Got (plant) milk?
My dear friends. I have a message for you that could be hard to swallow (milk pun intended)...
STOP DRINKING DAIRY MILK.
If you don't know why I decided to use all caps for this message, let me just give you a few quick bullet points because I love using bullet points...
Dairy milk is a significant source of saturated fat and cholesterol. Gross.
An enormous amount of water and grain is needed to feed these milk-producing cows over their lifetime... not to mention the horrible greenhouse gas and bio waste that comes out of the cow's derrière (another milk pun).
Cows do not produce milk unless they are pregnant, much like humans. A cow must be artificially inseminated, give birth to a calf it will never meet, and then hooked up to a machine that extracts the milk. Then once it gets too old to produce milk, it's slaughtered for beef.
I know this is a community where we talk about waste reduction and not necessarily animal rights... but this last point really hit home. Imagine if that was YOUR body.
Do one or more of these bullet points resonate with you? Ready to quit? There is so much information out there on this topic for further research, if you would like. Or, you can try one of these instead...
Good - soy milk, almond milk or rice milk instead of dairy milk. All of these plant-based options are going to be better than cow's or goat's milk, but the water and resources needed to produce and turn them into milk are a little higher than other options.
Better - coconut milk, hemp milk or oat milk are going to be lower impact on the environment.
Best - make your own (plant-based) milk! Here and here are some awesome recipes. By making your own, you are cutting out an entire step in the supply chain and the need for packaging. Heck yes!
If you have a recipe for homemade milk, I want to know it. Please share! Have any questions or thoughts on the topic? Share those too! I know it took me a long time to be convinced, so you are not alone!
