4 ms·
Why would anyone think drinking the milk of another animal, evolved to grow calves, not people? The article's second-to-last paragraph tells you everything. We
by spodek 12y ago
Why would anyone think drinking the milk of another animal, evolved to grow calves, not people?
The article's second-to-last paragraph tells you everything. We believe in milk because it's profitable for diary producers to promote it, which they do.
> 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.'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.”
- revelation 12y agoBecause it turns out God didn't handcraft every single one of us and there is considerable overlap between the needs of calves and that of humans. So maybe "milk is good for you" is another marketing ploy like the KFC christmas in Japan or Coca-Cola. I'm pretty sure sugary drinks are still worse in comparison, though.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- scott_s 12y agoBecause it is a convenient food source, for those that can digest it. Being able to digest lactose is more common in people whose ancestors domesticated cows. Human evolution has not stopped; the ability for some people to digest lactose into adulthood is a recent adaptation, which happened after we domesticated cows and had a convenient food source available, aside from their meat. A cow's liver also serves a very specific evolutionary purpose for the cow, but I've never seen anyone say, "Why would anyone think of eating a cow's liver, evolved to detoxify the cow, not feed people?"
- svalorzen 12y agoWell, I'm pretty sure nothing I eat specifically evolved to be eaten by me. Guess what, I eat anyway.
- delecti 12y agoWell that depends on whether you consider what we do to plants "evolution".
- scott_s 12y agoTo follow up your point: everything we eat that comes from farms (so, most fruits, veggies and meat) has been heavily altered from its wild ancestors. In that way, we very much have, through artificial selection, made food adapted for us to eat.
- guyzero 12y agoMilk was "evolved" about the same way wheat "evolved" - which is to say, it was created through over thousands of years of selective breeding. Modern milk is pretty carefully engineered to give very specific percentages of fat, protein and sugars by way of the way cattle are bred and selected. Modern milk is about as "evolved" as a ham sandwich.