“Milk makes strong bones (NICHD). Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, drink your milk. Milk is good for you.” These were proposed as absolute truths that were feed to me as a child, and also many other children. Although the intentions were good, these facts aren’t always true, and if misunderstood, can be harmful to people that believe in those statements. The calcium in milk does help maintain strong bones, but also too much milk is harmful for adults and can cause kidney stones, and increase risks of heart disease and prostate cancer (ODS). Breakfast isn’t necessarily the most important meal of the day (Berardi). Finally, milk can be bad for you, and this paper is meant to prove that to you. Although there are reasons to drinking milk that are widely advertised, the reasons of not drinking milk are often ignored or not known. The only reason I found the cons of drinking milk is my most recent interest in food and health. You are what you eat, so it is imperative to eat the best things in order to become the best version of yourself. This website is for people who do not have a balanced few on milk and its nutrition, which is almost everyone. My purpose is to inform people about all things related to milk, so that people can have balanced nutrition and a healthy food conscience. This speech is intended to the government health department in order to convince them to use their resources to promote milk awareness, and also the awareness of other foods (which isn’t discussed in this presentation) to the American people. Milk is widely accepted in the US as a necessity for nutrition, although there’s research that it’s detrimental to human beings. I want all citizens to be taught all aspects of nutrition, so that they can eat what’s best for them in order to the best life they can live.

About me
I am currently an Undergrad student at UCSD, studying AstroPhysics with a minor in Computer Science Engineering. The reason for my interest in milk or health is from my recent goal of becoming fit. Fitness and health go hand in hand, in order to slim down, I not only had to research about fitness, but nutrition and food as well. My whole life I believed milk was required and healthy for you, yet I discovered that this is not true. The idea that milk was good for you was such an absolute thought, something I was trained to believe through advertisement from media and people that did not know what they were talking about.

"Milk has calcium which builds strong bones"
Milk is often known for its source of protein and calcium. Some people believe drinking milk will make them taller by building stronger bones, this is false. Height is limited by your genetic limit, along with proper nutrition (Lai). Furthermore, your body requires a balance between calcium and magnesium, so too much calcium would actually be detrimental to your bones (ODS). Milk companies don’t fortify their milk with magnesium because buying that mineral would decrease profit. Your body requires calcium and magnesium time to time, so your body takes these vitamins for bodily functions. By providing these vitamins, you are not necessarily "making your bones stronger," but you are actually maintaining your bones.

People believe the only way to get calcium is from milk
Some people think milk IS absolutely required in diet; even as a kid I remember milk being in the food pyramid. This fact is definitely false, any nutrition in milk could be found in other sources (The Nutrition Source). In fact milk is not fully digestible for some adults because our bodies have not adapted to drinking milk, most often people know this as being lactose intolerant. According to the University College London, people started drinking milk within the last 7500 years. Yet human beings have existed for more than 200,000 years (Cain). So, cow milk is definitely something humans don’t necessarily need or require.
Breast milk is meant for humans, cow milk is meant for cows. I don’t see how else I could make this seem more unnatural. If you think about this in an evolutionary point of view, cow milk is made only for the reason to raise calves, and the same applies to breast milk (OGP).

Hormones altered cows -> hormone filled milk -> effects on humans?
Some of the cows are on so many steroids and hormones, and these chemicals are also within the milk we drink, and can cause harmful effects if digested (Ireland). A natural cow, with natural parents, with natural food, with natural environment, produces about 3 quarts a day. A buffed up cow produces around thirty quarts a day (Holford). Do you think that’s natural? And you are going to drink that? What changes do you think will occur to your body?

We need less calcium in our diet
No one wants cancer. Chances of woman dying from breast cancer are 1 in 36, and testicular cancer for men is 1 in 36 (ACS). This sucks. In china though, the chances of dying from these cancers is near 1 in 10000 for women, and 1 in 200,000 for men (Holford). This isn’t from environment or superior genetics, they just don’t drink milk.



Works Cited
Berardi, John. “Breakfast:Not Really the most Important Meal of the Day.” HuffingtonPost. 15 December 2013. Blog.
Cain, Fraser. “How Long Have Humans Been on Earth?” University Today. 22 August 2009. Web. 23 Feb 2014.
“Calcium.” National Institute of Health: Office of Dietary Supplements(ODS). US Department of Health and Human Services. 19 March 2013. Web. 23 February 2014.
Holford, Patrick. “The Optimum Nutrition Bible.” Crossing Press. 2004. Book. 23 Feb 2014.
Ireland, Corydon. “Hormones in Milk can be dangerous.” Harvard University Gazette. 7 Dec 2006. Web. 23 Feb 2014.
Lai, Chao-Qiang. “How much of human height is genetic and how much is due to nutrition?” Scientific American. US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. 11 Dec 2006. Web. 23 Feb 2014.
The Nutrition Source. Harvard School of Public Health. Web. 23 February 2014.
University College London. “Milk drinking started around 7500 years ago in central Europe.” Phys.org. 28 August 2009. Web. 23 February 2014.
“Want Milk? Is Cow’s Milk Meant For Consumption? (Part1)” One Green Planet (OGP). 1 Oct 2011. Web. 23 Feb 2014
“What are the key statistics about breast cancer?” American Cancer Society(ACS). 31 January 2014. Web. 24 Feb 2014.
“What are the key statistics about prostate cancer?” American Cancer Society(ACS). 3 Feb 2014. Web. 24 Feb 2014.
“What is calcium & how does it build strong bones?” Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD). US Department of Health and Human Services. 30 November 2012. Web. 23 February 2014.


Sources (in chronological order)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-berardi-phd/breakfast-health_b_4436439.html
http://www.universetoday.com/38125/how-long-have-humans-been-on-earth/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-QuickFacts/
book.
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-of-human-height/
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/calcium-full-story/
http://phys.org/news170657572.html
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/is-cows-milk-meant-for-human-consumption-part-1/
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-key-statistics
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostatecancer/detailedguide/prostate-cancer-key-statistics
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/bonehealth/conditioninfo/Pages/calcium.aspx