If you want to avoid cows' milk, which is a better choice? (details inside)

If you’re really worried about the puss and such, I would just avoid animal milk generally unless you see the farm where it comes from. ;-)

Other than that, soy and almond are great alternatives, but it all depends on the brand and whether you want to fully mimic the taste of milk.

If you do, I would suggest Silk brand soy milk (the one in the red milk-like carton). It’s pretty much the same thing.

But experimentation is your best option.

thanks. I prefer the almond milk over vanilla Soy so I mixed them , for now, until they get more almond in .

RAAWWW MIIILLLKK!!!!!! from Organic Pastures

There’s also goat milk, but a lot of people think it tastes bad…

(;

Also, Soy Milk is actually very unhealthy….

@omg_dung – do you have any raw suggestions with a more east coast flavored distribution?

@iamthemob

try this
(:

Pus? What? Seriously?

What kind of pus are we talking about?

@omg_dung THANKS! That is awesome.

@DrasticDreamer Yes indeed…but it is pretty much a CAFO or industrial problem. This site is pretty one-sided, but it gives you a really gross picture of the problem.

Do your self a favor and just quit drinking all that stuff. I just quit milk myself about almost a yer ago. I still eat cheese. But no mo milk. I do smoothies instead, with just whole fruit blended so sweetly!

I noticed when I was looking at some cows at the state fair this weekend that there was a sign in the enclosure to the effect of ‘No, the cows’ teats don’t have blood on them; we put iodine on them to keep them from getting infections.’

There’s a lot of chemicals goes into the production of milk.

@iamthemob I’m definitely going to look into that more, and I had no idea. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to drink a glass of milk without vomiting now.

@Aster Maybe switch back and forth between soy and almond milk. Soy isn’t bad for you unless you consume massive amounts – nothing that you would have to worry about. Since nuts tend to be fatty (good fat, but still fatty) make sure you keep an eye on that if you drink almond milk. (Which is why I suggested going back and forth)

@DrasticDreamer
it does’nt actually take massive amounts of soy milk for it to be bad for you…

@omg_dung Too much of anything can be bad for you, kiddo. It’s all about moderation.

@DrasticDreamer “Vomiting.” lol Actually, I began thinking about all the antibiotics and hormone shots and possible infections and I just stopped milk. Four days now. @Ben_Dover smoothies; great but I have to have Some sort of milky stuff with cereal!
Where’s that darn Simone? She could tell us about the pus thingie.

We have raw goat milk for sale and its the bomb. If you’re in western PA ill give you my moms phone number and you can get some of that, best stuff out there.

Yogurt & cereal is great.

Regarding the healthiness of cow’s milk – people are freaky about food. Everybody eats but most people know very little.. So most of what you find on the Internet is unfounded rumor or a sales spiel. If it sounds unlikely it is probably untrue.

I’m not saying this story is untrue but I would be careful about who you believe. People who actually test milk samples I would believe. Some random guy with a blog not so much.

Water. We don’t NEED milk any more than we NEED octopus legs or escargo. Milk is a thing for babies, not adult mammals. Seriously. And Yeah, what @jaytkay just said. It’s fine anyway. It won’t hurt you.

If you must have milk, a glass of soy milk a day would be fine, no danger.

Why not just buy organic milk?

We drink a lot of milk, and I know for a fact all of the brands at the grocery store, including the store brand, don’t have added hormones. All milk has natural hormones, even human milk. Organic milk also wouldn’t have the antibiotics or any residue from pesticides on the food given to the cows. I don’t know about pus though, that’s a new one for me.

The cost of organic milk is crazy though, and I don’t know how it compares to things like soy milk or almond milk. We go through a gallon of milk every couple of days, so I only buy organic milk when I have a little extra in the grocery budget.

I drink a quart of milk a day so this won’t be cheap. At least I never drink soda . I was drinking 1% and I read it has more sugar than whole milk. I can’t win.
I’m not going to pour water over cereal. I will drink tea with a meal but not each meal.

Why buy milk at all? Back to my rant…before the domestication of the cow, do you think the American Indians went out of their to find a way to feed milk from some mammal to their children over the age of 2 much less to the adults? Thinking back to all other early societies, the answer is “No.” We don’t need milk to stay healthy.

BUT…what else goes better with a warm brownie???? Num num num!! How else you gonna eat your Cheerios? (I love milk!)...I don’t think you have anything to worry about, really, but if you really are worried….wean the child, and yourselves, off of milk.

Wait…are you saying we should be milking chicks instead?!?!

(sorry…I couldn’t resist)

@iamthemob Ahem. Are you referring to baby chickens?

@Dutchess_III uhm…sure…I am now. :-)

What kinda chicks you referring to?? You’re confusing me!

Steel cut oatmeal with fat free greek yogurt, a little honey and fresh fruit is awesome in the morning and lowers your cholesterol as well.

Oatmeal is the way to go! Slice some bananas and boil them for just a second. Turn off heat…add oats…lets sit five minutes. add cinnamon and blueberries and sliced almonds.

No milk needed!

I like almond milk the best. I was totally not a fan of hemp milk, and rice milk can be pretty good. Soy milk is okay, but I try to stay away from soy as much as possible these days with all the Monsanto BS going around.

What’s up with all the milk??? Oats are good…they give off a liquid that’s kind of thicky like milk, but it’s not milk. We should start Oatmeal milking farms!

i like soy and almond.

My dad did Soy milk. I had some it was not all that bad.

@omg_dung I agree with everything you said. Raw milk (knowing the source) is said to be much healthier. Soy products of any kind are not as healthy as they are cracked up to be.

Raw milk is great if you are comfortable with the source – and if you can get it! In our state it is illegal to sell raw milk. I’m fortunate to have a friend who raises goats. Goat milk is very good! I don’t drink milk, but like it to put on cereal (now that I’m eating cereal again) and make yogurt and ice cream with.

There is an appliance for making soy milk – making your own from organic, non-GMO soybeans is much healthier and cheaper than buying soymilk (most soymilk has carrageenan in it, which is apparently not good for you even though it is in EVERYTHING). I don’t remember the brand of mine – I haven’t used it in years – but I liked the soymilk it made (I put a little millet in mine to thicken it up).

I generally use Rice Dream these days, unless I’m making yogurt.

@Aster and everyone else: You are way off base on this. The iodine is called teat dip. It’s a common preventative practice to prevent infection of the cows udder. Look at the udder. Everything liquid would flow down to the end of the cows teat. After they are milked the teats are dipped in the iodine to prevent any bacteria from moving down with the wash water, getting to the teat ends and moving into the udder. Also, most farms don’t use any hormones. Read the labels on your milk. There’s been a swing away from using the BGT, which was the only hormone some farms used to use.

They all use antibiotics though, right?

@Aster Actually very rarely for dairy farms. It’s the beef finishing lots that use a lot of antibiotics.

I’m dairy intolerant so I don’t drink any kind of animal milk at all. There are four alternatives I’ve come across.

Soya milk: Easy to find, tastes very vegetable-y, some people have allergy issues with soya and there are concerns about genetically-modified soya.
Rice milk: relatively tasteless, goes well with anything. There are some ethical issues surrounding the leading brand’s involvement with Wal-mart, Exxon Mobil and Monsanto; companies with a poor ethical & environmental record.
Oat milk: very oaty taste, which I like but not many people do.
Almond milk: said to be the best but so expensive here that I haven’t actually tried it yet.

Of these my favourite is oat milk.

Rice milk is easy to make: recipe (and an explanation of why Rice Dream is bad) is here: http://www.veganreader.com/2009/05/17/how-to-make-rice-milk-and-stop-supporting-rice-dream/

Oat milk is made in exactly the same way, just substitute oats for rice in the recipe.

@downtide

In a perfect world, we’d all stay away from everything Monsanto…

@iamthemob I had actually never heard of them until I read that article about Rice Dream.

@downtide – Wow! Thanks for posting that link! I didn’t know Monsanto was involved with Rice Dream, so the last purchase I will ever make of that product is on my shelf right now.

When you make the oat milk, do you use whole oats, steel cut, or rolled? Sounds good!

Thanks!

@Aster – the soy milk maker I have is called a Soy Toy. I thought it did a good job. I found a source here .

@llewis I’m not sure if it matters that much? I’ve been using rolled oats, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the other sorts for sale here. I’d imagine whole oats (unless you crush them yourself) wouldn’t be so successful; the idea is to get the starch out.