This is nothing to do with the Steem milk challenge. I am not against people having a bit of fun, but we need posts on important topics too.
I read some articles about the issues with various milk alternatives.
This is what we have in our fridge.
The consensus is that most of these options are better for the environment than dairy milk. The choice is vast now with nut, rice, hemp, almond, coconut, oat and other 'milks' available.
My main use of milk was on my cereal. I gave it up in coffee years ago and someone suggested that milk might contribute to me suffering from catarrh. That was when I switched to soya. Of course it tastes different, but you get used to it. I have since tried some of the others and they all seem adequate to wet my cereal. Oat is a bit watery, but as the cereal is largely oats it blends in well.
Humans, like other mammals, did not evolve to drink milk after infancy, but domestication of cows made it a useful source of nutrients. It used to be that a lot more people were lactose intolerant, but we evolved so that most of us can handle it with no real ill effects.
I made the switch for health and environmental reasons, but there are animal welfare issues too. There are vast numbers of dairy cows (270 million!) who and artificially inseminated every year to keep them producing milk until they become less productive and get slaughtered for meat. Of course any male calves are only useful for meat and so will not live long. A lot of these cows will not be grazing in fields as we might hope because that is not efficient enough for farmers to produce the cheap milk the market demands. I some countries (not the UK) cows can be injected with growth hormones to increase milk production. They have been bred to increase this massively anyway.
I will confess that I do still like a bit of cheese and sometime butter, but I have cut down a lot on these. I am pragmatic about my diet and do not follow specific rules set by anyone else. I eat eggs too, but these are mostly from our own chickens who live a good life. I gave up meat over thirty years ago.
It is my opinion that we can each make some contribution to living more sustainably with changes to our lifestyles. Everything has an impact and all these milk alternatives tend to have the same sort of packaging as dairy milk. We recycle that through the council collection. The dairy industry is a traditional part of our culture, but has grown far beyond the cosy image we might have of it. Some define tradition as 'denial of change'. We need to wake up to what our damage our old habits do and accept that some things should change.
I am aware that soy boy is a derogatory term used by some against those they consider less masculine, but what is so masculine about having the same diet as a baby? Soya does contain a form of estrogen, but studies show it does not significantly affect male hormones.
I saw this ad in the paper recently highlighting some of the options. No, gravy is not going to be great on your cereal. Innocent is part of the Coca-Cola empire and I do not endorse their products.
I am not a nutrition expert, so do not take this a medical advice. I am just expressing my own opinions from my experience. There is plenty of material to do your own research and consider proper medical advice if making drastic changes to your diet.
Live well and tread lightly.
