it, support it, etc.
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Comment by Steve Ruis — May 19, 2023 @ 9:25 pm |
Even I think that drinking the breast milk of animals is udderly ridiculous and I’m a former dairy farmer. Milk basically is a scam. It is nowhere near as nutritious as the dairy industry claims it is, and legitimate, independent studies show it’s actually bad for you in a lot of ways. The dairy industry spends tens of millions of dollars bribing politicians, pushing cherry picked data onto consumers, etc in order to keep the stuff flowing.
The alternatives aren’t much better. As you pointed out products like almond milk and soy milk both have serious issues.
I do put cream in my coffee and I like a nice bit of cheese now and then. But drink the stuff? (shudder). No thanks.
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Comment by grouchyfarmer — May 19, 2023 @ 10:54 pm |
I love milk. I drink whole milk. I often have a glass of milk with my dinner, like I did when I was a kid. I take my meds with milk. I go through a gallon of milk a week.
That said, I drink a case of water a week. I probably drink around thirty cups of tea in a day.
As for these kids, I don’t know. Why they can’t bring their own milk to school is beyond me. They want the entire world to cater to their demands. Heaven forbid they get a Yeti (gee, ask Santa Claus for one) & fill it with the milk of their choice & that’s the end of it. BUT NO. They have to SUE the school. This isn’t about milk.
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Comment by silverapplequeen — May 21, 2023 @ 4:20 am |
As usual, you are spot on. This is about privilege and little else. I don’t have a lawn so I can’t yell at the neighbor kids to get of my lawn, and it seems traditional that old folk like me point out the shortcomings of the youngins. So, I make do with shouting into the wind here.
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Comment by Steve Ruis — May 21, 2023 @ 9:45 am |