It may be reasonable to change the approximately 75 calories of 3 teaspoons of sugar, for the 0 that a sweetener offers us, or the 105 calories that a glass of regular cola has for the 0 of the same drink in its zero version; but if we are talking about milk, whose nutritional values and specifically its proteins of high biological value, that is to say that they contain all the amino acids that we need and our organism does not produce by itself, and whose substitutes can NEVER reach, it is little less than a nonsense.
A well-analyzed and conscientiously grounded ideological rationale that leads someone to renounce animal protein is not open to discussion, but the argument based on the healthy or environmentally friendly that urges us to modify our diet is at the very least lying and irresponsible.
Who believes he is caring for the environment is abandoning proper and truly healthy nutrition in vain, and whoever convinced him to do so has successfully conned him. He is neglecting his health and that of his own in exchange for a fictitious convenience. As we have already explained several times, cattle breeding does not contribute significantly to global warming, because the methane that does affect this climatic phenomenon comes from the burning of fossil fuels that piles up for thousands of years in the atmosphere, as opposed to the methane emitted by ruminants that is part of a biogenic cycle that after a few years is recycled in the photosynthesis of the plants that feed them.
And although we work every day to make the use of resources, such as water, more efficient, its use in livestock farming does not represent a risk either for nature or for the people for whom this precious commodity is scarce. Because water is not wasted. It is also part of an infinite cycle of reuse. To give you another example, livestock farming uses more than 90% of rainwater that has no alternative use, it does not use drinking water. Let alone if we compare the water consumed by a cow in the pasture with an almond produced under irrigation. The use of green or rainwater does not contribute to water scarcity anywhere.
What can we say about animal abuse as an argument for the abandonment of foods that have allowed us to have a superior cognitive development or to enjoy the highest life expectancy in the history of mankind. Animal production, as well as practically all our economic activities, is strictly regulated in terms of health and animal welfare. That is to say, if it were not enough to know that a cow that is not happy, comfortable, healthy and well fed does not give milk in a profitable way, I tell you that there are laws that oblige the producer to keep his herd under welfare conditions, and that he also works with animals also because of an affinity with them that leads him to be kind and compassionate, because he is also human.
Unless you have a health condition that is especially aggravated by the consumption of certain foods, it is foolish to adhere to fads that seek to remove them from our diet, especially those such as milk, fundamental and irreplaceable for our physical conformation and its maintenance, as well as our immune system.
It is time for the fad to be eating well. It is time to start calling a spade a spade and to put the healthy and the real on the same level. Milk, the real thing, is what comes out of the breasts of cows, which grow and live happily in kindly tended farms, it is delicious, it is necessary, it is beneficial to no end and it is respectful of the environment.
Eating dairy is good for you. It’s time to be authentic and genuinely healthy: I’m all about it. Have you had your glass of milk today?
Valeria Guzmán Hamann
EDAIRYNEWS
