Milk Might Not Be Doing You Much Good

The conclusion is sort of weak - that milk isn&#x27;t strictly necessary and doesn&#x27;t do much good for you because most Americans aren&#x27;t vitamin- or calorie- deficient.<p>That logic could be applied to literally anything. Is beef good for you? Most Americans aren&#x27;t protein deficient and beef has a lot of saturated fat in it. Is chicken good for you? Most Americans aren&#x27;t protein deficient. Are carrots good for you? Most Americans aren&#x27;t Vitamin A-deficient. etc.<p>Milk is fine. Not everyone can tolerate it. You don&#x27;t need to drink a gallon a day to stay alive. But it&#x27;s a perfectly fine part of a normal diet. And for kids who are sometimes fussy eaters, yeah, milk can actually make the difference between getting enough calories or not.

&gt;In addition, milk is not a low-calorie beverage. Even if people drink nonfat milk, three cups a day can mean an additional 250 calories consumed. Low-fat or whole milk has even more calories. In an era when every other caloric beverage is being marginalized because of obesity concerns, it’s odd that milk continues to get a pass.<p>I&#x27;m kind of upset that this is an argument here. It&#x27;s as if the author thinks that because you drink a beverage instead of eat it, it can&#x27;t make you any less hungry, and therefore you keep on eating and drinking and get fat.<p>If anything, when I drink a glass of milk I feel more satiated (less hungry) than I would for a lot of foods. Beverages can definitely make you feel full.<p>In addition, I&#x27;ve seen a good amount of evidence that protein (in milk or other foods) produces more satiation per unit calorie than carbs or fat. I&#x27;m too lazy to cite my sources right now, but a google search shows some merit to the idea that milk helps you lose weight.

What I take away from this is that milk does not provide any particular benefits over other food. Which does not mean there&#x27;s necessarily anything wrong with it.<p>Personally, I was a long-time vegetarian, and am now a pescetarian. I am also a very active person, training in power lifting and Brazilian jiu jitsu several times a week. I drink whole milk daily because it is calorie and protein dense, not because I think it has some magical properties.

Does anyone drink milk daily? I once tried switching to chocolate milk to get rid of my addiction to Pepsi. It was going great, until about a week later, where I was having BM problems.. constipation. Then I remembered my schooling, and figured out that the milk was causing it. Today, I have accepted my addiction and just drink Pepsi :)

A fatty&#x2F;protein-filled drink like milk is still better for you than what a majority of americans consume gallons of a week: carbonated high fructose corn syrup.

&gt; But there’s very little evidence that most adults need it. There’s also very little evidence that it’s doing them much good.<p>Isn&#x27;t all foodstuff this way? I watched a BBC documentary a number of years ago about a woman who had reportedly lived entirely on crisps (potato chips) for years[0]. She wasn&#x27;t entirely healthy by any means, but it speaks to the resilience of our biology when you can get by on basically anything provided you get enough calories and a few vitamins.<p>Once you get past a bit of common sense, the whole notion of &quot;healthy food&quot; and &quot;unhealthy food&quot; often looks pretty ridiculous. It&#x27;s really not worth time debating the negligible pros and cons of one particular food item.<p>Disclaimer: I&#x27;ve been drinking a pint of semi-skimmed every night since I was a child... which according to Wolfram Alpha is almost a quarter of the volume of a Gray Whale<p>[0] <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/12/eaten-only-crisps-for-ten-years" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;lifeandstyle&#x2F;2011&#x2F;feb&#x2F;12&#x2F;eaten-on...</a>

This is not really &quot;news&quot; at all. I stopped drinking dairy milk a couple years ago because I realized it offered no potential benefits, and only alleged risks that kept surfacing in these studies.<p>There is literally no up-side to drinking milk, only purported risks. Thus, IMO the only reason to drink it is if you REALLY REALLY REALLY like the taste and can&#x27;t imagine your life without it.<p>Also, interestingly - I personally have seen absolutely zero studies that showed milk benefits, that was not funded by the dairy farmers.

Healthcare Triage has a video on milk being not particularly healthy or even beneficial in ways people think: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzyFZcuHmeI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=hzyFZcuHmeI</a>

I don&#x27;t really drink milk very often. I rarely ever just have a glass of it. I have a bowl of cereal like 2-3 times a month (but really only because it is there for the kids). I don&#x27;t think I would miss it in liquid form if it was suddenly unavailable. However, it is in a lot of things I eat: cheese, yogurt, sour cream, chocolate, pan cakes, etc. So on one hand, it is a little strange that humans are the only animal to drink the milk of another animal and to drink milk of any kind past infancy. But on the other hand, products made out of milk seem as natural and appropriate as products made out of hamburger.

This certainly does not apply to everyone, but if you are trying to get strong, Mark Rippetoe recommends a gallon of milk a day, which lead to this hilarious exchange:<p>Rip: You need to drink one gallon of full fat milk everyday. It&#x27;s almost mandatory.<p>Audience Member: I&#x27;m lactose intolerant, could I substitute yogurt for milk?<p>Rip: Gallon of yogurt.

Why would anyone think drinking the milk of another animal, evolved to grow calves, not people?<p>The article&#x27;s second-to-last paragraph tells you everything. We believe in milk because it&#x27;s profitable for diary producers to promote it, which they do.<p>&gt; <i>Politics are certainly at play here [...] the vast majority of Dairy Management’s funding for its marketing strategies comes from the producers themselves. The U.S.D.A.&#x27;s role in promoting dairy was firmly established in the 1983 Dairy Production and Stabilization Act, which made it the business of the government to carry out a “coordinated program of promotion designed to strengthen the dairy industry’s position in the marketplace and to maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for fluid milk and dairy products.”</i>

Hacker News: how to drink milk like a hacker!<p>Use 2 hands, one on each side of the cup. Open mouth. Lift arms, remembering to keep back straight. Pour. DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK<p>Ask HN: How do you drink milk?