DGS is lactose intolerant, so he drinks unsweetened almond milk with vanilla. I recently started using it also. DD2 is strict on what he can/cannot eat. He is extremely healthy and eats well. No juice, rarely sugar (cookies), no gluten. He loves water. Partly due to his sensitive stomach, partly due to her just wanting to feed him healthier foods.

DGD (cousin to DGS) threw up every formula under the sun. They started buying raw milk from a certified farmer while in Chicago and found one here in Alabama when they moved last year. Once she turned 2yo, they stopped buying the raw milk. Not sure what she is drinking now but I'm sure it does not have hormones.

I only buy milk without hormones. Actually, for the last eight years or so, we have had our milk delivered from a local dairy that uses neither hormones nor regularly administered antibiotics. Love having butter, yogurt, milk, cream, eggs delivered weekly (or as needed)! Their chicken tastes like it did when I was a kid in the 50s. DH and I were so surprised b/c we hadn't realized how those mass-produced chickens have no real flavor.

I just don't think there is anything good about those additives. I wonder about the effects of those hormones on children, especially little girls, many of whom seem to be entering puberty much earlier than in the past. Wish someone would do a study on that.

Don't get me started on pesticides and herbicides and GMO. Sheesh.

I rarely drink it, but I love milkâ¦whole milk, with no hormones.

I do think whole milk is VERY important especially for growing girls, at least up to puberty. The fat is so important for their reproductive systems.

However as an adult, I generally use rice milk.

We only drink organic, after a very good friend with breast cancer was told by her Dr. to eat ONLY organic meats and dairy, FWIW. That was about 8-9 years ago that we switched

Another friend who is Asian and a physician claims that Asians in Asia have less incidence of cancer because they have so little dairy.

We like dairy, but try to de-emphasize and get calcium elsewhere. We try not to drink a ton of it (water or fresh brewed iced tea instead), and we eat ice cream only as a treat when we are out, almost never buy it at home. But, we do like cheese and I find that hard to give up ... I don't think i want to.

I hate milk and always have, not liking the taste or consistency.

Approximately two thirds of the adult population is lactose intolerant to some degree. We outgrow our need for milk and considering how adulterated it is now, I don't consider it a healthy food. I am also puzzled at the plethora of milk substitutes made of soy, almonds, rice, etc. Is this just to have something to put on cereal?

I only buy organic everything and can't seem to give it up in my morning coffee, plus I love cottage cheese and other dairy, butter, etc. But what do I THINK about milk? I think it's intended as nutrition for calves and so the thought of eating/drinking it kind of grosses me out, if I let myself think about it. :-)

Allison and cyn, I would love to have the raw dairy milk or the certified dairy milk, but wouldn't know how to go about it. I may make some phone calls.

Tibbrix, I probably should cut down on milk-I probably should cut down on a lot of things LOL!

mtn, very interesting about the less incidence of cancer in Asia from your physician friend. I need to try to find calcium in other foods.

cyn, regarding the chicken, I have been shopping at Sprouts since they come to our town a few months ago and buying chicken there regularly, then, my DH comes home from a different grocery store with this bag of Tyson frozen chicken breasts-they were HUGE compared to the organic chicken breasts I've been buying at Sprouts. I also buy chicken breasts from a meat market near our house too, and they are smaller.

There is absolutely no one in our family who is lactose intolerant, and hardly any friends or their kids either. Weird!

Olliesmom, I should have clarified my statement! The two thirds figure I used is one I learned in a population dynamics course in college, and it is for the world population. Considering that the United States is not a significant part of the world population I am not surprised that someone here would not personally know any lactose intolerant adults.

From Wikipedia --- not a source I normally use but it's quick and this looks mostly correct. And, obviously, lactose intolerant does not mean people cannot digest it, plenty of people eat milk products regardless of any side effects they may consider inconsequential if they like the taste.

Most mammals normally cease to produce lactase, becoming lactose intolerant, after weaning,[4] but some human populations have developed lactase persistence, in which lactase production continues into adulthood. A study of 21 African American girls, showed 75% had some decrease in lactase activity during adolescence .[5] The frequency of lactose intolerance ranges from 5% in Northern European to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.[6] This distribution is now thought to have been caused by recent natural selection favoring lactase-persistent individuals in cultures in which dairy products are available as a food source.[7] Although populations in Europe, India, Arabia, and Africa were first thought to have high frequencies of lactase persistence because of a single mutation, lactase persistence has been traced to a number of mutations that occurred independently.[8]

I only drink milk in my coffee, and it's organic lactose-free milk (DD is lactose intolerant so I just buy lactose-free for the house). I hardly ever have cereal -- which would be the only other time I have milk, really, unless it's part of a recipe.

But I wonder about calcium ... Should I be taking supplements? I don't think I get much calcium from other foods.

Have a look inside a Milk Transport and youll stop drinking that disgusting crap.
Cow milk is for raising up baby cows,not humans
Argue it all you want,the truth presented back in the early 50's against the FDA and milk producers pretty well exposed every thing,time drug on and the dust settled and the propaganda began to encourage humans to drink up.
Hormones in cow milk is the very least of your concerns

The Feds allow the other garbage to slide by unregulated and undisclosed.The volumes of compiled lactose data
once understood explains it all perfectly.

Milk does not do a human body good

Anecdotally, I think that the typical milk that most kids drink, and chicken are loading up kids with hormones that are causing accelerated puberty, menarche and adult dentitions in younger and younger kids. I think the hormones are one of the things that is also making kids so fat.

In the one clinic I have seen girls as young as nine with pretty full breasts and all their adult teeth excluding their wisdom teeth. They are going to have to change the average ages of tooth eruption because it's getting younger. I think I lost my last baby tooth at age 13 or 14.

I love milk, but will only buy organic whole milk, yogurt, etc. Many years ago my super health oriented SIL had me look into some of the health risks associated with the way modern skim and no-fat milk is produced so now I avoid skim milk/yogurt etc. Plus I love the taste of whole milk. I don't drink a lot of it, but use it in my oatmeal and occasionally drink it at night before bed if I didn't eat enough for dinner. Interestingly, my Caucasian son has a milk/dairy aversion and never touches milk and my two Asian daughters drink milk (in moderation) with no problems or signs of lactose intolerance.

SueB, my son drinks OJ with calcium to get his calcium. My mom has osteoporosis and takes calcium supplements - it's worth getting tested for osteoporosis to see if you need more calcium in your diet. I got tested as part of my general physical when I turned 50 I thinkâ¦.

We use unsweetened almond milk. Once in a while I'll buy a small thing of milk to use in a recipe, but we usually can't tell the difference. DH is the only one who eats cereal. It's his indulgent snack. I'd rather have a biscuit.

After checking out both sides of the fence, I don't consider milk healthy. I think raw milk from healthy cows has the most benefit. DS doesn't like milk and only drinks water. We did buy raw for a while, but didn't care for it and it was quite out of the way to get. When I asked DS's ped about raw milk (she doesn't consider milk healthy) she mentioned she has seen quite a few very young kids that ended up sick. So I make a lot of chicken and beef bone stock and we all try and eat a variety of foods. DS also takes a cal mag supplement from ChildLife.

There's so much info on both sides. I've come to the conclusion if I'm not going to buy organic milk, cheese, or yogurt (and I don't always) it's better to go with the low or non fat since the fat is where the toxins are. The meat we're eating today, even organic, is just not the same meat our ancestors ate. I'm not anti fat. Low fat stuff is typically filled with sugar to make up for the taste. I believe fat is good and we should eat avocados, olive oil, grape seed oil, coconut oil, nuts, etc.

Pick and choose I guess. I eat butter and don't think too hard about it.

This post was edited by sheesharee on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 2:17

I have osteoporosis. I drink hormone free milk, eat calcium rich foods and take calcium supplements.

I wish I had eat like this my entire life.

Interesting, or maybe coincidence, but my DD who doesn't drink milk just lost her last baby tooth (actually it had to be pulled by an oral surgeon) at age 13.5, and got her period at age 13, which was about average back when I was a kid. She's also Korean so I don't know if that plays into it. Definitely didn't develop early but she's small in general.

We do buy OJ with calcium, and she was low on Vitamin D at one of her physicals, so she does take Vitamin D...when she remembers.

IMO, for children, hormone free organic whole milk can be a good source of protein, fats and carbs as well as calcium and vitamins that children need.

We have essentially dropped drinking milk as I don't have anything to put it on any more (I switched to smoothies from cereals) and DH seems to have some lactose intolerance. When we did have it though, we bought the organic stuff. We only drank whole milk as a way to slow down the absorption of the sugar load that it provides (13 g sugar in one cup). Now, instead, in my coffee and tea, I use heavy cream...all fat, no lactose, no glycemic load.

My concern is that the milk substitutes do not provide anywhere near the complete protein load that cow's milk does. For example a cup of almond milk (which contains about 4 almonds) is 1 g of incomplete protein vs. 1 c cow's milk which is 8 g. Not only for child development, but also as we age, there is growing evidence that sufficient protein can help prevent muscle loss and frailty that is so common in the elderly. So the substitutes are not really substitutes from a nutrition POV.

I was using quinoa milk for DH for awhile, (4g protein per cup) but now I can't seem to find it in stores any more. Hemp milk is also supposed to be higher in protein, (3g per cup) but not quite a complete protein. But I've had difficulty finding it in stores as well.

I think messing with one's endocrine system is asking for trouble, whether it's HRT, hormones in milk, birth control pillsâ¦if at all possible, I'd stay away from all of that.

Years ago I read Marilu Henner's book on macrobiotics, and since then, I've gone that route, although not as extreme as her, off and on, mainly no dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, and the changes my body undergoes are just amazing! I look 20 years younger, I FEEL 20 years youngerâ¦it's nothing short of striking the differences no dairy, whole grains, no sugar make on a bod. Unfortunately, my weakness is in fact dairy, cream to be precise. I love it, in any form.

I am from a farm family; first gen off the farm. I always liked milk best when we were at the farm, so it was straight out of the cow. I NEVER drank the milk at school, even when they started adding chocolate, because it tasted horrible to me. At home, we had some really good milk delivered, and I drank it.

When I discovered raw milk, I loved it. The milk from that dairy tasted JUST like the milk from my grandfather's cows. Funny how the taste memory lingered for 45 years! I could taste the different grasses the cow ate, so it changed with the seasons. My milk was from a medium sized dairy who always had his testing available.

I found a nice family with a cow here, and I started buying raw milk from him. I asked him about testing, and he did not understand that it is important. When I started detecting a different flavor in the milk, I found a pasteurized milk that I like.

Another consideration, if any of you have thyroid disease, there is iodine in milk that comes from cleaning the teats. Iodine stimulates thyroid function.

Personally, I never liked milk all that much. It was never a beverage for me although sometimes served as a vehicle for dunking cookies in. I purchase whole milk for making yogurt and the kids use milk in their cereal. I do reduce the amount of cheese in most recipes but an unlikely to eliminate it entirely. When cooking, I use a wide variety of "milks" and that often depends on what is in the house, sometimes coconut milk, hemp milk, cashew milk, etc. I have found no acceptable alternative to half n half for my coffee. We generally prefer Blue Bell ice cream so will only have ice cream when it goes on sale and that is a measured amount. Sometimes we will also make ice cream with alternative milks. Coconut milk ice cream is fabulous. Annie, hemp milk is rather easy to make if you have a good blender, significantly cheaper too.

kswl, I think all the alternative milks are for people like my dh who liked milk drinking at one time and want an alternative that is perhaps healthier. DH always loved chocolate milk and now he still likes a small glass of chocolate hazelnut milk at night.

As far as the effects on children, I suspect that there are many factors within the diet that contribute to things such es early puberty, not just dairy. My daughter actually started puberty 2 years later than I. It is hard to say in our family how the teeth are affected as they all got their baby teeth relatively late and so the process of losing them started late too.

I was forced to drink milk growing up, but have always disliked it. The only thing I use milk for now is a dab in my coffee and in cooking. DH uses it on cereal. I have bought the organic for years. I do like yogurt and cheese.

Here in Canada hormones are not allowed to be used to increase milk production. However, that IMO does not mean that milk is necessary or healthy. My Naturopath says it causes inflammation which is implicated in many disease conditions.

I use organic milk and only for cooking and most of the time I avoid foods that require it in cooking. I do use organic butter daily and cheese and heavy cream regularly. I love cream and butter and without those calories I'd be very thin!

I use 1 percent milk on my cereal in the morning and that's it, except for cooking. I get it at Trader Joe's and it says from cows not treated with BST. Guess I should pay more attention.I grew up drinking milk at most meals and so did my kids. I always thought it was healthy. Nothing ever stays the same. Sigh.

Olliesmon, our Sprout is opening in February. Cannot wait since Whole Foods is farther away and traffic there is a nightmare.

Raw milk is illegal in some states. I'll post a link for you to start researching. When DGD was a baby, DIL mixed other things with it - don't recall what.

Here is a link that might be useful: Real Milk Finder

Thinking more, I think we could have learned to like the raw milk taste, but I didn't feel 100% safe drinking it. I don't know that I had a legit reason for that as the place seemed nice, cows looked good, and I remember there being certificates hanging around but there was still that what if. Add that to it being out of the way and we nixed it.

As I mentioned above we did try and give DS organic milk at one point, but he didn't like it. That's how the topic come up at the ped's office actually. If he would have liked it and didn't show any intolerances...he'd probably be drinking organic milk for now because of the calcium.

I do believe dairy is inflammatory, but there are definitely worse things out there.

This post was edited by sheesharee on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 17:09