Pros And Cons Of Drinking Cow's Milk

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Title (Milk) Dating back as far as 4000 B.C., people have been herding cows. During this time, farmers in Europe began to spread a genetic mutation called lactase persistence which allowed them to drink milk without harmful effects. To this day people still drink milk, even those who are adversely affected by it. Recently, though, many healthy alternatives to cow’s milk have been discovered and used. With the discovery of these alternatives, do you really need to keep drinking cow’s milk?

Drinking cow’s milk does not harm your bones. The acid-ash hypothesis claims that, because of the milk leaving behind acidic residue after digestion, your body must use alkaline minerals to neutralize it, namely your bones. This has been disproven since …show more content…

Currently, about ⅔ of adults have lactose intolerance, meaning that their bodies do not produce the enzyme lactase which is needed to properly digest lactose. Currently, ⅓ of adults can drink milk without issues. This can be attributed to their ancestors, likely cattle herders. Around 4,000 B.C., cattle farming peoples developed a genetic mutation which allowed them to digest the milk from their herds. Because of the obvious advantage this provides, the mutation spread quickly through their descendants. The gene that was mutated affected the production of lactase in the body. Normally, after infancy, a child’s body would stop producing lactase as it no longer needs its mother’s milk to survive. The mutation changes this so that, instead of stopping the production of lactase at a certain age, it would instead never stop being …show more content…

These substitutes usually lack the lactose that aggravates those with lactose intolerance, and come in different varieties. Some of the more popular ones are made using rice, soy, almonds, and coconuts. Each one can come with added sugar or without, plainly flavored or chocolate and vanilla flavored. Each milk has their own pros and cons depending on what it’s made from. With almond milk, you’ll have more calcium for your bones than milk, but at the cost of protein for muscles(“The Best and Worst Milk Alternatives”). A second popular milk type is soy, milk made from soybeans, which has the highest amount of protein out of the milk alternatives(“The Best and Worst Milk Alternatives”). Those that’d benefit most from these alternatives would be people suffering from lactose intolerance. Even goat’s milk would be better than milk from a cow, if only because goat’s milk contains less lactose. Even if you aren’t lactose intolerant, it’d be a good idea to try these

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