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Milk Makes Me Sick!
Justin may mock, but the reality is that these people are on to something, though perhaps not a viable legal claim. Given that lactose intolerance actually seems to affect most of the world's population (a minority of white folks, but most non-whites and non-whites outnumber whites pretty badly) there actually is something a bit odd about the tone and omnipresence of pro-milk propaganda. Now, personally, I think milk is just about the grossest substance on the planet but I love my cheese despite some very mild intolerance.
June 21, 2005 | Permalink
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» Kakistocracy from InappropriateContent
The people he's referring to have been my pet peeve for a few weeks now. Every morning on the bus, I see their ad, which... [Read More]
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» Kakistocracy© from InappropriateContent
The people he's referring to have been my pet peeve for a few weeks now. Every morning on the bus... [Read More]
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» Milk makes Yglesias sick from U.S. Food Policy
Popular weblogger Matthew Yglesias links to a new campaign of litigation by the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, a health policy and animal rights advocacy group. [Read More]
Tracked on Jun 21, 2005 4:08:11 PM
» Milk makes Yglesias sick from U.S. Food Policy
Popular weblogger Matthew Yglesias links to a new campaign of litigation by the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, a health policy and animal rights advocacy group. [Read More]
Tracked on Jun 21, 2005 4:11:20 PM
» Got Litigation? from The Republic of T.
I don’t like lactose and I’m not gonna tolerate it. In fact, I’m gonna sue.
I actually, I like many dairy products, but quite a few of them don’t like me. ‘ve probably been lactose intolerant all my life. The first hint... [Read More]
Tracked on Jun 21, 2005 8:21:21 PM
Comments
If dairy products make you ill, don't consume them.
I've read that more than a few Asians are also lactose intolerant. Asians tend to eat tofu, a soy based product, instead of cheese.
Posted by: raj | Jun 21, 2005 1:31:09 AM
Cheese is cool. Yoghurt is cool. Even small amounts of raw milk used to cut coffee or tea are cool.
But drinking a glass of milk straight up is about as uncivilized a behavior as one can imagine.
Posted by: Petey | Jun 21, 2005 2:11:50 AM
"I love my cheese despite some very mild intolerance."
You don't have lactose intolerance. You are merely human. It would be like saying you were sucrose intolerant because eating a pound of sugar made you a bit twitchy. That's just how people are wired.
Posted by: Petey | Jun 21, 2005 2:16:26 AM
But how do you feel about Froot Loops?
Posted by: SamAm | Jun 21, 2005 3:32:40 AM
That's weird. I'm personally fine with milk, provided that it's very cold. But cheese makes me want to ralph. Mozarrella is the exception, thank god.
Posted by: Royko | Jun 21, 2005 5:09:50 AM
But drinking a glass of milk straight up is about as uncivilized a behavior as one can imagine.
Not even with cookies or brownies?
Anyway, most cheese is pretty low in lactose. The lactose stays in solution with the whey, or is eaten by microbes during the curing process. So it's not too mysterious that you can tolerate cheese.
More interesting is the huge popularity of ice cream in China, despite almost everyone there being lactose intolerant (according to what I've read, anyway).
Posted by: tom | Jun 21, 2005 9:43:55 AM
Milk was a regular staple in the Capps household, served with every meal in lieu of soft drinks or other alternatives, and I'm convinced I'll never have a cavity for milk's abundance. After a college stint in which regular milk was an unthinkable luxury, I tried to return to my adolescent drinking habits, only to find I'd developed a mild intolerance. But milk was so good that I actually drank through the intolerance and now enjoy that sweet, sweet calcium goodness as I see fit. Skim only, of course.
Posted by: Kriston | Jun 21, 2005 10:06:45 AM
Milk was a regular staple in the Capps household, served with every meal in lieu of soft drinks or other alternatives, and I'm convinced I'll never have a cavity for milk's abundance. After a college stint in which regular milk was an unthinkable luxury, I tried to return to my adolescent drinking habits, only to find I'd developed a mild intolerance. But milk was so good that I actually drank through the intolerance and now enjoy that sweet, sweet calcium goodness as I see fit. Skim only, of course.
Posted by: Kriston | Jun 21, 2005 10:06:51 AM
Surely you aren't lumping the friendly and delicious chocolate milk in with the gross white stuff.
Posted by: yesh | Jun 21, 2005 10:36:49 AM
Surely you aren't lumping the friendly and delicious chocolate milk in with the gross white stuff.
Posted by: yesh | Jun 21, 2005 10:38:45 AM
The milk propagandists have had it easy too long. Especially here in Canada, where the price of dairy products is determine by a producer friendly supply board, milkers (milkies? -- other derogatory epithets?) are easy to hate.
This lawsuit has as much chance of succeeding as the one against toothbrish manufacturers a few years ago. But the milkies have it coming to them.
Posted by: Ikram | Jun 21, 2005 10:54:23 AM
We have been looking for milk alternatives for on everything basically because milk gives us stomache aches. The best "ice cream" is this brand called Purely Decadent (www.purelydecadent.com). It's just like Ben and Jerry's but non dairy.
Silk chocolate milk rocks too.
Posted by: stu | Jun 21, 2005 11:19:35 AM
If dairy products make you ill, don't consume them.
What country do you live in?
Obviously, here in the United States of America, the correct thing is: If dairy products make you ill, sue everybody ever connected in any way with milk.
BTW, speaking o milk, what ever happened to Jim Jeffords' Northeast Dairy Compact? Does anyone here recall?
Posted by: Al | Jun 21, 2005 3:29:21 PM
First a post on cowboy hats, now a post about milk. I can't imagine you getting more puerile unless you posted about your memories of Cuban-American potty training.
Posted by: Mr Damage | Jun 21, 2005 4:58:09 PM
Big boo to the soy milk pushers! Lactose intolerance can be fixed with a tiny little enzyme pill, and for many people it never becomes an issue. Soy products (taken in sufficient quantities) can affect your endocrine system, mimicking estrogens. Don't feed your kids soy milk!
Posted by: tom | Jun 21, 2005 7:56:43 PM
I wonder if they got office space on Wisconsin Ave. on purpose.
(n.b., I live in Wisconsin and hate milk. Cheese, butter, ice cream, etc. are fine, but milk itself is gross.)
Posted by: Aaron S. Veenstra | Jun 22, 2005 11:25:54 AM
OT, but there is another...
Smoking Gun
Posted by: Jeff Klein | Jun 22, 2005 11:41:20 AM
Yet another PETA sock puppet group, I expect.
Posted by: Chuchundra | Jun 22, 2005 12:56:26 PM
Wait, why is drinking milk uncivilized? It's no more or less uncivilized than consuming any animal product of any kind. And why is advertising now being called 'propaganda'? If you make a product that you want people to consume, you market it. No one is forced to buy it as a result, unless they lack a spine, and that's a far greater issue than lactose intolerance.
Posted by: Meg | Jun 22, 2005 2:38:22 PM
Off topic, but I'd just like to ssay I agree with much of Matt's comment "THE TROUBLE WITH DEFEATISM" over at Tapped.
One further point is, even if Bush gets undeserve credit for Iarq that will not necessarily help the Reps win th enext election.
Remember Churcill. Voters will say - OK George you've brought democary to Iraq and various other places, thanks but that's no reason to keep you on. This achievement is not guaranteed to be of any elcetoral benefit.
By the way, personally I think Bush does deserve credit but would prefer the Dems get in next time round.
Matt, so OK if one did not think the war was justified, Saddam contained etc etc, would this have just been delaying the inevtable show down?
Posted by: neil | Jun 22, 2005 7:17:09 PM
"Wait, why is drinking milk uncivilized?"
I didn't make up the rules of civilization. I simply report them.
Why is wearing polyester uncivilized? It just is.
Posted by: Petey | Jun 22, 2005 9:45:35 PM
I read about this somewhere ( I can't remember where now) that the ability to drink milk as an adult is a genetic trait that evolved in Northern European populations to enable them to get vitamin D. People in more temperate climates can get it from the sun, but in the far north, winter days are short or even non-existent, and even in the summer it never gets so warm you can expose too much of your body to the sun. This is the same reason for white skin, to make the most of what little sunlight is available.
Anyway, this explains why, to Euro-Americans, the ability to drink milk is considered "normal" and "lactose-intolerance," which is actually more common, is a deficiency. Ever since learning this I have wondered if the whole "got milk" thing didn't carry a whiff of racism, with its implicit assumption of "we are normal, you are not," though I have to say I love the stuff myself and in my house we go through it like crazy.
Posted by: SadieB. | Jun 22, 2005 10:52:50 PM
gotta be whole milk..none of that nasty skim stuff!
Posted by: fin | Jun 23, 2005 1:22:55 AM
Anyway, most cheese is pretty low in lactose.
Tom -- don't believe their lies. That site is just propaganda from Big Cheese (the American Dairy Association, to be specific). Notice how each of their responses brings up completely irrelevant information to give the impression that dairy is necessary. The best part is the list of alternative calcium sources: cheese; barring that, cheese; and, if you insist on turning those down, you might get by with tofu, canned salmon with bones, or turnip greens. What an exhaustive and conveniently disgusting list. And their main point against calcium supplements is that they don't provide you with enough non-calcium nutrients.
That said, milkmakesmesick.org is a front for Big Vegan. And if there's anything I hate more than Big Cheese (and oh how I hate Big Cheese), it's Big Vegan. Strong bones my ass.
Posted by: Dubner | Jun 23, 2005 1:28:11 AM
This milkmakesmesick campaign is run by a group called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. There is apparently no "physicians committee" -- at least, no committee members appear on its elaborate website. It is run by Neal Bernard, a psychiatrist. The group is closely associated with PETA and advocates an end to the use of animals for human purposes (no testing, no animal foods) and a vegan diet for all.
Posted by: JR | Jun 23, 2005 10:27:50 AM
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